Wireless Troubleshooting: On the Go

The saying goes, every good engineer has a good set of tools. Sometimes those tools might not be at your disposal at the right time. What do I do? Well if you're an iPhone user, you can lick your thumb and stick it in the air and see which way the wind is blowing. If …

Stadium Wifi Design

I have been involved with a few wireless design and deployments for arenas and stadiums. I have been on the side of designing and validating and I have also played the role of third-party testing and validating someone else's design and deployment. From this experience, I have come to realize that there is no one …

Spectrum Analysis with the Ekahau Sidekick

As my previous post states, the Ekahau Sidekick truly is the "Swiss Army Knife" of Wifi. The all-in-one capabilities not only allow you to survey and capture packets, but you can do a Spectrum Analysis as well. Using the Ekahau Pro software, and the Sidekick, you can view layer 1 of wireless which is the …

Packet Capture with your Sidekick

I'm not talking about figuring out what's going on with your customer's WLAN with Robin or Hutch. I'm talking about using the "Swiss Army Knife" of Wifi, the Ekahau Sidekick. Before I dive in, let it be known that in no way is this a paid endorsement or am I affiliated with Ekahau in any …

RF Footprint…or Usable Cell

I have heard many engineers many a time speak about manipulating the RF footprint, and in particular decreasing the cell sizes when speaking about high-density wireless. This is all well and good, however, semantics really comes in to play here. First, we have to look at the term RF footprint, typically I think of this …

Capacity v. Coverage: The Rivalry

Maybe "rivalry" is not the right word, but it sounded catchy to me and we all know catchy headlines grab the reader's attention 🙂 . This summer, I had the privilege of volunteering at the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, CA. For those that aren't familiar with golf, the U.S. Open is one of four …