For decades, wireless Internet, or Wi-Fi as it is better known, has changed everything about our personal and professional lives.

Deploying and maintaining a wireless network is much different from a wired network; WiFi signals can have relatively low, unpredictable, and varying ranges in buildings, as objects can attenuate and reflect the signal.

A wireless site survey is an essential way to gather the necessary information for setting up a seamless wireless network for your business.

Tips to Consider When Carrying Out a Site Survey:

1. Identify the optimum location: The access point (AP) should be installed and placed at a strategic position close to clustered (user) area. The signal coverage (maximum signal range) between client device and the access point decreases with distance and data rate, resulting in poor performance. Thus you need to know the target rate (throughput) to correctly interpret survey result, which must be taken into consideration when using most survey tools.
2. Facility inspection: Carefully carry out a thorough walk through the facility or/and analyse the plan layout of the facility before the Wireless budget and Bill of Material (BoM) is prepared. This is a good time to note any potential attenuation barriers that may affect the propagation of RF signal. A visual inspection will uncover obstacle to signal such as metal/partition, obstacles that blueprints generally do not show. Lastly, note possible locations for mounting access points such as above ceiling tiles or pillars for outdoor.
3. Facility diagram: Consider the effect of already existing buildings and buildings under construction. Use a city map or prepare a site drawing that depicts the location of walls, walk ways and fire exits.
4. Existing network infrastructure: Determine the capacity of any existing wired network that can interfere with the access point; most buildings have Ethernet and in some cases optic fibre networks. Check to see how much of the existing network can be made available for supporting the wireless network; this will aid the designer to plan on deployment when defining the architecture and bill of material for the wireless network.

• Yusuf Ali