top of page

EXISTING COVERAGE WIRELESS SURVEY

BYOD WiFi Coverage Survey
Best Practice Ekahau Surveys
Active WiFi Coverage Surveys
Ekahau Wireless Surveying

EXISTING COVERAGE WIRELESS SURVEY

Our Passive WiFi Coverage Surveys are performed in order to obtain the most accurate coverage depiction of your wireless network and its performance with respect to the different signal strength and SNR thresholds required for:

​

  • Data-only wireless coverage

  • Voice-grade wireless coverage

  • Real Time Location System (RTLS) wireless coverage - such as Cisco CMX/RTLS

  • High-Density Wireless Coverage, and 

  • Cisco Flexible Radio Assignment (FRA) wireless coverage

 

Dynamic Wireless uses Ekahau Connect survey software couple with Sidekick to collect "real-time and real-world" signal and performance measurements during our onsite passive wireless survey of your existing coverage, allowing us to measure wireless network performance and RF coverage in the most realistic way possible, in order to provide recommendations on:

​

  • Identifying coverage holes/black spots and the reasons why they exist

  • Determining levels of interfering neighbour WiFi networks

  • Re-mediation of discovered coverage holes/black spots via

    • Possible relocation of​ existing access points to more optimal locations

    • Relocation of existing access points to avoid obstructions and multi-path interference caused by metallic reflections

    • Proposed installation of additional access points

  • Remounting of existing access points to reduce co-channel interference and adhere to a best-practice high density coverage access point layout design

  • Remounting of existing access points to provide more accurate location tracking of WiFi tags and devices in an RTLS network, based on best-practice RTLS access point layout methodologies​

  • Determining additional access points faults, including:

    • Radios not transmitting​

    • WAPs not connecting to the wireless LAN controller (WLC)

    • WAPs having PoE supply issues

    • Ethernet ports disconnected from WAPs, or faulty cable runs causing PoE and connectivity issues between the switch and AP

    • Client roaming issues between WAPs

    • Inadequate Cisco Flexible Radio Assignment (FRA) design causing 2.4 GHz blackspots

    • Inadequate or incorrect Radio Resource Management (RRM) tuning on the wireless LAN controller (WLC) causing inadequate coverage or client roaming issues

Example Passive Wireless Survey Results

 

Use the interactive sliders below to display the various coverage metrics recorded by the Ekahau Sidekick, after the passive survey was completed for this example floor. 

Signal Strength Heatmap

Signal Strength sometimes referred to as coverage, is the basic requirement for wireless network performance. Low signal levels contribute to unreliable connections and low data throughput. The higher the value (towards green), the stronger the signal strength in dBm.    

Signal-Strength.JPG

Signal-to-Noise (SNR) Ratio Heatmap

SNR is the difference between the signal strength and the current noise level. The higher the value (towards green), the better the client adapter's ability to communicate with the Access Point. Low SNR (measured in dB) is also a factor contributing to low data throughput.

SNR.JPG

Coverage Redundancy Heatmap

The Coverage Redundancy map shows redundant coverage at a specific dBm threshold, such as -65 dBm voice-grade as in the example below (i.e. having 2 visible WAPs at -65 dBm from the client’s perspective).

Coverage-Redundancy.JPG

Data Rate Heatmap

The Data Rate map below shows the predicted speed (based on signal strength) at which the client device and the WAP will communicate. The higher the value (towards green), the better the client adapter's data rate transmission with the access point.

Data Rate.JPG

Associated Access Point Heatmap

The Associated AP heatmap shows the associated access point cell size at the specified signal strength threshold (in this case for -65 dBm voice-grade coverage). This is useful for determining sub-optimally performing WAP locations or mounting methods, in order to remediate poor AP placement.

Spectrum Utilisation Heatmap

The Spectrum Utilization visualization shows the share of the time the spectrum power measured by the spectrum analyser. This heatmap shows how crowded (i.e. percentage of time) the frequency was during the survey – taking into account both utilization caused by Wi-Fi, as well as other interferers.

Spectrum-Utilisation.JPG

Get in touch with us to obtain more information about our passive wireless coverage site surveys.

bottom of page