Professional WiFi Survey: How Wifirst Ensures Optimal Wireless Coverage

Why choose a professional high-quality WiFi access point?

Behind the scenes at Wifirst! Through this blog series, we want to highlight the teams working behind the curtain to deliver the best managed WiFi service to our clients.

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Connectivity and network infrastructure are at the core of our expertise. As a pioneer of the "as-a-service" model, Wifirst takes care of everything for its clients, starting with the on-site WiFi survey, an essential step before deploying a managed WiFi installation. Here are the key elements to understand and prepare for a successful wireless site survey.

Methodology of a WiFi survey

It is crucial to understand that building an effective WiFi network is not just about “installing an access point on the ceiling.” In complex professional environments — with high user density, mission-critical usage, or challenging building structures — WiFi technology requires a meticulous and expert approach.

Radio waves used by WiFi are highly sensitive to interference and environmental factors. That’s why a detailed WiFi survey is essential to determine the optimal access point placement plan. At Wifirst, this step is critical to ensure reliable and high-performance connectivity for our clients.

By taking all these parameters into account, our WiFi engineers can design a network tailored to each specific environment, guaranteeing optimal coverage and a seamless user experience. This expertise and personalized approach are what make Wifirst a leader in managed WiFi solutions.

Before any installation work begins, a Wifirst WiFi expert always conducts a full WiFi coverage survey. This assessment cannot be done on a floor plan alone and requires real on-site measurements, since many factors can influence how radio waves propagate: building architecture, materials, furniture, and other sources of interference.

Our WiFi survey is performed by one of our 30 professional WiFi auditors, using an internally developed application. They carry out a complete series of tests (including throughput and RSSI measurements across all frequency bands) while walking through the building, detecting patterns that define the final access point layout. The only prerequisite for you: open all the doors for our auditors 😉

Why did we develop our own WiFi survey application?

1. Because traditional off-the-shelf applications do not meet our quality standards.
2. Because it is fully connected to our information system, saving project managers considerable time during deployment.
3. Because the intelligence gained from a professional WiFi survey is a key differentiator in our value proposition and sets us apart from competitors.

At the end of the survey, Wifirst experts deliver a complete report to the client and the deployment team in charge of the installation of the new network. This document is the cornerstone of a successful managed WiFi project.

1/ What does the job of a WiFi auditor involve?

My role is to fully analyze our clients' buildings in order to design a high-performance WiFi installation. I travel across Europe to identify possible WAN access points, determine the best locations for Wifirst racks, trace cable paths, and conduct a complete WiFi coverage survey to define the exact placement of future access points. I then compile all this into a detailed report, describing the installation plan and scope of work required to deploy the new infrastructure.

2/ What are your main challenges?

The WiFi survey is a crucial link in the deployment of the future infrastructure: the quality of our work and reports allows clients to better understand the work to be carried out in their buildings, while also enabling Wifirst project managers to run deployment smoothly from headquarters. We carry a big responsibility, as the quality of the survey determines not only a successful installation but also accurate cost and workload estimations for our integration teams.

3/ What makes you proud of your work?

Overall, all the projects I’ve been involved in over the past 5 years. Our clients, whether in defense, student residences, or hospitality, are always eager to see a reliable WiFi installation in place. Their anticipation gives me the strong motivation to deliver satisfaction to all our clients — current and future!