Urban WiFi Coverage, Planning & heatmapping software tool
EMSlice is an urban WiFi planning, heatmapping and coverage analysis software tool. EMSlice supports urban WiFi Networks. Plan, measure, survey, visualize and troubleshoot urban WiFi networks. Find WiFi coverage and performance issues, and plan connectivity solutions.
- Plan an urban WiFi network, predicting coverage and performance before installation. Adjusting network configuration and installation parameters, predicting impact on performance before carrying out real life changes.
- Measure, survey and analyse an installed urban WiFi network’s signal strength (RSSI), coverage and performance. Gathering statistics, preparing heatmap visualizations.
- Importing design data such as urban structural layout from GIS data sources and device parameters and positioning. Export network configuration and simulated & measured network coverage & performance.
With EMSlice you can:
Try EMSlice Today
Click here for options to get our EM Simulation Software for simulation, modelling & analysis.
What is a wifi coverage heatmap?
A WiFi heatmap is a visualisation of the strength and quality of a WiFi signal, either throughout a building or a city area. A WiFi heatmap can be based on a set of wifi signal measurements from a site survey, or from a model and simulation of the area.
A heatmap may be based on real world measurements, by using a survey tool to measure the wifi signal at many locations through an area of interest. Those measurements can be processed to build a map of the WiFi signal coverage and quality throughout the area.
A heatmap can be based on prediction, by building a model of the area of interest into an RF simulation software tool, and adding one or more wifi access points to the model, and running the simulations and calculations to predict the wifi signal quality throughout the environment.
WiFi heatmapping from simulation
The following is a quick overview of an urban WiFi plan and heatmap generation from simulation only. This video includes:
- Importing data from file to build up a model of the structures of an urban environment
- creating a WiFi RSSI heatmap from simulation
Why is an urban WiFi heatmap important?
Wifi network design and installation is becoming more and more complex and expensive with multiple high density networks in an urban area becoming more and more common.
A predicted and simulated wifi heatmap can be used to test the coverage of a wifi network design, before the network is installed. A predicted wifi heatmap will help in planning the network, to know what resources etc will be required to deliver the desired coverage.
A surveyed wifi heatmap will indicate where a wifi network is giving good performance, ie good signal strength, and where the signal is weak or of lower power, identifying deadspots, etc. A surveyed wifi heatmap can also be used to validate that an installed network is performing as expected.
How does a surveyed wifi heatmap work?
A surveyed WiFi heatmap works by using a wifi interface to listen for wifi signals that are available, and as the user moves through the environment, those captured signals are added to different locations around an environment of interest. Those captured signals are added to the environment to build up a map of the wifi signals available across the area. The resulting heatmap gives an indication of the coverage achieved by existing wifi networks in the area of interest.
How does a predicted wifi heatmap work?
A predicted wifi heatmap is built on a model of the urban environment, buildings, walls, fences, vehicles, and other terrain etc such that the wifi/ radio propagation environment is understood. Once a model of the environment is build into a radio planning tool such as EMSlice, one or more wifi access points are added to the model and then a set of simulations and calculations are done to predict the performance and coverage of the planned wifi network.
The simulation is completed by a combination of ray tracing and path loss calculations among others.
Try EMSlice Today
Click here for options to get our EM Simulation Software for simulation, modelling & analysis.
What else is possible?
- For heatmapping of indoor WiFi networks click here
- For heatmapping of networks other than WiFi click here