Comparing Ekahau Connect to the laptop surveying style

I have been using Ekahau for Wi-Fi surveying for some time now, and up until last week I have been using a 13” Dell Inspiron 5000 laptop that flips into a tablet when I want it.  I connect the Ekahau Sidekick to the laptop via USB cable, sling the Sidekick over my shoulder and start walking.  Easy, right?

 

If you are unsure what a Sidekick is you can read about it here: https://www.ekahau.com/products/sidekick/overview/  Not to understate all that it can do, it has two Wi-Fi radios, a spectrum analyzer, a long lasting battery, and now it has storage available inside.  Before the Sidekick, we walked around with a USB hub hanging out of our laptops with a spectrum analyzer or two hanging off it, along with a couple of USB Wi-Fi adapters as well.  All of that was depleting the laptop battery.

 

Wi-Fi engineers are always looking for ways to lighten the load (since we do a lot of walking) when surveying.  We want longer surveying times between charging – usually starting out in the morning and hoping our batteries will last until lunch time so we can charge up.  Unfortunately our batteries rarely get fully recharged over the tiny lunch breaks we take.  Some engineers carry identical laptops with them, and survey until the battery is low then stop and save the survey, transfer it to the fully charged laptop so they can continue surveying and put the other laptop on the charger.

 

Those days are no longer necessary anymore.  Ekahau released a new product called Ekahau Connect.  This allows you to create your WLAN survey project and upload it to the cloud so you never lose your project file.  Then you use an iPad that is also linked to the cloud – it downloads your survey project file and you can now survey with an iPad and the Ekahau Sidekick.  Here’s more on Ekahau Connect:  https://www.ekahau.com/products/ekahau-connect/overview/

 

Why would you want to survey with an iPad?  It weighs less than half as much as my laptop, and is of similar size.  I bought a 12.9” iPad Pro for the job, and when sitting side by side, they look to be about the same.  The iPad, however, is much lighter and a lot easier to maneuver when walking through a building, dodging people and squeezing into areas where you want to gather a data point.  Truth be told, I probably could have purchased a smaller iPad, since it’s almost too big.

 

Since the iPad isn’t as “rugged” as my laptop, I purchased a rubber-like case for it that has a folding handle.  I had to modify it slightly to accommodate the adapter cable to connect to the Sidekick since the iPad doesn’t have the same USB connector as the laptop.  I found the rubber-like case on eBay for something like twenty bucks.

 

During the launch of the new Ekahau Connect, we heard how much better it was, so I decided to test drive it on a validation survey.  I walked the same exact floor twice – once with version 9.2.4 of Ekahau Site Survey running on my Dell laptop with the Sidekick connected, then I walked it again with the iPad and Sidekick.  Now it is time to compare – keeping in mind the same human (me) walked the floor twice.  I tried to replicate the walking path and did not try to walk any faster than I normally do. Now let’s see the results:

 

Here’s the iPad survey.  The red dots are the actual locations of the access points. I would say that is pretty accurate most of the time – within 5 feet or so.

 

 

Here’s the Dell running 9.2.4.  Not sure why the upper left red dot’s AP landed in the middle of the drawing, a good 100 feet away.  I looked at the survey path and there’s nothing funny about it.  Ignoring that, I would say that when comparing, the new Ekahau Pro 10 is more accurate with AP placement.

 

 

 

Now let’s compare walk time:

 

Here’s what the iPad survey time looked like:

 

Here’s what the laptop survey time looked like:

 

Nearly identical – which means carrying an iPad didn’t allow me to unconsciously walk any faster.  I didn’t try to walk any faster, however I can see how the iPad took me two minutes longer since I was not used to carrying an iPad.  I also had to disable the auto-rotate on the iPad since I noticed my survey would flip upside down when walking around because the iPad is so much lighter and I could carry it easier.

 

It is difficult to measure arm, wrist and general comfort when comparing the two.  I feel the iPad is much easier to survey with, for sure.  Since I didn’t survey all day, I was not able to compare battery usage, however I did notice that after having my iPad on, I used less than ten percent of my battery.  Most Sidekick owners already know that it will last for about 8 hours before it needs recharging, and the iPad appears as though it will last even longer.  I can say for certain the strain from carrying an iPad is much less than carrying my laptop.  The specs on my laptop state it is 3 pounds 6 ounces, and the iPad is a pound and a half with the rubber case.

 

My next post will be a validation of a 180,000 square foot building – we expect that survey to take all day and we will test the longevity of the iPad & Sidekick’s battery.

 

 

 

 

Setting TPC levels for Cisco 3802 deployments

 

When WLANs are designed, many Wi-Fi Engineers use an AP-on-a-stick to survey the site so see how the signals propagate.  Therefore, the access point needs to be set to a particular power, and that is what is usually going to be deployed as well.  I have seen many Engineers use either 25mW or 50 mW for their surveys.  The end goal is to match the transmit power of the access point to the transmit power of the Wi-Fi client.

 

When deployment time comes, they set the WLAN controller’s radio resource management (RRM) transmit power control (TPC) minimum and maximum setting to 25 mW (14 dBm) and 50 mW (17 dBm) respectively.

 

Since this practice has been common for the last ten years, many WLAN controllers out there are set to those numbers.  This setting worked well for the Cisco 3502, 3602 & 3702s on most channels.

 

Screenshots of power reference charts are from Brian Long’s website at http://blong1wifiblog.blogspot.com/

As you can see, RRM will allow the access points to be at either 17 dBm or 14 dBm on most channels

 

 

 

 

And it works somewhat well for the Cisco 3702 – the AP will only have one power setting to choose from on UNII-1 channels:

 

 

Now lets take a look at the Cisco 3800 series access point.  I placed a 3802i series AP on each channel and used the CLI to scrape the information to create this table.

To see the actual output from the WLC, scroll down to the end of this post.

 

 

As you can see, there are quite a few channels out of the lineup that are stuck on one power setting, since the power level sits between 14 dBm and 17 dBm, which is the min/max in the WLC.  That could be a problem if you want your controller to make a power/channel plan for your deployment.

 

Since my goal is to allow the controller to “turn the power up or down a notch”, I looked at the other power levels and came up with a power plan that would allow two power levels for each channel.  This meant I had to increase my maximum transmit power to 18 dBm, and lower my minimum transmit power to 13 dBm.

 

 

I didn’t leave channel 165 out by accident.  The 3802 did not support that channel at the time of the screen scrape.

 

Channel 36

       Tx Power

      Num Of Supported Power Levels ............. 8

      Tx Power Level 1 .......................... 22 dBm

      Tx Power Level 2 .......................... 19 dBm

      Tx Power Level 3 .......................... 16 dBm

      Tx Power Level 4 .......................... 13 dBm

      Tx Power Level 5 .......................... 10 dBm

      Tx Power Level 6 .......................... 7 dBm

      Tx Power Level 7 .......................... 4 dBm

      Tx Power Level 8 .......................... 2 dBm

    

 Channel 40

    Tx Power

      Num Of Supported Power Levels ............. 8

      Tx Power Level 1 .......................... 22 dBm

      Tx Power Level 2 .......................... 19 dBm

      Tx Power Level 3 .......................... 16 dBm

      Tx Power Level 4 .......................... 13 dBm

      Tx Power Level 5 .......................... 10 dBm

      Tx Power Level 6 .......................... 7 dBm

      Tx Power Level 7 .......................... 4 dBm

      Tx Power Level 8 .......................... 2 dBm

       

Channel 44

Tx Power

      Num Of Supported Power Levels ............. 8

      Tx Power Level 1 .......................... 22 dBm

      Tx Power Level 2 .......................... 19 dBm

      Tx Power Level 3 .......................... 16 dBm

      Tx Power Level 4 .......................... 13 dBm

      Tx Power Level 5 .......................... 10 dBm

      Tx Power Level 6 .......................... 7 dBm

      Tx Power Level 7 .......................... 4 dBm

      Tx Power Level 8 .......................... 2 dBm           

 

Channel 48

    Tx Power

      Num Of Supported Power Levels ............. 8

      Tx Power Level 1 .......................... 22 dBm

      Tx Power Level 2 .......................... 19 dBm

      Tx Power Level 3 .......................... 16 dBm

      Tx Power Level 4 .......................... 13 dBm

      Tx Power Level 5 .......................... 10 dBm

      Tx Power Level 6 .......................... 7 dBm

      Tx Power Level 7 .......................... 4 dBm

      Tx Power Level 8 .......................... 2 dBm

 

Channel 52

    Tx Power

      Num Of Supported Power Levels ............. 6

      Tx Power Level 1 .......................... 17 dBm

      Tx Power Level 2 .......................... 14 dBm

      Tx Power Level 3 .......................... 11 dBm

      Tx Power Level 4 .......................... 8 dBm

      Tx Power Level 5 .......................... 5 dBm

      Tx Power Level 6 .......................... 2 dBm    

 

Channel 56

    Tx Power

      Num Of Supported Power Levels ............. 7

      Tx Power Level 1 .......................... 18 dBm

      Tx Power Level 2 .......................... 15 dBm

      Tx Power Level 3 .......................... 12 dBm

      Tx Power Level 4 .......................... 9 dBm

      Tx Power Level 5 .......................... 6 dBm

      Tx Power Level 6 .......................... 3 dBm

      Tx Power Level 7 .......................... 2 dBm   

 

Channel 60

Tx Power

      Num Of Supported Power Levels ............. 7

      Tx Power Level 1 .......................... 18 dBm

      Tx Power Level 2 .......................... 15 dBm

      Tx Power Level 3 .......................... 12 dBm

      Tx Power Level 4 .......................... 9 dBm

      Tx Power Level 5 .......................... 6 dBm

      Tx Power Level 6 .......................... 3 dBm

      Tx Power Level 7 .......................... 2 dBm    

 

Channel 64

    Tx Power

      Num Of Supported Power Levels ............. 7

      Tx Power Level 1 .......................... 20 dBm

      Tx Power Level 2 .......................... 17 dBm

      Tx Power Level 3 .......................... 14 dBm

      Tx Power Level 4 .......................... 11 dBm

      Tx Power Level 5 .......................... 8 dBm

      Tx Power Level 6 .......................... 5 dBm

      Tx Power Level 7 .......................... 2 dBm  

 

Channel 100

    Tx Power

      Num Of Supported Power Levels ............. 6

      Tx Power Level 1 .......................... 17 dBm

      Tx Power Level 2 .......................... 14 dBm

      Tx Power Level 3 .......................... 11 dBm

      Tx Power Level 4 .......................... 8 dBm

      Tx Power Level 5 .......................... 5 dBm

      Tx Power Level 6 .......................... 2 dBm

  Channel 104

    Tx Power

      Num Of Supported Power Levels ............. 7

      Tx Power Level 1 .......................... 18 dBm

      Tx Power Level 2 .......................... 15 dBm

      Tx Power Level 3 .......................... 12 dBm

      Tx Power Level 4 .......................... 9 dBm

      Tx Power Level 5 .......................... 6 dBm

      Tx Power Level 6 .......................... 3 dBm

      Tx Power Level 7 .......................... 2 dBm  

 

Channel 108

    Tx Power

      Num Of Supported Power Levels ............. 7

      Tx Power Level 1 .......................... 18 dBm

      Tx Power Level 2 .......................... 15 dBm

      Tx Power Level 3 .......................... 12 dBm

      Tx Power Level 4 .......................... 9 dBm

      Tx Power Level 5 .......................... 6 dBm

      Tx Power Level 6 .......................... 3 dBm

      Tx Power Level 7 .......................... 2 dBm

 

Channel 112

Tx Power

      Num Of Supported Power Levels ............. 7

      Tx Power Level 1 .......................... 19 dBm

      Tx Power Level 2 .......................... 16 dBm

      Tx Power Level 3 .......................... 13 dBm

      Tx Power Level 4 .......................... 10 dBm

      Tx Power Level 5 .......................... 7 dBm

      Tx Power Level 6 .......................... 4 dBm

      Tx Power Level 7 .......................... 2 dBm    

 

Channel 116

    Tx Power

      Num Of Supported Power Levels ............. 7

      Tx Power Level 1 .......................... 18 dBm

      Tx Power Level 2 .......................... 15 dBm

      Tx Power Level 3 .......................... 12 dBm

      Tx Power Level 4 .......................... 9 dBm

      Tx Power Level 5 .......................... 6 dBm

      Tx Power Level 6 .......................... 3 dBm

      Tx Power Level 7 .......................... 2 dBm  

 

Channel 120

    Tx Power

      Num Of Supported Power Levels ............. 7

      Tx Power Level 1 .......................... 18 dBm

      Tx Power Level 2 .......................... 15 dBm

      Tx Power Level 3 .......................... 12 dBm

      Tx Power Level 4 .......................... 9 dBm

      Tx Power Level 5 .......................... 6 dBm

      Tx Power Level 6 .......................... 3 dBm

      Tx Power Level 7 .......................... 2 dBm

 

Channel 124

    Tx Power

      Num Of Supported Power Levels ............. 7

      Tx Power Level 1 .......................... 18 dBm

      Tx Power Level 2 .......................... 15 dBm

      Tx Power Level 3 .......................... 12 dBm

      Tx Power Level 4 .......................... 9 dBm

      Tx Power Level 5 .......................... 6 dBm

      Tx Power Level 6 .......................... 3 dBm

      Tx Power Level 7 .......................... 2 dBm  

 

Channel 128

    Tx Power

      Num Of Supported Power Levels ............. 7

      Tx Power Level 1 .......................... 18 dBm

      Tx Power Level 2 .......................... 15 dBm

      Tx Power Level 3 .......................... 12 dBm

      Tx Power Level 4 .......................... 9 dBm

      Tx Power Level 5 .......................... 6 dBm

      Tx Power Level 6 .......................... 3 dBm

      Tx Power Level 7 .......................... 2 dBm

 

Channel 132

    Tx Power

      Num Of Supported Power Levels ............. 7

      Tx Power Level 1 .......................... 18 dBm

      Tx Power Level 2 .......................... 15 dBm

      Tx Power Level 3 .......................... 12 dBm

      Tx Power Level 4 .......................... 9 dBm

      Tx Power Level 5 .......................... 6 dBm

      Tx Power Level 6 .......................... 3 dBm

      Tx Power Level 7 .......................... 2 dBm

 

Channel 136

    Tx Power

      Num Of Supported Power Levels ............. 7

      Tx Power Level 1 .......................... 20 dBm

      Tx Power Level 2 .......................... 17 dBm

      Tx Power Level 3 .......................... 14 dBm

      Tx Power Level 4 .......................... 11 dBm

      Tx Power Level 5 .......................... 8 dBm

      Tx Power Level 6 .......................... 5 dBm

      Tx Power Level 7 .......................... 2 dBm

 

Channel 140

    Tx Power

      Num Of Supported Power Levels ............. 7

      Tx Power Level 1 .......................... 20 dBm

      Tx Power Level 2 .......................... 17 dBm

      Tx Power Level 3 .......................... 14 dBm

      Tx Power Level 4 .......................... 11 dBm

      Tx Power Level 5 .......................... 8 dBm

      Tx Power Level 6 .......................... 5 dBm

      Tx Power Level 7 .......................... 2 dBm

    

Channel 144

    Tx Power

      Num Of Supported Power Levels ............. 7

      Tx Power Level 1 .......................... 20 dBm

      Tx Power Level 2 .......................... 17 dBm

      Tx Power Level 3 .......................... 14 dBm

      Tx Power Level 4 .......................... 11 dBm

      Tx Power Level 5 .......................... 8 dBm

      Tx Power Level 6 .......................... 5 dBm

      Tx Power Level 7 .......................... 2 dBm

 

Channel 149

    Tx Power

      Num Of Supported Power Levels ............. 7

      Tx Power Level 1 .......................... 19 dBm

      Tx Power Level 2 .......................... 16 dBm

      Tx Power Level 3 .......................... 13 dBm

      Tx Power Level 4 .......................... 10 dBm

      Tx Power Level 5 .......................... 7 dBm

      Tx Power Level 6 .......................... 4 dBm

      Tx Power Level 7 .......................... 2 dBm

 

Channel 153

    Tx Power

      Num Of Supported Power Levels ............. 8

      Tx Power Level 1 .......................... 23 dBm

      Tx Power Level 2 .......................... 20 dBm

      Tx Power Level 3 .......................... 17 dBm

      Tx Power Level 4 .......................... 14 dBm

      Tx Power Level 5 .......................... 11 dBm

      Tx Power Level 6 .......................... 8 dBm

      Tx Power Level 7 .......................... 5 dBm

      Tx Power Level 8 .......................... 2 dBm

  

Channel 157

    Tx Power

      Num Of Supported Power Levels ............. 8

      Tx Power Level 1 .......................... 23 dBm

      Tx Power Level 2 .......................... 20 dBm

      Tx Power Level 3 .......................... 17 dBm

      Tx Power Level 4 .......................... 14 dBm

      Tx Power Level 5 .......................... 11 dBm

      Tx Power Level 6 .......................... 8 dBm

      Tx Power Level 7 .......................... 5 dBm

      Tx Power Level 8 .......................... 2 dBm

 

Channel 161

    Tx Power

      Num Of Supported Power Levels ............. 8

      Tx Power Level 1 .......................... 23 dBm

      Tx Power Level 2 .......................... 20 dBm

      Tx Power Level 3 .......................... 17 dBm

      Tx Power Level 4 .......................... 14 dBm

      Tx Power Level 5 .......................... 11 dBm

      Tx Power Level 6 .......................... 8 dBm

      Tx Power Level 7 .......................... 5 dBm

      Tx Power Level 8 .......................... 2 dBm

 

  

Channel 165

Not supported