Network Communications News (NCN) April 2017 | Page 22

WIRELESS NETWORKS
Revolutionising the
wireless site survey
The Ekahau Site Survey is currently used universally by IT professionals and is agile enough to
be deployed across all building types and sizes, says Simon Cummings, director of business
development at Ekahau’s distributor, Square 1 Products.
O
ver a decade ago the
term ‘wireless site
survey’ was used to
refer to the process
of designing a WLAN
(Wireless Local Area Network)
that set coverage as the principal
consideration ensuring the fewest
number of access points could
be installed so Wi-Fi signal was
achieved in all areas of the space.
However, since then, the
increased uptake of users
with multiple devices; which
nowadays averagely sees three
wireless devices (smartphone,
tablet, laptop) per person are
commonplace. This development
has quickly changed the priority
from coverage to capacity as
aging WLAN’s struggle to meet
demand with bandwidth hungry
22 | April 2017
The Helsinki
Exhibition and
Convention Centre
is the largest in
Finland.
applications such as VoIP and HD
video, as planning for coverage
and planning for capacity are very
different things.
The method of placing an
access point onto a tripod and
parading it around the design
space (AP-on-a-stick) in order
to map the best placement of
access points is still a worthy
recommendation for identifying
coverage, but coverage only.
Primarily planning for capacity
over coverage will change your
approach from installing the
minimum number of access points
needed running at full power, to
installing a greater number of
access points running at a lower
power, so as to not inter fere with
one another and provide the best
user experience.
De si g n i n g fo r c a p aci ty
i s mu c h m o re i n - d e pt h than
d e si g n i n g fo r cove ra ge as more
fa c to r s n e e d to b e ta ken i nto
a cco u nt , su c h a s t h e numb er
of p ote nt i a l u se r s a n d therefore
d ev i c e s t h at w i l l b e covered p er
a cc e ss p o i nt , t h e sp e ctrum to b e
u t i l i se d ( 2 . 4G Hz o r 5 G Hz) an d the
p h y si c a l l a y o u t of t h e b ui ldi n g
a l o n g w i t h t h e mate r i al us ed i n
i t s co n st r u ct i o n .
Fortunately American vendor
Ekahau has developed its Wireless
Site Survey software which
includes a number of features
that make conducting the
survey to reporting access point
recommendations much simpler.
T h e i n n ovat i ve sof tware,
w h i c h r u n s o n a n u mb er of
l a pto p o p e rat i n g sy stems , allows
o r i g i n a l b u i l d i n g d e si g ns to b e
u p l o a d e d f ro m a va st ran ge of
f i l e fo r mat s a n d t h e o perator to
co n d u ct t h e su r ve y w i th a s i n gle
wa l k t h ro u g h . C o n n e cti n g the
E ka h a u W i - F i Ad a pto r ( i n cluded
a s sta n d a rd ) to t h e l a ptop b y
t h e US B p o r t a l l ow s for a truly
p o r ta b l e p l u g a n d p l a y s oluti on .
The adaptor is often used
in combination with the Ekahau
Spectrum Analyser, which can also
be connected via USB and quickly
detects potential issues that
would have otherwise remained
unseen such as cordless phones,
microwave ovens, wireless motion
detectors and video cameras, which
all typically operate at the same
frequency space as Wi-Fi devices.
Extra usability allows for additional
variables to be inputted manually
such as furniture layout and off-
design solid or partition walls.