Accolade Wireless can conduct a professional wireless site survey (RF Survey) to generate WiFi Heat Map of the office work areas. This WiFi heat mapping exercise helps in assessing the WiFi bands in which the Office Wireless Network is going to function or is already functioning. As described below, there are many types of RF Survey that can be utilized by an Organization for their Wireless networking needs.
New WLAN Design
Pre-Survey
Wireless Site Survey should be scientifically conducted to assess the exact technical requirements of an office location before installing an Enterprise WLAN. Such WiFi heat mapping helps to understand the existing interference in a new site from WiFi sources in neighboring offices or from WiFi devices installed in common areas like wireless CCTVs. This further helps in deciding the ideal location of Access Points and their final configurations. A professionally conducted RF survey saves time and money for the Enterprise in the long term by helping to create a stable and secure network.
Various technical details can be ascertained from an RF survey, like overall RF interference, approximate locations of interference sources and best locations for new Access Points (APs). The survey may also help in antenna choices, required AP power levels, etc, that helps to implement a highly efficient and effective wireless network.
APOS Survey
APOS (AP-on-Stick) Survey is a type of validation RF survey that is conducted before AP purchase and installations. It is a WiFi heat mapping exercise. This helps the IT team to avoid under-ordering or over-ordering costly Access Points. Even if the APs have already been ordered, the APOS survey will help to practically confirm the actual AP quantity required for a site so that any additional APs can be quickly re-ordered. In case additional APs cannot be re-ordered, the APOS survey will help in identifying critical coverage areas for adjusting (if possible) the final AP locations as per existing order.
For executing APOS Survey live Wireless Access Points are mounted on tripod stands and placed at required locations to verify a draft Wireless network design. The draft WLAN design has tentative locations of access points decided through Pre-Survey and Predictive Surveys (Software Simulations). Accolade Wireless conducts APOS survey using live Access Points that are equivalent to or near-equivalent to the make and model of Access Points that an Organization is planning to purchase and install. The outcome of an APOS Survey is a WiFi heatmap that provides a view of actual signal spread from real access points. This helps the IT team to confirm the location and quantity of access points before purchasing the same.
Post-Installation Survey
Accolade Wireless can also conduct a post-installation WiFi heat mapping for newly implemented networks. This survey helps the customer to acknowledge the successful delivery of services and also to understand their own network and its final wireless properties. This survey can help the customers to technically confirm that the installation meets their original requirements. This will therefore help the IT team to confidently proceed towards project closure and payments.
Existing Network Checks
WLAN Finetuning
Accolade Wireless can audit your existing Wireless Network and troubleshoot any nagging issues. If the existing network has problems like signal drops, data throughput issues, frequent disconnections, user roaming issues etc, we can conduct a professional RF survey including spectrum analyzer survey to pinpoint the exact problems troubling the network. We can also audit the Controller and AP configurations as per requirement.
We can fully diagnose the wireless network issues and recommend corrective steps to rectify the errant network. We can also take over the network and rectify the issues for you in real-time based on global best practices.
The following problems can be identified and rectified through our professional site-survey services:
- Dead spots in the network
- Security holes
- RF Interference
- Data throughput issues
- Misbehaving Access Points
The customized RF survey may take 2-3 days to complete and final report will include comprehensive reporting on the issues found and the recommended corrections.