Wireless Site Survey

Wireless Site Survey & Design

We all know that the biggest reasons to forego the survey can be money reasons or time constraints. Whatever the reason, sometimes it just doesn’t get accomplished.

A site survey is a really important task to perform. The evidence of this may not be quickly felt. Down the road when you encounter a problem you have the survey to fall back on.

The main goal of performing a wireless site survey is to determine two things. First, you want to determine the feasibility of building a wireless network on your site. Once you have established it's feasible, you’ll need to determine the best place for access points and other equipment such as antennas and cables. A site survey also helps you to determine what type of equipment you will need, where it will go, and how it needs to be installed.

> Problems arising from not performing a wireless site survey

Signal bleed (transmitting your wireless signal outside of desired borders or building rooms/spaces).

Channel congestion (too many access point tuned to receive and transmit on the same channel decrease performance).

Help desk resource consumption: you will take alot of support calls, which cannot be fixed until you do it the right way.

Surveys can also help you know the APs around you. There are three non-overlapping channels you can use to deploy a wireless network: 1, 6, and 11 for the 2.4 GHz frequency. These rules apply to everyone, not just your site. So if your site is in a building with other organisations that have their own wireless networks, you will have to co-ordinate with the APs at those other organisations. WiFi frequency like 5 GHz with 802.11 a/n/ac might be a better option.

> Types of Wireless Surveys
Site validation: can your site potentially support a wireless network – are there any clear black spots or something that would prohibit any plans or investments in wireless?

If a network is destined to be used for VO-WiFi then you should incorporate an active call into your survey and record information on the call quality.

Spectrum analysis: Spectrum analysis is not a site survey, but it should be used in tandem with the active survey to determine problematic areas of interference. One large source of interference can be the break room. Most likely the break room will have a microwave oven in it which plays havoc with 802.11 transmissions as the microwave is not polite to the rf spectrum. All sources of interference should be documented with the findings from the spectrum analysis.

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