About VisiWave Site Survey
VisiWave Site Survey is the most advanced, dedicated site surveying product available. VisiWave performs superior site surveys by quickly and automatically mapping out radio characteristics in the survey area. This map allows you to fully visualize all aspects of your 802.11 wireless network.
Both radio wave characteristics and your position are continuously recorded as you walk through the survey area--be it inside an office building, a manufacturing facility, a house, or a city-wide hotspot.
Whether you are a networking professional in your company's IT department or a network consultant, VisiWave will aid you in optimizing your wireless local area network.
Benefits of VisiWave Site Survey
Any company with anything but the most trivial wireless LAN can benefit from the type of site survey this product provides. Benefits include:
- Improved coverage increases productivity and network confidence
- Increased knowledge of coverage improves effectiveness of network
- Focuses maintenance resources on problem areas
- Provides historical data for troubleshooting and expansion
- Useful in obtaining government or industry certifications
- Useful in internal or external LAN audits
VisiWave Site Survey Overview
The site survey is performed using a data collection software application running on either a standard Windows laptop computer or a standard Pocket PC handheld computer. Attached to the computer is a standard wireless networking card.
As you walk around the survey area, the wireless adapter is continuously queried for radio signal characteristics such as signal strength, access point channel, and interference. You can choose to keep track of your location manually by clicking on a floor plan diagram indicating your current location or you can have VisiWave automatically keep track of your location using a hardware navigation unit. In either case, your location and the wireless characteristics are tied together by the application to create an accurate map of your wireless coverage.
The collected survey data is then loaded into the report application for analysis. The report application is an interactive analysis tool that allows the user to quickly visualize the large sampling of data that was just collected. The data can be viewed in tabular form, as a 3D contour surface modeled using b-splines, as a 2D isotropic contour plot, as many different line and bar graphs, and as several other types of graphs. This information may then be used to adjust the position of access points to improve coverage or to troubleshoot connectivity issues.
Once the wireless LAN is installed, a complete site survey can be performed. The report generation tool can then produce a detailed, permanent report of the site survey findings. A full report can be accomplished with just a few simple steps or a highly customized report can be made with just a little more effort.
Why a Site Survey is Performed
Radio wave strengths are difficult to predict. Obstacles such as walls, metal shelves, computer equipment, and even people can disturb the propagation of radio waves in unpredictable ways. The most effective method of determining the locations of access points is to physically measure radio strengths throughout the coverage area.
When to Perform a Site Survey
A site survey is usually done at four different stages of the WLAN's lifetime. Before installation, during installation, right after installation, and periodically over the WLAN's lifetime.
Performing a site survey before installing a WLAN is a good practice. It allows you to start with a solid design for your wireless network. It also gives you the opportunity to discover any trouble spots and design around them. Based on the results, you may also decide that an effective WLAN is not possible for your area. A pre-installation site survey increases the likelihood of getting the installation correct the first time.
During the actual WLAN installation, a brief site survey is normally performed repeatedly to fine-tune the placement of radios.
After the WLAN is installed, a complete site survey should be performed to thoroughly document the WLAN coverage. This documentation is needed for both troubleshooting coverage issues and for maintaining an accurate maintenance history of the WLAN. It will also help to ensure the integrity of the WLAN coverage through always evolving environments and requirements.
VisiWave Site Survey is effective at every stage. For the brief surveys, a quick traversal of the survey area is performed. The collected data is then immediately analyzed on-site. The data is loaded into the analysis program and easily analyzed using an existing, reusable report format. For the comprehensive surveys, an extensive traversal of the survey area is performed and a thorough analysis and report are done on the data.