How to perform a predictive survey with NetSpot

If you are just planning to set up a Wi-Fi network, you surely want to do it the right way from the start. This is the perfect scenario for NetSpot!

With NetSpot 3 and higher you can benefit mightily from Wi-Fi Planning mode, aka Predictive Wi-Fi site surveys. This mode allows you to create a layout of your surveyed site complemented with the structural components like walls, doors, windows, and their materials. This allows generating visually comprehensive WiFi heatmaps of a future WiFi coverage with all possible signal obstructions taken into consideration.

Starting with NetSpot 6 you can create WiFi design for multi-storey buildings for a provisional representation of how the WiFi signal will spread vertically and horizontally through a building.

How to start a new planning project

1. Download and open NetSpot from our website.
2. Select Planning mode from the top menu.
3. Click the Create New… option on the project home screen and choose the name of your project. You can also add a description for your convenience.

4. Depending on your project choose either a multi-floor building or start with creating one zone for a single-level space.
5. If you choose the single Zone option, you can skip to steps 9 through 13 and then proceed to the How to place the APs section.

6. Choose the Multi-floor building option and name your building. You can also add a description for your convenience.

7. You will see your created building in the left panel.

8. Now it is time to add levels to your building. Use +Add level in the left panel.

Creating a level or a zone in a building

9. Adding a new level is a lot like adding a new zone to your project. In the window that pops up add the name and description. Choose whether you’ll be uploading an already existing map/floor plan or creating a layout from scratch. Uploading a map file (a photo or a blueprint) is recommended since it gives you the exact idea where to place the structural elements of the layout. Enter the zone dimensions including the height. Click Create.

10. In case you are creating a layout from blank, you’ll set the canvas size before clicking Create. In case of an uploaded file, you’ll need to calibrate your map for correct scaling after clicking Create. To calibrate the map, use either a line or an area on the map that you can correctly state the measurements for.

11. Once done calibrating, it is time to “build” your space using the toolset in the top menu — doors, windows, walls, rectangle of walls, and racks. These are important, because they have a direct effect on wireless signal distribution through a designated space.

Useful tip: In NetSpot for Mac there is a possibility to switch off the walls alignment and snapping to already existing walls by pressing and holding the Option key, ⌥, while placing walls on the floor plan.

12. Set the materials for each building block of your surveyed area. You can set your own custom material with specific reflection and absorption values, or use presets on the list for the most commonly used types of materials. We have prepared a dedicated post on reflection and absorption, so please make sure to read it to choose the best values for your project. You can also set colors for various types of building elements to easily identify the elements with different characteristics.

NB: Use the selection tool at the top to select each structural item and manage its properties in the side panel to the right of the canvas.

13. After all building elements have been placed and their properties set, click Start planning.

Note: You can export the floor plan that you created to a PNG file to later use it for a survey of an already existing WiFi network.

14. The floor materials between the building levels are important for signal distribution. Click the Floor slab option for every level and set the thickness of the floor slab as well as its material. If the material you are looking for is not on the list, select custom and enter the reflection and absorption values corresponding with the material your floor system is made of.

15. In order to model the signal spread accurately through openings between the floors use the Cutout Editing option to incorporate stairwells or atriums into your design. Cutout Editing can be found in the right upper corner or through the context menu by clicking where the cutout is needed on the map. It becomes active when you select the floor slab you will be adding a cutout to.

Choose the cutout style from the menu panel – either freestyle custom area or a rectangle.

Once you are done adding the cutouts, click Apply.

Good to know: if an AP is placed very close under the cutout area, the strongest signal will not be in the cutout area, but actually at an angle due to the specifics of wireless signal spreading. See the screenshot below for reference.

16. Add new floors to your project just the same way you did in steps 9-15.
17. After all the floors have been added to the project, they need to be aligned vertically to ensure correct signal spreading and bleeding. Use the Align floors with each other option that you can see in the right panel between the floors.

You will immediately see the aligned floors highlighted on the plan with one floor semi-tranparent for a better visual experience.

Make sure to match up the structural elements. If the floorplans for different levels are the same size and scaled properly, then it should be quite easy to match the levels. You can also use the Align Levels tool in the upper panel.

Once you are happy with the alignment, click Apply in the upper panel.

Any multi floor building can be split into independent zones. Click on the three dots next to the name of the building -> Split the building.

The levels will be moved into the Other zones section where they will show up simply as single-level zones like those in single-level projects.

How to place the APs

18. Now it’s time to start placing the APs in the surveyed space.

Add your first AP where you think fit and select an AP brand and model from a pop-up menu.

Specify AP’s desired settings.

When adding an AP, you can set the antenna properties for it or import the antenna information from a file.

If you don’t already have an antenna file, you can download it from an AP vendor’s official website. For example, Ubiquiti antenna patterns are available on their website. If you cannot find an antenna file on a vendor’s website, try contacting their support.

There are also general databases with antenna pattern files that you can use, like this one or this one.

File types can have various extensions. NetSpot supports .json, .ant, .ana, .msi, .adf, and .prn.

There are resources that allow you to create your own antenna patterns; however, we do not recommend doing this due to the complexity and depth of radio engineering data involved.

Not finding certain APs in NetSpot? Just drop us a line with the desired AP brands and models, and we’ll add them promptly.

Check the list of APs below to see if your model is already supported.

19. Once you have placed the AP on the map, you can see the predicted signal distribution in real time even before generating heatmaps, including between the levels of a multi-floor building. Dragging the APs will change the signal distribution on the fly. In a multifloor project this will be available only when the levels are aligned.

    The real-time signal preview can be switched off with the toggle in the bottom bar.

    Please note that the preview will only be applied to those APs that are added to the selected snapshot.

To see the signal level the color on the heatmap represents, move the mouse cursor around the map and look at the color bar at the bottom bar of the app for interpretation.

How to generate heatmaps

20. After you are done arranging the APs, click the Heatmaps button at the top right to have the predictive heatmaps generated.

21. When analyzing the generated heatmaps, the two handy and important things you can do are:
• You can move your APs around by simply dragging them with a mouse cursor to see the heatmap pattern changes instantly.
• You can switch between a variety of heatmap types at the top of the app window to visually analyze different wireless coverage properties.

• Use the gradient menu on the lower right in order to change the color scheme of your heatmaps, define the minimum and maximum signal levels to be displayed in heatmaps, and set the level of detail of your heatmap, which can assist in faster heatmap generation if you don’t require a high level of detail.

After finishing a predictive survey, you can benefit from NetSpot’s advanced reporting capabilities to present the survey results to a client or colleagues.

You can either choose to export a currently selected heatmap or create a highly customizable enterprise-level report.