Ensuring strong wireless connectivity across your business locations starts with understanding your environment. WiFi surveys lay the foundation for a wireless network that performs reliably and efficiently – a must, considering 46% of geographically distributed businesses experience network issues one to three times per month.1
Let’s break down the essentials of a WiFi survey, including what it is, the different types, and how to conduct one using the right tools and techniques.
What Is a WiFi Site Survey?
A WiFi site survey – also known as a wireless site survey – is the process of analyzing a physical environment to design or optimize a wireless network. The goal is to assess coverage, signal strength, interference, and placement of access points (APs) to ensure a strong, stable wireless connection throughout a location.
The result of a site survey is a visual heat map that shows signal coverage across your floor plan, identifying problem areas and opportunities for improvement.
Whether you're designing a brand-new wireless network or troubleshooting an existing one, a WiFi survey provides critical data to make smart, cost-effective decisions.
When Is a Site Survey Done for a Wireless Network?
Knowing when a site survey is done for a wireless network is essential to avoid poor performance or wasted infrastructure investments. You should perform a WiFi site survey during the following scenarios:
- Before a new wireless network installation: WiFi surveys help network technicians determine the best number and placement of APs for strong coverage.
- When expanding or remodeling a facility: Structural changes like new walls or shelving can interfere with signal strength and coverage.
- After receiving complaints about poor connectivity: Site surveys help network teams identify root causes like interference, misconfigured access points, or hardware limitations.
- Before a major equipment refresh: A survey can help ensure your investment in new hardware is optimized for your physical space and coverage needs.
- Periodically, as a best practice: Wireless environments change over time, especially in retail, healthcare, or office settings. Regular wireless surveys help ensure consistent performance.
Planning your WiFi survey at these strategic moments can help you make the most of your network investments, all while ensuring reliable connectivity for everyone who depends on it.
Types of WiFi Surveys
There are three primary types of wireless site surveys, each suited to different needs and stages of a wireless network’s lifecycle. These are:
Passive Wireless Survey
In a passive wireless survey, a technician collects data about existing wireless signals without connecting to the network. Tools scan for signal strength, interference, and noise from all surrounding WiFi and non-WiFi sources.
Passive surveys are ideal for:
- Validating existing network coverage
- Identifying overlapping channels
- Pinpointing areas with low signal strength
The passive approach gives you a complete view of your wireless landscape to help you understand the full spectrum of signals affecting your network performance.
Active Wireless Survey
An active wireless site survey involves connecting to the actual wireless network to measure performance metrics like throughput, latency, and packet loss. They provide real-world performance data to bridge the gap between theoretical coverage and actual user experience.
Active surveys are best for:
- Troubleshooting performance issues
- Validating how end-user devices will experience the network
This hands-on approach reveals how your network performs under realistic conditions so you can address specific pain points that might not appear through passive analysis alone.
Predictive Wireless Survey
A predictive wireless survey uses floor plans and modeling software to simulate how wireless signals will propagate in a space. It accounts for walls, furniture, materials, and other signal-impacting factors to estimate AP placement and coverage.
Predictive surveys are most useful:
- Before construction or renovation
- In large or complex environments
- When physical access to the site is limited
Many businesses use a combination of all three survey types, depending on their goals and stage in the network lifecycle.
How To Conduct a WiFi Survey
Conducting a successful wireless site survey requires preparation, tools, and analysis. Here’s a high-level walkthrough of the process:
Step 1: Define Your Requirements
Start by understanding your environment and wireless needs. You’ll need to consider:
- Number of users and devices
- Types of applications (VoIP, video, POS, etc.)
- Bandwidth expectations
- Coverage area and floor plan details
- Device types and signal requirements
This helps your team or provider tailor the survey to meet performance expectations.
Step 2: Choose the Right Wireless Site Survey Tools
The accuracy of your survey will depend on the tools you use. Leading wireless site survey tools like Ekahau AI Pro allow technicians to create heatmaps, model signal propagation, and pinpoint coverage gaps or interference.
This software should run on a laptop or tablet equipped with a compatible WiFi adapter that can accurately detect and measure signals. Some situations might also call for spectrum analyzers, which can help identify non-WiFi interference sources that might otherwise go undetected.
Step 3: Perform the Survey
During a passive or active survey, a technician will walk your site with the survey tool and collect data at regular intervals. These surveys require methodical coverage of the entire space, with careful attention to areas where connectivity matters most.
For a predictive survey, the tech will enter your floor plan details and wall material specs into the software for modeling, and the quality of this information directly affects the accuracy of your predictive model.
Step 4: Analyze the Results
The site survey tool will produce a visual heatmap showing:
- Strong and weak signal zones
- Areas with potential interference
- Ideal placement for new or adjusted APs
- Redundant or underperforming APs
Based on these insights, the technicians will generate a report with clear recommendations for AP placement and configuration, channel and power settings, and hardware upgrades or replacements.
Step 5: Implement Recommendations and Validate
Once you’ve made the recommended changes, conduct a follow-up survey to validate the improvements. Continuous monitoring and periodic surveys across each site can help you maintain long-term network performance.
Why Do WiFi Surveys Matter for Multi-Site Enterprises?
Enterprises with multiple locations – such as restaurants, retail chains, and healthcare networks – depend on consistent wireless performance to support operations and customer experiences.
WiFi surveys help multi-location enterprises:
- Plan networking budgets better, thanks to fewer, better-placed APs
- Improve network uptime and signal across
- Standardize connectivity across all locations
- Prevent unnecessary support tickets from poor signal issues
When combined with proactive maintenance and centralized support, WiFi surveys lay the groundwork for reliable connectivity enterprise-wide.
TailWind: Your Trusted Partner for WiFi Surveys and Wireless Network Optimization
Wireless performance impacts everything from customer satisfaction to operational uptime and more. A WiFi site survey helps ensure every site has wireless coverage that not only improves daily operations but also provides a consistent, quality experience for employees and customers alike.
At TailWind, we offer expert WiFi surveys tailored to your unique environment and business goals. Our Ekahau-certified engineers partner with your stakeholders to conduct predictive and passive surveys that reveal:
- Floor plans and construction materials
- Device requirements and usage density
- Aesthetic and functional constraints
We don't just hand you a heatmap – we'll help you implement a plan that provides minimal interference and maximum coverage. Whether you're opening new sites, upgrading infrastructure, or fixing poor connectivity, we've got you covered.
Ready to improve your wireless network? Contact us today to schedule a WiFi survey and get expert recommendations built around your business.
Sources:
