Comments on: WLW 022 – Seven Rules for Accurate Site Surveys

By: Keith R. Parsons

Keith R. Parsons — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 11:18:46 +0000

Sometimes I think we ought to blame the marketing folks and people who write the AP documentation, they both put the “you can use channels 1-11″ on the sides of the box and in the help files.

“Aaarrrh, string 'em from the yardarm, matey”

By: Keith R. Parsons

Keith R. Parsons — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 11:17:12 +0000

I personally NEVER use that NIC simulation/emulation feature. Too many variables and NIC mfg. never calibrate their NICs to any standard, so it makes it very hard to simulate something that is so dynamic. Two identical cards from same mfg report different RSSI at the same location.

I try to manually 'calibrate' to see if my own AirMagnet NIC reports a consistently different RSSI than my target client STA. Then adjust my design requirement that I'm measuring to so they report what the client STA needs.

By: Brujo12d

Brujo12d — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 21:53:00 +0000

Keith,

What is your take on AirMagnet's NIC emulation feature? How do you normailize the survey for weaker or unknown client receive sensitivities like Vocera, or the IPhone?

By: Daniel Grubbs

Daniel Grubbs — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 19:18:18 +0000

I think this podcast would have been beneficial to the person who put in the wireless at a client site I was at yesterday. Actually, the basics of WLAN's would have been helpful for him. A station could associate to the AP's but not stay connected and upon going to the wireless client to see what AP's it was seeing I found 3 APs (Channels 1, 10, & 11). Well the best signal was coming from the AP on channel 11 of course so had to find all the AP's and put in a channel plan utilizing the 3 nonoverlapping channels. As soon as I changed it up for 1, 6, and 11 I connected immediately and stayed up.

By: Keith R. Parsons

Keith R. Parsons — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 19:23:28 +0000

Thanks, glad you liked it.

By: Keith R. Parsons

Keith R. Parsons — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 19:23:12 +0000

Better yet, than using AP grouping (which is a great idea by the way) – is to do your analysis on only one SSID at at time. Think from a STA point of view, they have a profile with a preferred SSID. So use ONLY that SSID when doing your analysis to 'see' what one of your STA would see.

Thanks for the comment.

By: SteveJWilliams

SteveJWilliams — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 16:57:52 +0000

Thanks for sharing your survey tips. I would add one more point: the AirMagnet Survey AP grouping function so it does not displays several copies of the same AP on the map (1 per SSID).

By: Tacack

Tacack — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 13:08:54 +0000

Great and very informative podcast!