Network Computing is part of the Informa Tech Division of Informa PLC

This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.

Crash Course: Wireless Site Surveys: Page 7 of 7

So which tool is best for your WLAN site survey? That depends on the size and scope of your planned WLAN. For medium-sized and large installations (more than 20 APs) where you plan to purchase a WLAN switched infrastructure, it's best to use the planning tool included in the WLAN switch product. These tools also make sense if you're trying to build a self-healing, robust WLAN that can adapt automatically to environmental factors and reconfigure itself for optimum performance. If you want to further augment your site survey, you can add RF modeling tools for more comprehensive planning and spectrum-analysis tools to ensure WLAN coverage.

For small installations (without a WLAN switched infrastructure) or for specialized environments like outdoor WLAN deployments, go with the laptop-based tools for your manual site survey.

And if your organization is medium to large with a specialized environment or with applications that require large WLANs or the planning and support of a repeatable enterprise-wide WLAN, a site-survey modeling tool is best. This tool is also useful if you need an accurate preinstallation estimation of how many APs you'll need and where they should sit, for example, or if you want to execute "what-if" testing without affecting the production WLAN.

Cornell W. Robinson III is an associate and wireless security consultant for Booz Allen Hamilton and a contributing freelance reviewer for Network Computing. He previously was an adjunct professor at Syracuse University and a manager at the Center for Emerging Network Technologies there. Write to him at [email protected].