As per the industry best practices it is highly recommended that we always begin a wireless LAN deployment with a detailed site survey. The goal of a site survey is to determine the correct placement and RF configuration of AP’s for adequate coverage and capacity to meet customer requirements. The Site Survey report should include the observations and recommendations for the relevant designated areas.
Things to determine before heading to the site for the site survey:
- What are the hours of operation?
- Stakeholder and contact information (PM, Building Admin, after hours etc.)
- What are the building access procedures and what needs to be obtained in advance of a visit?
- Do the security/safety procedures require safety vest/glasses/shoes or hard hat?
- Any specific insurance requirements?
- Any other areas of concern?
- Customer WLAN requirements
- What applications need to be supported?
- What 802.11 Standards need to be supported along with signal strength and SNR thresholds?
Site Survey Methodology
Below are the steps that can help you develop a correct site survey methodology:- Acquire and review building floor plans. Understand what areas require coverage
- Note and measure attenuation and obstructions caused by certain wall types
- Highlight the required signal strength and data rates for all areas as per customer requirements
- Find any possible interference sources
- Size and scope of the existing or new/proposed solution
- Describe the new solution and how it relates to customer’s requirements, and in case, integrates into their existing WLAN design
- Define the site survey methodology including the specific locations, AP placement and
- Recommend AP/Antenna placement based on predictive analysis, RF measurements and design requirements:
- Make any specific recommendations per floor area as dictated by the survey
- Include all coverage maps in an appendix that show actual measure coverage
- Include all survey data files in an Appendix or as an attachment
- Insert a table summarizing host names, recommended channels, and channel settings for each Access Point
- Insert a table for all the detected Rouge access points including the manufacturer, the radio band, channel, mac-address, SSID, Security and the number of clients connected
- Clearly stipulate the number of APs recommended to support voice and data in the coverage area
- Specify a range of recommended channels to support capacity requirements
- you should explain which tools were used in the site survey along with their settings, such as AP models and client devices.
- Post-deployment verification is also very highly recommended to measure, fine tune and optimize WLAN performance