At Versona Systems, we believe in quality wireless network designs that provide customers with a blueprint for the implementation of WLAN’s that meet or exceed their specifications. This approach ensures that customer’s WLANs are set up correctly from the start, preventing costly return visits and design modifications.
Depending upon several factors such as budget, the physical target area, and how critical it is for the wireless network to comply with the customer’s stated specifications, Versona Systems can provide any of the three generally accepted types of WLAN Site Surveys:
- Active Survey (On-site): Our most accurate, intensive, and thoroughly documented method. We recommend this method when your WLAN is used for mission critical applications. It’s also our most frequently selected survey type.
- Passive Survey (On-Site or Remote): This type of survey generally involves only the use of either observed signal strength (on-site) or theoretical signal strength (remote) to determine coverage cells. This is a less expensive option to our Active Survey and is typically used in environments where infrequent coverage or performance issues are tolerable.
- Paper Survey (Remote): Our least expensive approach relies solely upon the wireless engineer’s experience to determine the location of AP’s using only a customer-supplied blueprint of the target area. This type of survey is best for budget constrained, non-mission critical, and data-only designs.
Versona Systems representatives can assist clients in deciding which approach will work best. Since our engineers have been performing these services for well over a decade, we have developed a design methodology that is thorough, yet simple and efficient. The byproduct of a Versona Systems survey is a report detailing the following:
| Paper | Passive | Active | |
| Location and type of each required AP | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Determination of frequency to be used (2.4GHz/5GHz) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Determination of AP channel and power settings | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Bill of Material (BOM) of required components | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Calculation of required Ethernet cable | No | Optional | Yes |
| Listing of survey tools used | No | Yes | Yes |
| Review and write-up of target area current state | No | Yes | Yes |
| Spectrum analysis of target area | No | Optional | Yes |
| Coverage (Heat) maps based on AirMagnet receive-only data (not authenticated to AP) | No | Yes | Yes |
| Coverage (Heat) maps based on AirMagnet send/receive data (while authenticated to each AP) | No | No | Yes |
| AirMagnet data collected during survey | No | Yes | Yes |
| AP mounting instructions | No | Optional | Yes |
| File transfer (FTP) timing results per AP | No | No | Optional |
If you’d like to know more about Versona Systems capabilities in wireless network designs, please contact 713-654-8200 or Sales@VersonaSystems.com.