Frequently Asked Questions
Clarity starts here
Why should I choose MarQuest?
Established for over thirty years, MarQuest provide wireless and wired networking professional services, and product supply. We are the go-to Wi-Fi resource for organisations in various sectors including:
UK Leading Retailers
Broadcasting and Communications
Corporate and Financial
Higher Education
Leisure
Local Government
Major IT Vendors
Healthcare
Warehousing and Distribution
Our expertise ensures a thorough and accurate assessment of your network, identifying and resolving issues.
What is a Wi-Fi Design and Design Survey?
A Wi-Fi Design is a comprehensive planning process aimed at creating a wireless network that delivers optimal coverage, performance, and reliability across a building or facility. It involves strategic placement of access points (APs), selection of appropriate channels, and configuration of transmit power levels to meet specific user requirements and service level agreements (SLAs).
Prior to finalising the design, a Design Survey is conducted to gather critical environmental data. This survey includes:
Building Layout Analysis: Examining floor plans to understand the physical space and potential obstructions.
Structural Measurements: Assessing wall materials and construction types to determine signal attenuation factors. For instance, reinforced concrete can cause significant signal loss, while materials like drywall have minimal impact.
Signal Propagation Assessment: Measuring existing signal strength and interference levels to inform AP placement and configuration.
This data-driven approach ensures that the network design is tailored to the specific characteristics of the environment, leading to efficient and effective wireless coverage.
What is a Wi-Fi Validation Survey?
A Wi-Fi Validation Survey is performed after the installation of a wireless network to verify that it meets the design specifications and delivers the expected performance. This survey serves as a post-deployment assessment to ensure that the network operates as intended and to identify any areas needing adjustment.
Key activities during a Validation Survey include:
Signal Strength and Coverage Verification: Using tools to measure Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) and identify any coverage gaps or dead zones.
Performance Testing: Evaluating throughput, latency, and jitter to ensure the network supports the required applications and user density.
Interference Detection: Identifying sources of radio frequency interference that may affect network performance.
Configuration Review: Assessing the placement and settings of APs to ensure optimal operation.
By conducting a Validation Survey, organisations can confirm that their Wi-Fi network is functioning as designed and make necessary adjustments before full-scale deployment
What is a Wi-Fi Assessment Survey?
A Wi-Fi Assessment Survey involves evaluating an existing wireless network to determine its current performance and identify areas for improvement. This type of survey is typically conducted as part of the Optimise and Troubleshoot stages of the Wi-Fi lifecycle.
Assessment activities include:
Performance Analysis: Measuring key metrics such as throughput, latency, and signal quality to assess the network's effectiveness.
Coverage Mapping: Identifying areas with insufficient coverage or excessive interference.
Capacity Evaluation: Determining if the network can handle the current and projected number of users and devices.
Configuration Audit: Reviewing AP settings and network design to identify potential misconfigurations or inefficiencies.
The insights gained from an Assessment Survey guide remediation efforts, such as adjusting AP placements, upgrading hardware, or optimising network configurations, to enhance overall performance and user experience.
What is the Wi-Fi Lifecycle?
The Wi-Fi lifecycle is a structured process used to plan, deploy, and maintain high-performing wireless networks. It includes five key stages: Design, Validate, Optimise, and Troubleshoot, before returning to Design again. Each phase ensures the network remains reliable, efficient, and adaptable to changing needs.
Stage 1: Design
The design stage involves planning the network based on building layouts, user requirements, and environmental factors. A design survey is typically performed to collect data such as wall materials and signal attenuation. This information guides the placement and configuration of access points to ensure optimal coverage and performance.
Stage 2: Validate
Validation is conducted after deployment to verify that the network performs as designed. A validation survey checks signal strength, coverage, and performance metrics to ensure the design has been accurately implemented and identifies any areas that require adjustment.
Stage 3: Optimise
Once the network is in use, optimization focuses on fine-tuning its performance. This includes adjusting access point settings, improving coverage, or refining channel plans to better support changing user demands and device density.
Stage 4: Troubleshoot
Troubleshooting addresses specific network issues such as poor connectivity, interference, or performance drops. It involves identifying root causes and implementing fixes to restore and maintain reliable wireless performance.
Stage 5: Design (again)
Sometimes requirements change, or perhaps newer technologies emerge. Whatever the reason, the best course of action when your Wi-Fi system is no longer up-to-scratch is to start from the top with a dedicated design.
Will a survey disrupt our operations?
Typically, surveys may be Active (where we connect directly to your network), or Passive (where our equipment merely scans the environment without directly interfacing with a network). Neither of these should incur any downtime on your part, with the majority of the process being transparent to your operations. Our engineers work efficiently without disruptions to your daily operations. We recommend a survey to be carried out during your organisations peak times, however we can fit a survey around out-of-hours or during school holidays if preferred.
Can you provide a Wi-Fi Design before our building is complete?
Yes, often during construction infrastructure such as network cabling and Wi-Fi needs to be completed before the building is finished; meaning you may not have a complete building at the time you need a Wi-Fi design. MarQuest can provide desktop-based designs using structural floorplans, design workshops, architectural imagery to determine the needs of you, your company, and any proposed system. This will give a predictive Wi-Fi design you can use as part of your installation even before any walls have been built. MarQuest encourage carrying out a post install survey after construction has finished to ensure that the network remains efficient and can adapt to any changes in usage patterns or environmental conditions.
If a visit to a partially constructed site our company and engineers hold the relevant industry certifications.
Will I receive a report?
Yes, depending upon the type of survey conducted, MarQuest provide an extensive report detailing network requirements, proposed access point locations, radio frequency coverage, a bill of materials and installation guide. Please contact the team if you would like to see an example report.
What tools do you use for a Wi-Fi survey?
Generally, we tend to use Ekahau products including Ekahau AI Pro Design Software, along with Ekahau Survey Application coupled with an Ekahau Sidekick site survey adaptor. Ekahau is an industry player in Wi-Fi design and survey and are one of the most well-known Wi-Fi Design and Survey names.
However, if you have a requirement for alternative vendors such as Hamina and AirMagnet, we are happy and able to accommodate this.
How can I be sure the designs are accurate?
We use industry standard software and hardware to perform our surveys and produce our designs. This equipment is calibrated to ensure the data we provide is accurate. Many of our team hold industry certifications in Wi-Fi design and survey, and have extensive knowledge and the experience that comes along with it.
In addition, we recommend customers opt for a validation survey post installation to fine tune the system and to determine if any additional actions are required.
Are there any types of sites you can't survey?
We have experience working in a variety of environment, and have yet to come across anywhere we can't survey.
We haven't tried surveying in space though!
Wi-Fi Design and Survey
What are the benefits of a fixed-term support contract?
You will be assigned a dedicated account manager who will be on hand for remote assistance, who will offer you a quick response with fast processes to resolve issues.
A fixed-term support contract provides a more structured annual arrangement where you are able to purchase a number of “Support Credits” which can be rapidly allocated to work carried out as required, thus negating the need to continuously raise purchase orders against individual quotations. This arrangement provides a number of benefits:
Commissioning of work will be easier and quicker
Assigned account manager who understands your network
Initial response times approved by SLA
If I don’t use the support credits, do I lose it?
We encourage usage of the credits throughout the term but we will roll over 25% of the credits in to the following term.
