What WLAN site survey tools to use when

Deciding which class of tool to use can be a challenge, and there is no easy way, unfortunately, to simplify this selection. All of the site-survey tools discussed in this review are quite capable of meeting the needs of most WLAN system planners and installers.

In general, we'd recommend a predictive product to professional WLAN planners and installers, who (a) have a detailed knowledge of RF technology and (b) possess the same for wireless LANs.

It will take time to build sufficient knowledge and experience to be productive with these sophisticated tools, and, as always, the results are going to be a function of the quality of the data entered. Misinterpreting the construction of a given wall, for example, could yield output that will be less than helpful.

Analytical tools, on the other hand, are very easy even for novices to use, and can provide a detailed map of real-world RF propagation across spaces of essentially arbitrary size. But they do involve a significant investment in labor, and at least some experience in practice for best results.

Simple installations (open offices, branch offices, venues with a very small number of access points or low throughput requirements) may not require a site survey at all. But we would still suggest that a post-installation survey, possibly on a recurring basis, will likely be desirable as RF conditions vary because of changes in building construction, furniture layout or nearby sources of interference, among other conditions.

There will always be a certain amount of trial-and-error associated with the placement of access points; radio (and, in the case of predictive tools, model-building) is not an exact science, and network demands for throughput, capacity and time-boundedness will regardless change over time.

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