AirMagnet Survey
Design and deploy wireless 802.11a/b/g/n/ac LAN for optimal performance, security and compliance with wireless site survey software
AirMagnet Survey is the industry's most accurate wireless site survey software solution for mapping, planning and designing 802.11a/b/g/n/ac wireless LANs for optimal performance, security and compliance. This wireless 802.11ac site survey software calculates the ideal quantity, placement and configuration of APs for a successful wireless LAN deployment.
AirMagnet Survey's wireless site survey capabilities go beyond just verifying RF coverage by plotting actual end-user network performance in terms of connection speed, throughput and packet statistics. The end result is a complete Wi-Fi heat map or “weather map” of all critical RF and end-user performance metrics helping users deploy the network correctly the first time and prevent costly rework & IT complaints. This is critical not only for guaranteeing the highest level of user satisfaction, but also helps wireless 802.11ac site survey users like System Integrators maintain their margins on a project and maximizes the chances of getting repeat business.
Advanced features of this wireless 802.11ac site survey software allow users to integrate with professional spectrum analyzers to collect Wi-Fi and non Wi-Fi data in a single walkthrough, model pre-deployment scenarios to estimate budgets and define the migration strategies to new technologies, generate customized survey reports, perform outdoor surveys using GPS devices, conduct Voice over Wi-Fi site surveys to design the network to be voice-ready, certify the network for end-user network and application requirements, and do detailed end-user capacity planning.
AirMagnet Survey wireless site survey software is available in “Express” and “PRO” versions. AirMagnet Survey Express offers a lighter version of the wireless 802.11ac site survey software solution that allows users to perform the basics of Wi-Fi site surveying with ability to map out signal, noise and even user performance. AirMagnet Survey PRO extends those capabilities found in the Express version and adds AirMagnet Planner as well as powerful support for multi-floor deployments, outdoor surveys, network design verification, voice readiness verification and surveys, RF spectrum analysis, and many more.
AirMagnet Wi-Fi Site Survey - Overview
FEATURES
"Real-world” Survey Data Collection and Simulation of “What-If” Scenarios
AirMagnet Survey’s simultaneous wireless site surveying capability leverages multiple adapters plugged into the same PC to provide users with a solution to emulate real-world client behavior (using active and iPerf surveys) – reducing site surveying time, effort and cutting costs by half as users only have to walk the floor once to collect all required data.
With this wireless 802.11 site survey tool, users can create “what-if” scenarios to simulate a variety of changes to the network and preview the impacts. This includes changing AP transmit power, channel, SSID settings or the addition of environmental noise. Users can also simulate moving APs to new locations and preview the effect of adding additional APs. AirMagnet Survey empowers users with an automated channel plan for APs that avoids interference and over-allocation.
AirMagnet Survey users can look at multiple floors of a single building to see if AP signals are bleeding to adjacent floors. This gives users the ability to design their network to reuse services of a single AP across multiple floors in order to lower equipment and deployment costs.
AirMagnet Survey automatically displays wireless 802.11n site survey results on a map of your location, providing unlimited options for visual analysis.
- Coverage and performance Wi-Fi heat map – measure and visualize heat maps for signal, noise, signal/noise, wireless network throughput, PHY data rates, retry rates, and packet losses at every location on the floor.
- Backup AP heat map – visualize coverage and performance of your backup APs in case of missing or down primary APs.
- Comprehensive technology specific – measure and visualize heat maps for the latest 802.11n and 802.11ac standards:
- 802.11n: Operating Mode coverage map, MCS Rate Transmit/Receive coverage map & Channel Width (20 MHz/40 Mhz) coverage map.
- 802.11ac: Operating Mode coverage map, MCS Rate Transmit/Receive coverage map and the Channel Width (20 MHz/40 Mhz/80 MHz/160 MHz) coverage map & Channel Overlap heat-map.
- Interference analysis – measure the total cumulative interference from all sources that can impact the performance of your APs.
- View by channel, SSID, or device – sort results based on SSID or channel to easily balance RF issues against VLAN and service level requirements.
- Overlap and roaming analysis – instantly see areas of over-provisioning or where clients are prone to consistent roaming or “thrashing” between APs.
- Simulate wireless adapters – take an existing survey and view exactly how another Wi-Fi adapter would view the survey environment
802.11 Site Surveys
AirMagnet Survey is a wireless network deployment solution that enables users to measure, as well as assess, true end-user experience of a wireless network using any 802.11 adapter.
AirMagnet Survey goes beyond just verifying RF coverage by plotting actual end-user network performance in terms of throughput and PHY data rates, taking MIMO and other environmental situations/network configurations into account. This wireless site survey solution shows the coverage of specific 802.11 parameters that boost performance, such as higher MCS schemes and wider channels, and where interference and legacy devices may impact performance. The end result is a complete Wi-Fi “weather map” of all critical RF and end-user performance metrics. These “real world” measurements allow IT staff to design and deploy WLAN accurately from the get go and help save time and money by avoiding end-user network complaints and costly redesigns of the network.
Outdoor Wireless Site Surveys
With the combination of GPS support and integration with Google Earth, AirMagnet Survey PRO provides a clear path to fast, fully-automated outdoor wireless site surveys. Users can leverage their NMEA-compliant GPS device to automatically collect outdoor wireless data. Users can import street maps of any city in the world, allowing results to be analyzed in the AirMagnet Survey user interface or exported into Google Earth for a zoomed-in view to any street within the city.
RF Spectrum and Voice-over-WLAN Surveys
Before making any design and deployment decisions, it is important to account for RF interference from non Wi-Fi devices. Users who own AirMagnet Spectrum XT can collect both Wi-Fi and spectrum analysis data in a single survey. With this integration, users can visualize the RF energy at any location and identify and display the presence of non-802.11 devices interfering with the WLAN.
AirMagnet Survey addresses challenges faced by network installers and IT staff while deploying VoWLAN networks, and empowers them with a built-in voice readiness verification system that allows users to ensure that their network design is inline with the recommendations of the phone vendor. It also allows them to perform real-world voice surveys. With this unique survey capability, users can validate and plot the phone call quality, capacity and other voice specific parameters at every location on a floor map, to help identify and minimize issues.
Visualize Coverage and Performance Differences Over Time
Wi-Fi environments are very dynamic and it is important to be able to verify changes in coverage and performance in the network to guarantee the best performance for the user. AirMagnet Survey’s Diff View feature allows side-by-side visualizing of differences between two separate surveys. This helps show how a site’s wireless environment has changed over time. This view is also a great option for our System Integrator customers to drive repeat business of validating the coverage and performance of the network on an on-going basis. Likewise, users can use this feature to quickly compare AirMagnet Planner results with actual site survey results. This information then can be used to fine tune the db losses for the building and environmental conditions within AirMagnet Planner for more accurate planning.
Integration with AirMagnet Planner
AirMagnet Planner is built into AirMagnet Survey PRO, providing a single, seamless application with the industry’s most complete approach to wireless LAN design, deployment and ongoing optimization for 802.11a/b/g/n/ac networks. With this integrated solution, AirMagnet Planner can be used to accurately design WLANs by modeling building construction materials/obstructions and 802.11 APs plus visualizing coverage across multiple floors, then validating the results with real-world data in AirMagnet Survey PRO. Using active end-user performance metrics, users can further perfect their planning models over time. With the new 802.11ac support, users are armed with the best migration guidance on how to phase in the new technology into the existing environment.
No other solution combines state-of-the-art predictive modeling with real-world performance data. Users also gain additional planning capabilities with the ability to test network plans against the AirWISE® engine for design requirements. AirMagnet Planner also integrates with AirMagnet Survey Express.