If your implementing a new office Wireless LAN system, either Cisco/Meraki controller based or stand alone access points in the greater Toronto area you’ll need to take some caution and properly plan for it. The reason being that when conducting wireless site survey’s we’ve noticed that about 94% of offices are utilizing the 2.4Ghz spectrum. Not only are most offices using 2.4Ghz spectrum for their wireless but they’re also using it for wireless head phones or sets. We’ve conducted over 100 site surveys in the downtown core of Toronto and to put it simple for the majority of users is that a typical WLAN system running on 2.4Ghz unlicensed band will not work! Although many users tend to think that because they’re using a WLAN controller it should switch channels to the least congested area as well as fluctuate power. But by nature most WLAN controllers change their settings ever 200-300 seconds to a non overlapping channel such as 1,6,11. Although the controller switches to a non overlapping channel its most likely that your neighbor is running on some of these channels and that your other neighbors are running on the same channels as you. To summarize this and put it into perspective every channel is being used and its almost impossible to avoid this on the 2.4Ghz side because office users will still receive many WLAN broadcasts and probes from RF signals that are coming across multiple areas in the Toronto core through Windows and floors. Remember windows don’t block RF signal as its transparent. If your office is in a high rise you’ll have better luck with your wireless system than most users that are in a low rise office.
To avoid cost and if you were looking to not have a wireless survey performed think about deploying a wireless network on the 5Ghz system. We always recommend a site survey as this is the first thing that most client vendors will look for if they’re being challenged that its their devices that have poor radio’s in them. Most of the vendors would request a wireless site survey report or certification to see if the signal to noise levels are adequate and that there are no other signs of interference (cross channel interference or other).
The best RF survey to have performed is a passive one if you have an existing network. Once a passive survey has been completed make sure that its followed up with a spectrum analysis to detect other signs of interference such as microwaves, zigbee devices, alarm systems, Bluetooth, spectrum phones and more. The last thing that should be performed is an Airmagnet or Fluke analysis. This is a report that is outside of a zone plan or passive or active site survey. A passive or active site survey will tell you any coverage holes, signal to noise ratios and RSSI levels. It will not tell you about how many rogue AP’s are present, mac addresses in the area, list of AP’s in the area and many more wireless security threats.
Our team has performed hundreds of surveys across North America and also provide quarterly assessments as part of a maintenance plan to make sure your WLAN environment is running a clean air environment. We use the best of breed tools from Airmagnet/Fluke networks and Ekahau. Three reports are provided to you (RF spectrum analysis, airmagnet report and a passive or active survey plan). For more details contact us or visit our site at www.sitesurveypros.com!
from
http://sitesurveypros.com/2016/05/27/performing-wireless-rf-site-surveys-in-the-downtown-toronto-district/
from
http://sitesurveypros.blogspot.com/2016/05/performing-wireless-rf-site-surveys-in.html
