Wi-Fi Connectivity: Know the Structure & Benefits of Outsourced Wireless Surveys
By Craig Wilson, Top Gun
Wi-Fi connectivity is critical for supporting business operation applications and systems in warehouses, offices, hospitality, campus environments that demand reliability and performance. Perhaps your connectivity is not what it could be and you’re looking for an end-to-end solution that allows you to adapt and thrive in today’s dynamic environment. A comprehensive wireless survey would assess, survey, design, procure and install your optimal wireless network infrastructure.
Even more, the wireless survey should deliver the right mix of custom, multi-branded, one-stop-shop wireless implementation capabilities for the widespread adoption of mainstream workloads and be able to do so in IT organizations of all sizes.
Comprehensive wireless surveys should include:
- Discovery
- Analysis
- Reporting
- Procurement
- Implementation
- Validation
Wireless Survey solutions should offer an array of potential outcomes, including:
- Predictive Survey: Remote model of existing or future wireless network design, based on AP location and desired RF characterization for that specific environment.
- Designed by certified engineers
- Interference modelled into the design
- Uses accurate site information to model future performance
- Typically, occurs in net-new builds or existing environments without wireless solutions
- AP-on-a-Stick: Physical placement of an access point at a specific location within the respective environment to record RF behavior in real-time, to provide real results.
- Provides 100% accurate, pre-deployment analysis
- Determines the optimal locations for access point placement
- Ensures that adequate coverage overlap exists for client roaming
- Typically occurs in net-new builds or existing environments without wireless solutions
- Best leveraged in unique physical environments
- Active Survey: Analysis of active networks to detect all RF, potential interferences and associated signal strengths for holistic insight of RF environment.
- Identify noise and interference
- Eliminate security threats via rogue devices
- Full awareness of RF environment
- Typically leveraged multi-site medical, academia and warehouse environments with many IoT devices
- Passive Survey: Evaluation of existing wireless coverage and performance by analyzing WLAN traffic to detect access points and signal strength.
- Remediate channel overlap
- Identify coverage improvements
- Verify wireless LAN operating in accordance with design
- Typically identifies wireless network design issues, vs. interference issue.
- Passive surveys are leveraged to validate wireless implementation, customer or vendor implementation opportunities
- Validation Survey: Validation analysis, leveraging passive survey methodology, to confirm the performance optimization of wireless infrastructure environment.
- Validate wireless implementation, customer or non-vendor implementation opportunities
- Insurance against potential coverage gaps and/or future outages
- Ensures potential for optimum business performance
Complete Wireless Survey Packages may include:
- Customized Solution: In-depth, high-quality output of wireless frequency discovery findings, strategic and customized infrastructure design specification to provide an optimized environment, based on customer’s specific needs.
- Created design by certified engineers
- Custom-generated for unique environments
- Strategic recommendations to remediate issues
- Recommended Bill of Materials (BoM) should be included
- Product Procurement: Product procurement planning and lifecycle management based upon recommended, customer-approved, manufacturer in addition to any cabling, MDF(s), IDF(s) or other network infrastructure requirements to implement proposed network design.
- Vendors should be a multi-brand partner to allow for best and most customer-accommodating environment buildout
- Leveraging OEM relationships, provider should provide a full end-to-end network infrastructure solution, with Planning to Procuring, to Delivery and to Installation
- Implementation: Design and installation of the infrastructure cabling and hardware to support the delivery of an optimized, turn-key wireless solution.
- Cabling infrastructure designed by experienced BICSI RCDDs
- Infrastructure installed by BICSI and OEM-certified installers
- Delivery of detailed, “As-Built” drawings to support future needs
- Providing a manufacturer’s system warranty on cabling infrastructure, up to 25 years
Finding a proven Wireless Survey solutions provider should be as easy as visiting www.topgun-tech.com. Let us know if we can be of assistance – we would enjoy hearing from you!
Blog Author Details
Craig Wilson
EVP, Engineering
Top Gun
