Select the Tools to Perform the Survey

You should prepare a site survey kit that contains the default hardware and software elements needed for most surveys.

Site Survey Tools

Your kit should contain survey tools (planning tools, onsite survey tools). The Cisco Wireless Control System (WCS) planning mode enables you to calculate the number of APs required to cover an area. Based on the throughput specified for each protocol and the number of users, the planning mode calculates the total number of APs required to provide optimum coverage in your network for data, voice, or location services.

You may want to use several tools when performing an onsite site survey, depending on which task you want to perform. The first order of business may be to go through a Layer 1 sweep to detect non-802.11 interferers. A standard 802.11 device may detect non-802.11 interferers, but cannot determine their exact nature (they will be just labeled as noise) or location. The Cisco Spectrum Expert solution is a WiFi sensor in CardBus form for notebooks and a specific analysis program. You can use it to scan all channels and determine precisely which non-802.11 device is using the same spectrum as your planned wireless network. The tool can identify the source of interference and describe its characteristics (RF behavior, duty cycle, impact on 802.....