AKADEMIN FÖR TEKNIK OCH MILJÖ Bachelor’s thesis in Electronic Engineering 15 Credit points FÖR TEKNIK OCH MILJÖ Wireless Site Survey Site Surveying in Home, Office and Laboratory Environment Haidar Nail Mahmoud Nfk08hnl@student.hig.
Abstract Today, Communication has increasing influence on our Daily life. Wireless data Communication services allow people to access the data Network without a physical Connection. This work Studying Wireless Local Area Network WLAN features and describing all technologies and standard necessary to operate this network. This work aims also at comprehensive investigation of wireless network including wireless Local Area Networks implementation and performance analysis.
Dedication This thesis is dedicated to my mother, who taught me that even the largest task can be accomplished if it is done one step at a time. I dedicate this thesis to my brother in law Mr.Furat Kadhem and My sister Raya Nail for all the support that they gave me along my education period.
Acknowledgements I would like to thank my Teacher Mr.Niklas Rothpfeffer for the all work and for providing all the requirements for this project.
Table of Contents ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................................... 2 DEDICATION ................................................................................................................................. 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................................................. 4 ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS .................................................
APPENDIX 1.................................................................................................................................... I Introduction to VisiWave Site Survey Program ......................................................................................... I Creating a new Site Survey File ................................................................................................................. I Collecting Wi-Fi Data versus Spectrum Data ............................
Acronyms and Abbreviations WLAN Wireless Local Area Network WIFI Wireless Fidelity PDA Personal Digital Assistant WAP Wireless Access Point LAN Local Access Network SNR Signal to Noise Ratio AP Access Point ESSID Extended Service Set Identifier MAC Media Access Control Page | 7
List of Figures Figure 1 Wi-Fi mark Figure 2 Wireless Card ................................................ 11 Figure 3: WLAN and LAN Network .................................................................................................................................... 11 Figure 4: Roaming .......................................................................................................................................................................13 Figure 5: Home Map Image ....................
Introduction We will study the Wireless Local Access Network (WLAN). How it works. What are the requirements of this network. Where this network is more important to use. We will study also what we can do to make this kind of network better. We will focus also in this work on the WLAN`s strength and how we can test and examine the network strength. It is very important that we have a good WLAN network design, because the performance of the network depends mostly on the design of this network.
1. Theory This section will deal with the theoretical aspect of our work. We will describe all information that we need to know before we can do or understand our work. In the beginning we will explain the meaning of Wi-Fi technology, and we will also explain the site survey test and site survey considerations. 1.1 WIFI Wi-Fi is an abbreviation of Wireless Fidelity, A wireless transmission highprecision speed. And it is used to identify any of the wireless technologies in the (IEEE 802.11) standard.
Figure 1 Wi-Fi mark Figure 2 Wireless Card Figure 3: WLAN and LAN Network Wireless Access point (WAP) is the second thing that we need in order to use Wi-Fi technology. An access point is a device that transmits and receives data by converting the signal such as internet signal from the wires LAN (local access network) to wireless signal WLAN, with a limited coverage area that gives the ability to the users by connecting to each other or to the data source easily.
1.2 Roaming A critical function in a multiple-cell wireless LAN i.e. ESS, as shown in Figure (4), is roaming, which enables wireless users to move from cell to cell (one AP coverage area to another) seamlessly as you go around the office, campus, or home with the laptop with no loss in connectivity. As the 802.11 standard does not provide specification for roaming, it is up to the WLAN vendors to define roaming protocols on their own.
Figure 4: Roaming 1.3 Site Survey The main purpose of a wireless site survey is to determine the number and placement of access points that provides adequate signal coverage throughout a facility or city area. With most implementations, “adequate coverage” means support of a minimum data rate or throughput. Right software tool-a full-featured site survey program – can save companies significant amounts of time, money and a great deal of frustration when first installing, expanding or modifying a WLAN.
1.4 Site Survey Considerations If we need to conduct a site survey it is important to consider a Different of factors that could affect the performance of the Wi-Fi network [5]. It is very important to know the following considerations: Understand the wireless concept and requirements and how the Wi-Fi networks work. Obtain the diagrams or maps for the area which will be under test with good resolution with exact scale dimensions.
2. Measurements and results This chapter will deal with the practical aspects of our work; we will start this section by reviewing the tools software and hardware that we will use in our work, we will describe also how we can use these tools and where in our work, and then we will test the Wi-Fi strength in different environments, and which methods we will use to do that, and finally we will review the results [8]. 2.1 Tools We will review in this section the tools that we used in our work. 2.1.
Microsoft Office Picture Manager and Microsoft paint and adobe photo shop have been used also in this project to improve the site map of the coverage area, which we need to do site survey test on it, the map of the coverage area almost coming with image file format (JPG, GIF, BMP, and PNG). It is necessary to do some changes according to our work requirements.
2.2 Work Implementation and results presentation After we presented the tools that we will need in this project, this section we will mainly describe the Wi-Fi testing process in detail in many different environments, and mention the test methods which we will use to the Wi-Fi strength. And finally we will review all results of the test in Home, Laboratory, and Office environment.
The home environment site survey test will be done in an apartment, small and for one person apartment, the map image of this apartment is shown in figure (5). Figure 5: Home Map Image Figure (5) taken from SANDVIKENHUS´S (housing company) website. This figure illustrates house sections in Swedish language. Below translating of these words in English: Vardagsrum: Living Room . Kök: Ketchen. Sovalkov: Sleeping alcove. KPR: Corridor. WC: Bath Room.
The apartment contains a normal router, wireless –G Router (WGR614) from NETGEAR is shown in figure (6). We checked the router properties and we knew that this router works as an access point sends the internet signal up to 100 feet in range. Figure 6: Home Environment Router We collected data by VisiWave Site Survey program with two methods.
The result of the Wi-Fi strength in the home environment is shown in figure (7). Figure 7: Wi-Fi Strength in home Environment We can see in this figure the location of the access point which appears as a blue and white circle ( ). Dark blue colour on the map image indicates to the stronger Wi-Fi signal strength, in the kitchen the Wi-Fi strength is weaker than other places, because the kitchen contains a lot of home devices and metallic surfaces, these devices affects badly to the Wi-Fi signal strength.
For the home environment we have one access point that sends the signal, the name of this access point is Haidar and here is little information about this access point that the program measured: Access Points Discovered APs “The discovered access points are listed first. Several values are list for each discovered access point. The first column lists the unique identifier assigned to that access point. The next column lists the Media Access Code (MAC) address of the access point.
Survey Statistics Here is the final site survey test information in the home environment: Total Area 495 sq ft Survey Trail Length 194 ft Number of Strides 393 Ave. Stride Length 0.5 ft Number of Survey Points 426 Wi−Fi Only Points 426 Spectrum Only Points 0 Average Points per Stride 1.1 The total area is a value calculated from the survey data. This value represents the number of square feet inside the outer boundary of the collected data.
2.2.2 Laboratory Environment After the first test at the home environment, we got more information about the site survey test and how the program that we chose works and what are the difficulties that we may face while doing the test. We tried all options of the program and methods to make the work easier and faster. The start was in the 3rd floor of house 11 in the University of Gävle, electronics laboratories floor [12].
password, then connecting to the internet directly, therefore all results of site survey tests in this project will be focused on HIG channel. The map image of the laboratory environment is shown in figure (8): Figure 8: Laboratory Environment map image Like the previous test at the home environment we knew that the darker colours indicate a strong signal. Brighter colours indicate weaker signals. The strongest to weakest colours are: blacks, blues, greens, oranges, yellows, and reds.
The result of the Wi-Fi strength in the laboratory environment is shown in figure (9). Figure 9: The Strength of HIG Channel in the Laboratory Environment White blue circle ( ) shown in the figure above indicates to the locations of all access points which discovered in all floors in this building. The coloured pointed line represents the real way that we walked in reality when we collected data with continuous capture mode.
And marked with yellow circle, we can directly know that the discovered access point is not located in the 3rd floor because the strength of the signal is very weak near this access point.
After the site survey test in the 3rd floor (laboratory environment) we got the information bellow: Survey Statistics Total Area 15344 sq ft Survey Trail Length 880 ft Number of Strides 1572 Ave. Stride Length 0.6 ft Number of Survey Points 1579 Wi−Fi Only Points 1579 Spectrum Only Points 0 Average Points per Stride 1.0 The total area is a value calculated from the survey data. This value represents the number of square feet inside the outer boundary of the collected data.
2.2.3 Office Environment Our last site survey test in this project will be in an office environment, 4th floor of house 11 in the University of Gävle. This floor consists of teachers, professors and other staff rooms. We started to study the map image of this floor first, because we did not have any information about this floor before. It is very important to study the site environment before doing any test.
The number of access points was increasing whenever the site survey test is progressing, white blue circle ( ) is shown in the figure (11) indicates to the locations of the access points which discovered in all floors in this building. The results of the Wi-Fi strength at the Office environment is shown in figure (12). The test will review the results with respect to HIG channel only.
Changing the location of the access point is very important if we want to improve the network. For the 4th floor the information about site survey test are:Survey Statistics Total Area 10511 sq ft Survey Trail Length 737 ft Number of Strides 1425 Ave. Stride Length 0.5 ft Number of Survey Points 1480 Wi−Fi Only Points 426 Spectrum Only Points 0 Average Points per Stride 1 The total area is a value calculated from the survey data.
3. Summary and Conclusions 3.1 Access point locations In this thesis we used site surveying as a method for measuring the actual real network performance, by using Visiwave site survey program which shows after collecting data the visualized wireless coverage, which is very important if we need to improve the wireless network. If we need to design wireless network systems, it is very important to know the optimum numbers and locations for the access points. The correct placement of APs is essential.
3.
4 References [1] http://www.visiwave.com Last Access 2011-01-13 [2] http://www.metageek.net Last Access 2011-01-13 [3] IEEE Standards Association. “http://www.standards.ieee.org” Last Access 2011-01-13 [4] Briere, Danny Hurley, Pat Ferris, Edward. “Wireless Home Networking For Dummies” 2008, Third Edition. Chapter 4, (Planning a Wireless Home Network). [5] Wi-Fi Planet. ”http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/tutorials/article.php/1116311/RF-Site- Survey-Steps.htm” Last Access 2011-01-13. [6] Shahid K.Siddiqui.
Appendix 1 This Appendix contain some information about VisiWave Site Survey program, and how the program works in a briefly, depending on VisiWave Site Survey program user guide [7]. Introduction to VisiWave Site Survey Program The first thing that we have to do is to check the wireless network adapter that we use if it is compatible with the VisiWave program.
Figure 13: Survey Properties The new survey file is loaded and displayed in the main application window, is shown in figure (14). At the bottom of the screen is a status bar which display massages indicating what just done or what needs to be done and various indicators. At the top of the screen is a tool bar, the tool bar contains buttons that are just shortcuts to the menu.
Figure 14: The Main Application Window Collecting Wi-Fi Data versus Spectrum Data In VisiWave Site Survey program there are two options for collecting data, these two options are Collect Wi-Fi and Collect Spectrum.
Collecting Survey Data After these steps that we discussed before, and directly after loading our map image of the Set Survey Map Scale window appears, shown in figure 15, this window asking for the dimension of the site that we want to collect Wi-Fi strength on it, by choosing the first choice Set Interactively and clicking on two locations on the map that we already knew how many feet between these two location, then write it in this dialog with real length in feet the program will convert the number o
Before jumping into collecting data, give some thought to where we plan to survey and how we plan on covering that area. Also keep a look out for possible obstacles or difficult areas to reach on foot. We may need to momentarily stop data collection to deal with these problem areas. This won’t be an issue since normally a survey file consists of several segments of collected data.
Continuous capture mode To use this mode we should first press on the point to point Capture Mode Button ( ) in the toolbar, Then press the Start Collecting button ( ).
Deleting Data Any survey data added to survey file can be removed, if we begin to collect survey data and something does not go right, we can click on the screen in the wrong place or we were interrupted while adding several data points along a path, we can use the Clear->Last Data Segment menu item to remove all the data points between two points or by clicking on the “delete last segment” button ( ) in the toolbar.
VisiWave Site Survey Report program consist of six different items that can be added to the report by clicking on the Global Properties and select Insert, And, since each report type and subtype has many different variations, hundreds of distinct report items can be created these options which can inserts to our report are: Title Page. Details. Graph. Table. Text. Image.
Appendix 2 Discovered access points table only for HIG channel in the laboratory environment “The discovered access points are listed first. Several values are list for each discovered access point. The first column lists the unique identifier assigned to that access point. The next column lists the Media Access Code (MAC) address of the access point. The next column lists the channel used for communication. The next column lists whether WEP encryption is enabled for that access point or not.
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Appendix 3 Discovered access points table only for HIG channel in the office environment “The discovered access points are listed first. Several values are list for each discovered access point. The first column lists the unique identifier assigned to that access point. The next column lists the Media Access Code (MAC) address of the access point. The next column lists the channel used for communication. The next column lists whether WEP encryption is enabled for that access point or not.
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