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Enterprises and government agencies are rolling out wireless infrastructure en masse and are running into security and performance problems. Many of the challenges are administrative, like deciding what capabilities to offer and establishing the wireless security policy. Other challenges are more technical in nature and involve activities like planning coverage, identifying sources of interference, and mapping undesirable signal leakage. While it may seem like nothing can make the administrative issues easier to reconcile, take comfort in the fact that the right tools are available to make the technical aspects a straightforward and efficient exercise.
The first step in almost any wireless network deployment is the pre-deployment site survey. Radio signals are flaky things. They reflect, bend, and get absorbed in different and complicated ways by every material in the environment. Worse, foreign radio signals and high frequency noise sources interfere with the wireless LAN signals and can severely degrade performance. Gaining a practical understanding of the affects the environment has on wireless LAN signals and determining where and how to place Access Points is the purpose of the site survey.
The site survey is only a starting point, however. Once Access Points are installed and operational, it is essential to follow up with a coverage analysis that accomplishes two key goals. First, it is designed to make sure that signal strength is sufficient to provide the required performance where it is desired. And it is equally important to prevent signals from traveling into areas where they present an unacceptable risk.
RFperform™ Survey is the single site survey tool that does it all. It simulates the coverage and performance of your WLAN before deployment and provides detailed site surveying to determine ideal WLAN AP placement and signal coverage. The product can be used to create detailed site surveys of actual RF signal coverage in much less time than other solutions with far greater accuracy. Starting with floor plans of the actual facility (perhaps before they are even built) RFperform Survey quickly predicts WLAN coverage patterns for simulated access point locations.
Experimenting with new locations, antenna configurations and transmit power settings is trivial because it can be accomplished without setting up Access Points and then can be validated once the infrastructure is deployed. Once the facility and equipment is available for making actual readings, place a few access points in their proposed locations. Then use RFperform Survey to take sample readings and build actual coverage plots of signal strength, data rate, preferred AP and more. It can even identify areas of co-channel interference. With a validated pre-deployment survey accomplished, access point installation can proceed with confidence. Follow-up the installation with a survey of actual coverage to catch mistakes and last-minute modifications and WLAN users will enjoy thorough, dependable coverage.
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