Site Survey Questions

Hello,
I have a question about surveying. I have been doing site surveys and all the site surveys that I have done were all passive mode. I use AirMagnet with Proxim card. I know that there is an active mode for doing wireless site survey. My question are:
1. When do I need to do an active site survey?
2. What is the difference between active and passive mode?
3. What is the advantages and disadvantages of each mode?
4. For post site survey, which mode should I used?
I know that the passive mode is in monitor mode and I don't need to associate with an AP whereas active mode I need to associate with the AP.
Thanks

Granted, this is My Opinion:
1. When do I need to do an active site survey?
     When you are troubleshooting an issue. And/Or needing to do throughput testing, on a live network.
2. What is the difference between active and passive mode?
     Active survey's you are actually connecting to the SSID, so you can pass traffic and measure the results.
3. What is the advantages and disadvantages of each mode?
     Active Survey - Allows you to see more information on packet frames, as you are connected to the SSID. You can watch and test roaming, throughput etc.
     Passive Survey - Is what you want to use when you are doing a pre-install survey, or even a post install validation survey.
HTH,
Steve
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Similar Messages

Question about WLAN Site Surveys with 802.11n APs - 1142s

I do site surveys a little differently that everyone else nowadays, I believe. In the past, I used an autonomous 1230 or 1240, but now I use a lightweight 1142. I configure a port in a room to be on the AP VLAN and I connect my 1142 to the port and hang it where I want - it then gets on the controller and start broadcasting just like the finished product will. This works well except for the time it takes me to configure a port on the switch and the bootup time for the AP. I'm one of the Networks Architects on a campus of almost 200 buildings, so I have access to all the routers and switches and can configure anything I need while onsite.
Now I want to have someone else (in-house) to do our surveys - but this person(s) does not have access to switches and routers, and that won't ever change.
I tried configuring a lightweight 1142 in HREAP mode to handoff to this person, but it appears the power and channel settings don't stick on the 5 GHz side.
Scrapping that idea, I now have to build out an autonomous 1142 for site surveying. I missed out on this step because I went from buying 1242s (can jump between lightweight and autonomous) to 1142s (which didn't have an autonomous image at that time, I believe). This is why I started surveying with lightweight 1142s.
I'm curious if anyone has gone through the configuration of an autonomous 1142 and wouldn't mind sharing their "lessons learned". I haven't seen a matrix of features that are supported/not supported on 1142s when configured for lightweight vs. autonomous.
I currently aim for designing around the 5 GHz radios set to 10 dBm, 20% cell overlap. I also turn on 40 MHz channels in 5 GHz range. This usually ends up with an AP in every other or every third classroom, depending on how old the building is and how many times it has been renovated. I can't "just throw APs out there" since each building is different - some are thin concrete block, some are poured cement, and some are block with metal mesh and stucco. Those usually end up with on AP per classroom.
Does anyone have a matrix on what can and cannot be turned on in an autonomous AP? I would like to get my config as close to the lightweight scenario we deploy for all of our production WLANs.

There is no matrix as to what you're asking for. I've done conversions and configurations of AP's from Lightweight to Autonomous and vice-versa. The configuration of the autonomous AP can be identical to the Lightweight AP from a client perspective.
My current setup has 3 SSID's (VoIP, Data, and Guest) on the autonomous AP. Couple things I do:
1. PoE powered AP through a Tessco power pack.
2. VLANs have to be enabled on the AP (1 for each SSID)
3. The SSID's will have to be created and each AP mapped to a VLAN
4. The SSID's will be need to be enabled on both radios if desired.
The easiest way to configure the AP is to power it with either the power cord.
Console into the AP and let it boot. Assign an IP address to the BVI 1 interface.
Assign an IP address on the wired NIC of our laptop and plug an ethernet cable into the AP's ethernet port.
Configure the AP as listed above via the web gui.
This is by no means a complete answer, but your questions were all over the map.
Regards,
Jerry

Can you embed survey questions in discontinuous places on a Web site?

Can you embed survey questions in discontinuous places on a Web site? By analogy, think of an online magazine that would have survey questions at the end of each article. The reader would never go through the survey from start to finish, but rather read an article, then answer questions about subjects covered in the article, then read the next article, answer or skip questions, and so on. In this scenario, if there are 30 survey questions, I would not want 30 separate surveys, but rather an means of rolling up all the answers from a single respondent who logs into the Web site. Can Acrobat forms help in this context, or do you know of other software/services that I should consider?

You could look into a service such as http://www.formsite.com/. I believe it can do what you want. The support there is excellent so if you can't find the answer looking around, just contact them.

Conducting a Site Survey

Does anyone where I can find a site survey checklist for installing a network infrastructure?
I'm looking for something to document when assessing a new office location to setup a network for a small business.

I have jotted down a few of the important things that need to be considered for setting up a network infrastructure.
The following questions must be answered regarding installation site readiness:
1. Are there any special site considerations (this can include using specific building entrances,
security check points, reception desks, etc)
2. Are all the original console and auxiliary cables, interface adaptors and rack mounting hardware
available if necessary?
3. Where is the equipment physically being installed? In a rack or on a table?
4. Is the necessary power available?
5. Is the WAN circuit installed and connection ready for the installation (i.e. - CSU/DSU installed
and configured, frame-relay active, etc.)?
6. Is the LAN connection available and ready for installation?
7. Is there an analog phone line within 50 feet of the installation location for dial up access?
8. Are the cables you have received of the correct length and presentation for the LAN and WAN
connectivity for your site?
9. Have the relevant TELCO lines been installed and working?

Site Surveys

I am conducting some inside site surveys, I have a lot of documentation on doing a survey and have good equipment but one question I have is what should be the minimum signal strength or quality that I want to look for? For example I am thinking that a signal strength of 10 percent is as low as I want to go and would consider that the edge of the range for that access point. I am just wondering if there is a suggested limit or rule to go by.
Thanks for your help in advance.

Hi ,
It depend upon how much bandwidth is required for your application .
As you move away from AP , throughput decreases from 11 to 5.5 to 2 to 1 .
Now Signal Stregth is DIFFERENT THAN singnal quality . Good Signal Strength does not mean always good singal quality .
What you should look for is SIGNAL QUAILITY . Multipath reduces signal quaility .
I would day keep more than 30% signal quality . There is no guide line for deciding this threshold . It is upto your desing that how much overlap you want between two adjacent cell .
Roaming of users not only depend on signal strength and quality it is also depend on # of hope the backbone is away and other factors ....
I hope this helps ....

Wireless Site survey tools and Software requirement

Dears,
I have Cisco wireless site survey to distributed and selected Wireless AP on big building contain 20 floor,
what are the prerequisites and is there any free tool from Cisco or third party software , that can help my to upload all building map to get accurate results,
AP model: 1602I-E-K9
Thanks in Advanced,

Is there any tools , I can used to do the site survey ?
Won't make any difference what tool to use if you don't know the basics and requirement in wireless site survey. As what George and Scott has mentioned, AirMagnet and Ekahau are the two largest and most popular wireless site survey programs in the market right now.
However, there are a number of topic that won't be covered in AirMagnet and Ekahau computer-based-training or web training. So getting the tools is half the "fun".
Get someone to do it for you. Tag along. Ask a lot of relevant questions. Observe what they do. Observe the tools they are using and what info their eyes are focusing into.
In some cases, when I do site survey, I only use a Cisco 7925G. That's all I use. So far my method, even though it is unorthodox, hasn't failed me one bit.

Cisco 1572 Outdoor AP in Autonomous or Site Survey mode?

Can a 1572 outdoor AP be put into an Autonomous mode, or at least a Site Survey mode so coverage areas and signal strengths can be tested without the need for a wireless controller?
If so, is that what the sku "SW1570-UL01A01-K9 SW Cisco AP1570: Unified LOCAL" is for? Seems like it would be, but not sure..
Thanks!

Got the answer to my own question... yes, it can be deployed in Autonomous mode... Installation guide lists this at the very end of the doc...
http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/wireless/access_point/1570/installation/guide/1570hig/1570_chinstallaccs.html

Vocera Site Survey

Good Day,
Has anyone ever done a site survey for Vocera? If so, did you use the actual badge during the site survey? I have read the Vocera Design Guide and it stated that their badges can be put into a site survey mode to capture reading from a network AP however I am unsure if this means that a Vocera Infrastructure needs to be in place for this to happen.
I can probably get my hands on a couple badges but I'm not sure if I'll be able to configure them to associate to my survey AP so that I can do the site survey without them talking to the Vocera Server. So, I'm kind of stuck not knowing if this is possible or not. I typically use Proxim Wireless Cards and I know that they are most likely stronger than the Vocera badges so I'm not sure how I can get a true Apples to Apples survey result without having the badges during the survey.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

George,
Thanks for your response. I read your blog and have a quick question for you. When you did the Vocera Survey were you able to put the badge in site survey mode without having a Vocera Server in place?? I know that a 7925 phone can be used in survey mode without Call Manager so I just want to know if this is the same process with the badge because I assumed it was but was told that it wouldn't work without the Vocera Server. I tried to reach out to Vocera to confirm but they were reluctant to answer any questions because they thought for some reason we were competition for them.
Any help on this would be greatly appreciated!

Indoor Wireless Site Survey

Hello guys,
I have a question regading conducting an indoor (office building) wireless site survey. Is there a standard RSSI and SNR value for certain wireless survey requirements for "data only", "data and voice", and "location tracking"?
I am aware that voice can't go lower than -67 RSSi and 25 SNR. So I am assuming that the survey should be (using AirMagnet) the single AP coverage for both 2.4GHz and 5GHz shouldn't go lower than -67 RSSI with higher than 25 SNR is preferred. The 2nd AP coverage is -70 RSSI wih at least 25 SNR. Is this correct?
What about for data only coverage? I believe the SNR is 15dB is good starting based for data only coverage, but what is the standard RSSI value?
Is it -72 or -75?
Also, regarding the user density, what is the recommended number of users per AP for both 2.4GHz and 5.GHz for "data only", "data and voice", and "data, voice and video"?
Thank you in advance

Hello steelinquisitor
Thank you for contacting the Sales Acceleration Center (SAC) regarding your recent inquiry, Case Number 79980
Case Description:
Indoor Wireless Site Survey
Case Solution:
I do agree with Scott info but here is more information
This table lists the minimum Signal-to-Noise ratio values for the voice and data cells.
I am going to close the case for this specific inquiry. We strive to provide you with excellent service. Please feel free to reach out to me or any member of the SAC team if we can be of any further assistance or if you have any other related questions in the future. We value your input and look forward to serving you moving forward
Hello steelinquisitor
Thank you for contacting the Sales Acceleration Center (SAC) regarding your recent inquiry, Case Number 79980
Case Description:
Indoor Wireless Site Survey
Case Solution:
I do agree with Scott info but here is more information
This table lists the minimum Signal-to-Noise ratio values for the voice and data cells.
I am going to close the case for this specific inquiry. We strive to provide you with excellent service. Please feel free to reach out to me or any member of the SAC team if we can be of any further assistance or if you have any other related questions in the future. We value your input and look forward to serving you moving forward

Wireless mesh site survey

Hello all,
I need to perform several wireless mesh site surveys. The challenge I have is that I generally use a 2600 autonomous ap for indoor site surveys. However I have not found an easy way to do an outdoor mesh site survey. Any suggestions or best practices from the group?
Sent from Cisco Technical Support iPad App

You use a 1552 with the survey image installed.
HTH,
Steve
Please remember to rate useful posts, and mark questions as answered

LWAPP Site Survey methodology

I have been doing site surveys the "old fashioned" way for quite some time.
I am interested in how the survey is performed utilizing the new lightweight AP's.
Mainly, how do you determine AP location if there is no way to configure the AP itself?
Do these surveys require the use of a Controller?
Can I still design the infrastructure to physically load balance the network or am I at the mercy of this little box?
Also, do I have any control over channel allocation? I don't like to put channel 11 near Microwave ovens if I can help it, but I would like to know that if any thing gets switched, is it going to be switched back?
Any links that would describe the "new" survey process would be very apprieciated.
Thanks-

I can confirm that when I asked the same question, no "survey mode" exists on the AIR-LAP1131AG or AIR-LAP1242AG.
That said, you can convert these APs to autonomous mode (there are a number of threads on this forum that discuss how to do this). After you are done with the site survey you can flip the APs back.
From the Cisco "Wireless Site Survey FAQ - Document ID: 68666"
"Q. Can I perform a site survey using Cisco Aironet 1131 and 1242 access points and then use the results to deploy an Airespace wireless solution?
A. Yes, you can do this as long as a proper site survey is conducted and the results yield an effective Wireless solution. In this case, you can use any site survey tool."
If you intend on carrying your RF settings manually once deployed using the WLC, you will need to refer to the following document which correlates autonomous power settings (in dB) to the WLC power setttings 1, 2, 3, etc.
Excerpt from WLC Configuration Guide v4.0:
"The transmit power level is assigned an integer value instead of a value in mW or dBm. The integer corresponds to a power level that varies depending on the regulatory domain in which the access points
are deployed. The number of available power levels varies based on the access point model. However, power level 1 is always the maximum power level allowed per country code setting, with each successive power level representing 50% of the previous power level. For example, 1 = maximum power level in a particular regulatory domain, 2 = 50% power, 3 = 25% power, 4 = 12.5% power, and so on.
Note: Refer to the hardware installation guide for your access point for the maximum transmit power levels supported per regulatory domain. Also, refer to the data sheet for your access point for the number of power levels supported."
Final thought: I have found that the AUTO RF tends to work better if you start out your APs with manual channel settings from your site survey and then release everything to AUTO RF at the same time. The automatic channel choices that the WLC comes up with are not optimal.
The steps to doing this are:
1) Changing the global AUTO RF setting to manual channel selection or ON DEMAND. Power setting can stay on automatic.
2) Change your APs to the manual settings from your survey.
3) Change the APs to automatic RF settings. (They will not change until AUTO RF channel selection is re-enabled.)
4) Re-enable AUTO RF channel selection.
This is not official from Cisco, simply based upon my own observations. However, my experience so far has been that the channel settings I pick tend to work better (I see higher power level settings on the APs since they have less co-channel interference) and WLC will continue to use the manual channel settings unless the some significant outside interference is encountered.
(please remember to rate helpful posts)
- John

Site Survey with ap3500i

Hey,
I have a question about sitesurveying with ap3500's
I'm going to deploy a wireless network in a new building, i have a company that normaly does my site surveys.
I normally provide them with some AP's configured with a designated ssid and local power modes set to 50%, however this does not seem possible with the new 3500i's i'm willing to use, for there is no IOS image available for it.
I dont have any network connectivity yet in this new building, so i cannot f.i place them in a separate ap-group and assign a dedicated wlan to them.
Can Anybody think of a viable solution (ASAP) Thanx in advance
Frans verschoor

leolaohoo wrote:We use 1140s for site surveys in our 3502i deployments.Not recommended.
I have the same questions as Thomas. In the thread below I tried to find out any differences between these APs but the consensus was that ClearAir was the only notable difference. The only way the 1140 would be not recommended for a passive survey is if there is differences in the antenna pattern, and active survey if there's a difference in chipset or hardware. So what are the differences?
https://supportforums.cisco.com/message/3398804#3398804

Site survey clarifications

Hi Experts ,
could you please some clarifications on the below questions,
1. how to do High density deployments with less interference
2. How to eliminate interference using site survey
3.Even though proper site survey is done in some of our customer sites , the AP's load / interference is showing more than 50% eventhough less number of clients is connected.
4.We are facing interference related issues , where we deployed in high dense environment.
Thanks for your time.
BR
Vijay

In a dense wireless environment, there's really nothing you can do when you have neighbors with significant wireless deployment.
You can alleviate the issue by deploying APs that support CleanAir. But CleanAir can only help you up to a certain degree. If, for example, one of your neighbor's AP is so close to your property and it's blasting Wi-Fi like a disco boom-box, if there are no more channels to use CleanAir could potentially lower the power to the radio that no one can connect to it via 802.11b radio.

Cisco WCS to conduct an Active Wireless Site Survey

Can I use Cisco WCS to conduct an Active Wireless Site Survey or it does only Predictive Wireless Site Survey ? I already bought a software that only do Passive but I need one to make an Active Wireless Site Survey.
I think that WCS does not provide walkthrough in active mode.
Tks.

WCS woudl only be able to do a Passive Survey. do to an 'active' or AP on a Stick survey you would need softare like Ekahau or Air Magnet to go out and read the RSSI/SNR from the AP.
HTH,
Steve
Please remember to rate useful posts, and mark questions as answered

Survey Question - Carry over data

Hi,
Is there a way to carry over responses/answers from a survey question from one slide to another? I have a scenario where users analyze a situation and note the problems (survey answers - ungraded) on one slide. I don't want them to see the answers to the scenario until the next slide but want them to remember what they've put in as the problems with the scenario. I've searched the forum but didn't see this situation. Thanks very much for any ideas.

For short answer questions the value of the system variable cpQuizInfoAnswerChoice is the exact text that was entered, which is great news for you I suppose? Be sure to assign the value of that variable to a user variable before the next question is answered. That means that best event to trigger the action is the On Enter event for the next slide. As you perhaps know, there is no On Exit event possible for Question slides.
http://blog.lilybiri.com/events-and-advanced-actions
You will have to create an advanced action for that: Assign v_answer1 with cpQuizInfoAnswerChoice
And you'll need a different action for each question, even shared actions couldn't help you because a variable (it is the user variable v_answerx that will be different for each action) cannot be a parameter.
Lilybiri

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