Wireless Consulting Services

Ekahau offers a comprehensive family of software tools, portable RF scanning hardware, and collaboration services that allow organizations of any size to design, validate, tune, manage, and troubleshoot Wi-Fi deployments. Progent's certified Ekahau consultants can help you to utilize Ekahau technology to carry out any stage of Wi-Fi planning and management. Services offered by Progent's Wi-Fi experts include:

• Establish the RF profile of your physical venue: (floor plan, materials, ceiling height, sources of RF interference, etc.)
• Determine your current and future needs for Wi-Fi coverage, capacity, and performance
• Generate a predictive plan for Wi-Fi AP types, antenna alternatives, placement, heights, and configuration
• Propose a secondary coverage plan to enhance roaming and resilience
• Onsite signal strength testing and verification of your actual Wi-Fi implementation
• On-premises detection of radio interference from sources that are not part of your Wi-Fi network
• Create a channel strategy that reduces co-channel competition and adjacent channel disruption
• Centrally manage single or multiple Wi-Fi sites
• Provide management reports on network performance analytics and problems
• Troubleshoot current issues and take care of looming ones before they disrupt your Wi-Fi network
• Adapt your Wi-Fi solution efficiently over time to continue meeting your evolving needs

Progent also offers onsite assistance for carrying out Wi-Fi site surveys with the help of Ekahau's Sidekick RF analyzer to measure real performance and to find dead areas, RF interference, and other problems.

Ekahau's Product Suite for Wi-Fi Network Design and Maintenance
Ekahau Connect is a suite of applications, hardware, and services from Ekahau for planning and maintaining advanced Wi-Fi networks. Used by the majority of Fortune 500 businesses, Ekahau's Wi-Fi offerings are available by subscription as a comprehensive suite. Some components of Ekahau Connect are also available separately. Progent can use the Ekahau stack to plan, validate and maintain your Wi-Fi deployment or help you to use your own Ekahau tools.

Key components of the Ekahau Connect suite include:

Ekahau Pro
Ekahau Pro software enables you to design, verify and debug Wi-Fi networks. To build a predictive model of your site, you draw a floor plan of your building. You then manually draw walls or import them to Ekahau Pro from a CAD file. You include doors, cabling, stairways, and elevator shafts and list building materials. You then pick various Wi-Fi AP products from Ekahau Pro's built-in database, which features coverage characteristics and antenna patterns related to your access points. Ekahau Pro's 3-D planner permits you to increase or remove APs to create a heat map depicting wireless coverage. You can instantly adjust AP model, location, height and antenna selection so the predictive model displays the coverage you want.

Ekahau Sidekick
After your predictive plan is done and your APs are in place and set up, you can verify your deployment by carrying out an onsite survey with the Ekahau Sidekick, a compact RF scanning device that integrates with Ekahau Pro software. This lets you measure true Wi-Fi coverage so you can tweak your AP deployment as necessary. Sidekick's integrated spectrum analyzer can identify areas subject to RF noise from transmitters unassociated with your wireless network and Ekahau Pro can plot these problem spots on your screen map so you can resolve the conflicts.

Ekahau Sidekick 2
The Ekahau Sidekick 2 mobile scanner introduces the capability to test and measure the newer 6 GHz wireless networks (Wi-Fi 6E) in addition to traditional 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz deployments. Speed and accuracy are boosted with four tri-band radios and a spectrum analyzer that scans at 50 sweeps/second. Compared to the previous Sidekick scanner, Sidekick 2 delivers nearly double the performance for dual-band site surveys and is 33% quicker at measuring tri-band networks. Nine integrated 3D antennas ensure omnidirectional measurement repeatability and help eliminate discrepancies between Sidekick 2 devices. A fast-charge battery is good for two working days on an average W-Fi site survey with a single charge.

Ekahau Analyzer
Ekahau Analyzer software integrates with the Sidekick signal scanner and displays the results of key health recordings of a Wi-Fi system. To help businesses to debug RF interference sources, the Analyzer software tests against your specific standards and uses prominent pass/fail indicators to highlight results. Whenever a problem is flagged, you can run the Sidekick's spectrum analyzer to pinpoint causes of RF interference or overcrowded channels. Features of Analyzer include Auto-Test, Signal Strength Analysis, Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) Analysis, Channel Quality Analysis, and Spectrum Measurements. Results can be shown on a handheld Android or iOS device interfaced to your compact Sidekick scanner, streamlining the acquisition of diagnostic measurements.

Ekahau Insights
Ekahau Insights software provides centralized monitoring of Wi-Fi network health throughput multiple Wi-Fi deployments around the globe. Insight enables you to search and organize predictive design and Wi-Fi network survey projects, rank projects according to site health, maintain an inventory of active access points based on locality and technology generation, and track survey activity to ensure you validate your Wi-Fi venues regularly. Automated analysis reports how your Wi-Fi deployments operate in comparison to your requirements by network, floor, and space within a floor. A heatmap viewer displays visualizations for primary and secondary signal strength, channel congestion, SNR, and additional Wi-Fi site health data. The ability to use tags streamlines file and workflow management by permitting you to store and search Wi-Fi projects by client, site type, workflow state, and other meaningful groupings.

Ekahau Capture
Ekahau Capture software operates with the Ekahau Sidekick signal scanner to capture Wi-Fi packets to help experts to solve complex network problems. Packet capture may be necessary to troubleshoot issues in areas such as connectivity, roaming between access points, poor audio, dropped calls, uneven channel use, faulty Wi-Fi drivers, hardware failure, incorrectly configured APs, device limitations, or cybersecurity risks like unencrypted traffic or denial of Service attacks. You can also utilize Ekahau Capture software to calculate Wi-Fi performance statistics including retry frequency, average data rate, and frame class distribution. Ekahau Capture stores packet captures in the PCAP format so they can be analyzed with third-party tools. Ekahau Capture can collect and save 802.11/a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi frames and perform captures on a single channel or on multiple Wi-Fi channels.

Progent's Predictive Wi-Fi Modeling Services
Progent's predictive Wi-Fi planning services can be performed offsite and make use of Ekahau's advanced RF modeling and analysis products to design a cost-effective wireless network. With predictive planning, you send Progent's Wi-Fi experts your building's floor plans and describe your physical environment including walls, doors, cabling, stairways, and building materials. You also specify your coverage, density, and throughput requirements plus any constraints. In addition, you project the kinds of devices your clients will connect, the applications they will run, and the maximum wireless traffic they will produce. Progent will use your input to build a mathematical model of your environment and develop a plan that details the most appropriate manufacturers for your APs, the required number of access points, their ideal location and antenna type, their proper settings and their anticipated performance.

Progent's On-premises Wi-Fi Site Survey
Progent's on-premises Wi-Fi survey uses Ekahau's purpose-built Wi-Fi signal measurement device and related software tools to allow you to confirm, optimize, and debug an existing Wi-Fi infrastructure. These services are commonly performed shortly after a new installation or used as a diagnostic tool to scale, tune, or troubleshoot an older wireless LAN. Available throughout the U.S., Progent's onsite wireless survey services feature walkthrough measuring for radio frequency coverage and contention, checking for access point overpopulation, signal propagation mapping, data protection assessment, and selection of optimum locations for customer-specified Wireless APs.

Progent can deliver online and on-premises expertise for a wide range of Wi-Fi APs and can provide services such as Cisco Aironet Wi-Fi AP integration, Cisco Meraki Wi-Fi AP cloud management, Cisco Small Business 100/300/500 Wi-Fi access point configuration, Cisco Catalyst wireless access point deployment planning, Ubiquiti UniFi WiFi access point configuration, and Apple AirPort wireless AP setup. Progent's onsite wireless survey includes interviews with your IT management staff to determine target functionality for the Wi-Fi network. Progent's RCCD and Ekahau certified Wi-Fi survey professionals can recommend cost-effective Wi-Fi LAN enhancements that utilize modern Wi-Fi technology and provide top business value.

Progent can provide help for creating a modern BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) wireless environment by providing services such as iPhone and iPad integration, and Android phone and tablet consulting. Apple iPhones and tablets, Androids, Windows Phones, and other handheld devices can pose user density issues and can also cause transmission power mismatches that require careful setup for APs. Progent's wireless site survey services provide the information you need to understand these challenges and design an efficient and effective BYOD ecosystem.

Deliverables for Progent's predictive and on-premises Wi-Fi site surveys can include:

• RF Wi-Fi Spectrum Analysis including detection of RF issues related to your facility's layout, physical structure, and other potential causes of interference so you can anticipate and resolve problems during the Wi-Fi network planning phase.
• Coverage Maps in the form of color RF contour images for the areas that need coverage to help you to select the optimal quantity and position of wireless access points and indicate potential signal spillover zones and coverage gaps
• Capacity Plan for specifying and providing the bandwidth required to accommodate all applications and users
• Cable Paths depicted as red line diagrams you can supply to cabling contractors
• Device Installation advice on where and how to install wireless devices plus description of additional hardware that may be needed (NEMA enclosures, radio antennas, etc.)
• Infrastructure Requirements to specify all facility and networking equipment necessary to service the Wi-Fi deployment such as available switch interfaces, Power over Ethernet (POE), electrical, and rack space

Advanced Network Infrastructure Expertise
Progent maintains one of the largest teams of certified Cisco CCIE network infrastructure experts of any independent IT support company in the U.S. and can assist your organization to integrate your WLAN seamlessly into your corporate network. Progent can assist you to configure and maintain Cisco routers, switches, and security appliances as well as Cisco Mobility products including Wi-Fi APs and wireless LAN controllers. Progent also offers expertise with networking technologys from Juniper Networks, Apple, WatchGuard, and other top vendors. To find out more about Progent's remote and on-premises consulting services for Cisco Wi-Fi solutions, refer to consulting and troubleshooting support for Cisco wireless products.

To assist you with company-wide security and compliance issues, Progent offers the services of network security engineers who have been awarded advanced credentials from CISA, CISSP-ISSAP, GIAC and other major data security authorities. Progent's security and compliance consultants can provide a wide range of online and onsite services such as vulnerability assessments, stealth penetration testing, disaster recovery preparedness, and endpoint active security monitoring and ransomware defense with SentinelOne technology.

Contact Progent for Ekahau Wi-Fi Solutions Expertise
To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for remote Ekahau wireless predictive planning and onsite wireless surveys, call 1-800-993-9400 or visit Contact Progent.