What is a Wi-Fi survey?
The impact of inefficient Wi-Fi to a large number of companies can be harmful if not catastrophic. Voice, video and data streaming is crutial for companies to run efficiently.
Generally speaking Wi-Fi used in a company is implemented using a centrally located router. These routers are powerful enough to give constant, reliable coverage for everyone in the vicinity.
Wi-Fi for a large site or organisation can’t rely on the standard Wi-Fi coverage given from a router. This is based on a few factors such as:
- Large site footprint
- Obstructions
- Repellent building materials
- Hazardous environments
- Number of users
How can I improve my companies Wi-Fi coverage?
In order to establish the extent of these factors a Wi-Fi survey would need to be carried out.
The primary goal of the survey is to establish the users requirements; such as coverage, desired throughput and usability.
The purpose of the survey is to determine the number and placement of wireless access points necessary to provide ubiquitous coverage for the entire building.
Who would need a Wi-Fi survey?
There are a large number of industries that may require a Wi-Fi survey such as;
- School and colleges
- Industrial sites
- Factories and plants
- Oil rigs
- Stadiums
- Large sports facilities e.g. golf courses, leisure centres
How is a Wi-Fi survey carried out?
Using network assurance software, an onsite ‘walk through’ survey is carried out.
An engineer would visit your business and physically walk round the perimeters of all areas to build a ‘map’ of your site in the software.
This is carried out to establish the current wireless Infrastructure and signal strengths at various locations over the site.
Can a survey be carried out in an ATEX environment?
Yes, surveys can be done in an ATEX environment using specialised, ATEX safe survey equipment.
In certain cases, it is not always possible to access the building or site requiring Wi-Fi such as oil-rigs and petrochemical sites. In these situations, passive surveys can be conducted from a floor plan of the building or site.
What is detected in a survey?
- Signal strength
- Existing coverage
- Access point coverage (the areas covered by the access points (in dBm)
- Signal distribution
- Interference levels
- Data rate connection
- Operating modes
- Channel widths
- Transmission rates
At the end of each survey, the data is analysed and a comprehensive report is compiled for the customer