AirMagnet Survey

Design and deploy wireless 802.11a/b/g/n/ac LAN for optimal performance, security and compliance with wireless site survey software

Haphazard planning of a wireless deployment can lead to overspending, as well as underserved and less-than-thrilled end-users. AirMagnet Planner is a Wi-Fi network planning tool that saves time, money, and frustration by accounting for building materials, obstructions, access point configurations, antenna patterns and a host of other variables to provide a predictive map of Wi-Fi signal and performance, before the network or physical building is constructed.

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 and 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 plus 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, plus do detailed end-user capacity planning.

AirMagnet Wi-Fi Site Survey - Overview

FEATURES

'Real-world' Survey Data Collection and Simulation of 'What-If' Scenarios

Unlike other wireless 802.11n site survey solutions that rely only on passively collected data, such as signal strength, AirMagnet Survey allows users to perform active/iPerf surveys to ensure a superior site survey. During an active/iPerf survey, AirMagnet Survey associates to an AP to test the real quality of the connection. This allows surveyors to see how real world clients will perform at specific locations in terms of wireless network throughput, connection speed, retry rates, and packet losses. Note: iPerf available in PRO version only

This is critical for technology standards such as 802.11n and 802.11ac, where the only way of providing a true representation of the network performance is by performing this 'real-world' survey and taking into account multipath, configuration of the devices and the environmental conditions. Also with the properties of the AP and client device being different on the uplink versus downlink, measuring both sides of the equation is critical, and can only be done with AirMagnet Survey’s iPerf surveying capability. With this measurement, the surveyor, designer or installer of the network can guarantee the best performance from the network once it is deployed, which in turn guarantees no costly rework or escalations.

With this wireless 802.11n site survey, users can simulate 'what-if' scenarios to prevent or minimize costly repeat survey walks. After a survey, users can 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 powers users with an automated channel plan for APs that avoids interference and over-allocation.

AirMagnet Survey’s simultaneous multiple wireless 802.11n site surveying capability, which leverages multiple adapters plugged into the same PC, provides users with the industry’s best solution to emulate real-world client behavior (using active and iPerf surveys) and at the same time reduces site surveying time, effort and cost by half as the users can walk the floor once to collect all the data. For example, users can perform simultaneous passive and active surveys or across multiple spectrums (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz).

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 and 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 and 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

802.11ac Site Surveys

NetAlly’s AirMagnet Survey is the industry’s only wireless network deployment solution that enables users to measure as well as assess true end-user experience of a wireless network using an 802.11ac 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 802.11n site survey solution clearly shows the coverage of specific 802.11ac parameters that boost performance such as higher MCS schemes and wider channels, and where interference and legacy components may impact 802.11ac 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 plus help save time and money by avoiding end-user network complaints not to mention costly redesigns of the network.

802.11n Site Surveys

AirMagnet Survey includes the industry’s only 802.11n site surveys that take into account the real-world impact of multipath encountered at each individual location to actively test both uplink and downlink performance of the 802.11n Wi-Fi network. Users can design and deploy Wi-Fi networks that employ APs with three spatial streams and deliver performance at data rates up to 450 Mbps (software is ready for up to 600 Mbps). AirMagnet Survey PRO includes built-in coverage maps that are specific to 802.11n networks, such as Operating Mode coverage map, MCS Rate Transmit/Receive coverage map and the Channel Width coverage map.

Validate User and Application Requirements

The AirWISE® engine lets users set wireless network design/application requirements including signal coverage, wireless network throughput, PHY data rates, 802.11n specific parameters, etc. for their network and immediately identify any problem areas. Users are then alerted to the areas on the floor map that meet or do not meet the requirement, enabling them to take the necessary action to solve the coverage, performance or capacity problems. The capacity planning section allows surveyors to account for the number of end users the wireless network will need to support during the design and deployment phase.

AirWISE also includes pre-configured profiles for verifying the wireless network WLAN deployment’s readiness for a variety of vendor applications, including Location Services for Cisco plus VoWLAN for Cisco and Vocera based on real-world survey data or wireless network modeling data. Users can also create their own profiles and share it with others.

Users can quickly verify WLAN requirements by assessing the Pass/Fail status for each requirement criteria for the deployment, thereby ensuring that the WLAN network will function properly. Users are powered with insight into the areas on the floor that meet/do not meet the requirement. This single-click assessment of the WLAN network helps save time, effort plus money by avoiding costly re-designs of the WLAN network and helps minimize IT troubleshooting costs. Users can generate a Pass/Fail report that enables an efficient hand-over of results of the survey to the installer or the end-customer.

Unique 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 plus identify and display the presence of non-802.11 devices interfering with the WLAN. Users also have the ability to visualize the average power level in the RF spectrum for each channel at any given point on the map. Note: AirMagnet Survey PRO must be installed on the same machine as the users’ spectrum application.

AirMagnet Survey addresses challenges faced by network installers and IT staff while deploying VoWLAN networks, and powers them with a built-in voice readiness verification system (includes pre-configured support for Cisco 792X phones and Vocera badges, plus the option to add profiles for other vendors) that allows users to ensure that their network design is inline with the recommendations of the phone vendor, and also allows them to perform real-world voice surveys. With the industry’s first voice survey capability, users can validate plus plot the phone call quality, capacity and other voice-specific parameters at every location on a floor map, to help identify as well as minimize issues that may be causing low-call quality.

Coverage maps that are built specifically for voice networks, including WiMOS score or call quality, number of active calls, phone roaming zones (includes roaming statistics), channel utilization, retries and many more, are included in the application and allow users to design the voice network to ensure the highest performance.

Note: Ability to perform RF Spectrum Surveys requires supported RF Spectrum Analyzers and Survey PRO to be installed on the same machine, and Voice-over-WLAN surveys require AirMagnet VoFi Analyzer PRO to be installed on the same machine as AirMagnet Survey PRO.

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.

Professional Custom Reports

AirMagnet Survey PRO includes a completely integrated reporting module that can instantly create custom outputs of site surveys and simulations. Additionally, customized templates provide wireless 802.11n site survey users with the flexibility in terms of creating reports that vary based on project requirements. Users can choose to include/exclude sections, add in their notes, customize their logos, headers and footers amongst many other customizable options. Reports can be output in over 15 formats including PDF, XML, HTML, Excel and Word. This wireless 802.11n site survey also includes reporting templates in German, French, Arabic and Russian that are built inside the application, along with the capability of allowing the user to create templates in any other language.

Outdoor Wireless Site Surveys

With the combination of GPS support and integration with Google Earth, Microsoft® MapPoint and Microsoft® Bing Maps, 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 using Bing Maps and then the results can then be analyzed in the AirMagnet Survey user-interface or exported into Google Earth for a zoomed-in view to any street within the city.

Houston Methodist Hospital using AirMagnet Survey