{"id":491,"date":"2002-05-10T10:44:00","date_gmt":"2002-05-10T10:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wi-fiplanet.com\/?p=491"},"modified":"2022-05-23T16:37:30","modified_gmt":"2022-05-23T16:37:30","slug":"rf-site-survey-steps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wi-fiplanet.com\/rf-site-survey-steps\/","title":{"rendered":"RF Site Survey Steps"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
By Jim Geier<\/p>\n\n\n\n
May 10, 2002<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You should always look before you leap. In the case of installing a wireless network, that translates to ‘do an RF survey’ before you install. Jim Geier explains what steps to take.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With wireless systems, it’s very difficult to predict the propagation of radio waves and detect the presence of interfering signals without the use of test equipment. Even if you’re using omni-directional antennas, radio waves don’t really travel the same distance in all directions. Instead walls, doors, elevator shafts, people, and other obstacles offer varying degrees of attenuation, which cause the Radio Frequency (RF) radiation pattern to be irregular and unpredictable. As a result, it’s often necessary to perform a RF site survey to fully understand the behavior of radio waves within a facility before installing wireless network access points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ultimate goal of a RF site survey is to supply enough information to determine the number and placement of access points that provides adequate coverage throughout the facility. In most implementations, “adequate coverage” means support of a minimum data rate. A RF site survey also detects the presence of interference coming from other sources that could degrade the performance of the wireless LAN.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The need and complexity of a RF site survey will vary depending on the facility. For example, a small three room office may not require a site survey. This scenario can probably get by with a single access point located anywhere within the office and still maintain adequate coverage. If this access point encounters RF interference from another nearby wireless LAN, you can likely choose a different channel and eliminate the problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A larger facility, such as an office complex, apartment building, hospital, or warehouse, generally requires an extensive RF site survey. Without a survey, users will probably end up with inadequate coverage and suffer from low performance in some areas. You certainly wouldn’t want to relocate and add access points to the facility after installing and interconnecting 20 access points or more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When conducting an RF site survey, consider these general steps:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These steps will point you in the right direction, but experience really pays off. If you’re new to wireless LANs, you’ll begin to build an odd intuition about the propagation of radio waves after accomplishing several RF site surveys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Jim Geier May 10, 2002 You should always look before you leap. In the case of installing a wireless network, that translates to ‘do an RF survey’ before you install. Jim Geier explains what steps to take. With wireless systems, it’s very difficult to predict the propagation of radio waves and detect the presence of … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Jim Geier","author_link":"https:\/\/wi-fiplanet.com\/author\/jim-geier\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wi-fiplanet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wi-fiplanet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wi-fiplanet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wi-fiplanet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wi-fiplanet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wi-fiplanet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3811,"href":"https:\/\/wi-fiplanet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491\/revisions\/3811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wi-fiplanet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wi-fiplanet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wi-fiplanet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}