Network Configuration

There are primarily three types of site survey:

• Pre-Deployment Assessment Survey - Surveys the current state of the network, or troubleshoots an existing one. This type of survey can also be used to perform Environment Learning, which can be used in the Simulation view for design work.

• AP-on-a-Stick Survey - Surveys one-to-several access points that have been temporarily deployed to measure signal propagation in the building. Can be used as an entire design methodology, or as a hybrid in conjunction with simulation work.

• Post-Deployment Validation Survey - Surveys a newly-deployed network to ensure that it sufficiently matches the simulation, and meets the defined network requirements.

Whether you make configuration changes to the network before surveying depends on what you want to show in the survey results. For example, if you want to show your manager or customer what the network looks like right now, you would not want to make any configuration changes.

If you want to improve the network as fast as possible, you might make a few obvious changes such as decreasing the channel width, increasing the transmit power, or increasing the minimum data rate. Then, you can survey the network and see what other changes or improvements you can make.

If you are performing an AP-on-a-stick survey, it's important to configure the AP as you intend to deploy it, while remaining open to adjusting the configuration based on what the survey results show while you are on-site.

For a post-deployment validation survey, deploy and configure the network as designed. Your survey results will then show you where the simulation differs from real-world measurements, and whether anything is misconfigured.

Hidden Networks

The one exception to the above applies to Hidden SSIDs. Hiding an SSID simply causes the network name to be removed from the Beacon, which is how access points advertise themselves to clients.

Since passive site surveys (which Hamina Onsite uses to create heatmaps) listen to Beacons from access points, a hidden network will produce a very sparse heatmap. You will see some measurements, but these come from Probe Responses.

While access points use Beacons to advertise themselves, a client can use a Probe Request to look for access points. When the access points return a Probe Response, it looks nearly identical to a Beacon, and includes the SSID so it can be identified by the client.

Hamina will treat Probe Responses just like Beacons and include them in measurements. But, since a client has to transmit a Probe Request to hear a Probe Response, Hamina Onsite will gather very few of them. The result will be a heatmap that shows only a few measurements.

Recommendation

Temporarily unhide your SSID during the site survey. Alternatively, if you are broadcasting both a hidden and an unhidden SSID, you can use the unhidden SSID for the majority of the analysis.

In general, Hamina does not recommend hidden SSIDs. They do not increase the security of your network, and arguably make it less secure.