Wireless Consulting Expertise

Ekahau offers a comprehensive suite of advanced software apps, portable RF scanning hardware, and cloud collaboration services to enable organizations of all sizes to plan, validate, tune, manage, and debug Wi-Fi networks. Progent's certified Ekahau consultants can help you to use Ekahau technology to carry out any facet of Wi-Fi planning and maintenance. Services offered by Progent's Wi-Fi experts include:

• Define the RF profile of your target environment: (floor plan, materials, ceiling height, sources of RF interference, etc.)
• Determine your current and future requirements for Wi-Fi coverage, capacity, and throughput
• Generate a predictive plan for Wi-Fi AP types, antenna alternatives, placement, heights, and configuration
• Propose a secondary coverage design to enhance roaming and improved uptime
• Onsite signal strength testing and validation of your actual Wi-Fi deployment
• Onsite identification of radio noise from devices independent of your Wi-Fi network
• Create a channel strategy that minimizes co-channel competition and adjacent channel interference
• Centrally manage multiple Wi-Fi sites
• Create management reports on Wi-Fi performance analytics and issues
• Troubleshoot existing problems and take care of looming ones before they disrupt productivity
• Adapt your Wi-Fi solution intelligently over time in response to your evolving needs

Progent also offers onsite assistance for carrying out Wi-Fi site surveys with the help of Ekahau's Sidekick spectrum analysis hardware to measure actual performance and to identify low-signal spots, RF interference, and other issues.

Ekahau's Products for Wi-Fi Network Design and Support
Ekahau Connect is a family of applications, hardware, and services from Ekahau for designing and managing advanced Wi-Fi solutions. Used by the majority of Fortune 500 businesses, Ekahau's Wi-Fi offerings are provided by subscription as an integrated bundle. Some products included in Ekahau Connect are also available separately. Progent can use Ekahau technology to plan, validate and troubleshoot your Wi-Fi deployment or help you to use your own Ekahau products.

Major components of the Ekahau Connect product line include:

Ekahau Pro
Ekahau Pro software allows you to plan, verify and troubleshoot Wi-Fi networks. To build a predictive model of your site, you draw a floor plan of your building. You then draw walls or import them to Ekahau Pro from a CAD program. You include doors, cable conduits, stairwells, and elevators and list building materials. You then select specific Wi-Fi access point models from Ekahau Pro's built-in database, which includes coverage profiles and antenna patterns associated with your selected APs. Ekahau Pro's 3-D modeling permits you to add or take away access points to create a heat map of wireless coverage. You can change access pints model, placement, height and antenna selection until the predictive model shows the coverage you want.

Ekahau Sidekick
Once your predictive model is finished and your APs are installed and configured, you can verify your system by performing an onsite survey with the Ekahau Sidekick, a compact RF scanning device that integrates with Ekahau Pro software. This lets you measure actual Wi-Fi coverage so you can tune your access point deployment as necessary. Sidekick's integrated spectrum analyzer can detect areas experiencing RF noise from transmitters unassociated with your wireless network and Ekahau Pro can plot these trouble spots on your screen map so you can resolve the conflicts.

Ekahau Sidekick 2
The Ekahau Sidekick 2 portable scanner introduces the capability to validate the newer 6 GHz wireless networks (Wi-Fi 6E) in addition to traditional 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz environments. Speed is enhanced with four tri-band radios plus a spectrum analyzer that scans at 50 sweeps/second. Compared to the previous Sidekick device, Sidekick 2 offers almost double the speed for dual-band Wi-Fi surveys and is 33% quicker at measuring tri-band Wi-Fi networks. Nine integrated 3D antennas ensure omnidirectional measurement repeatability and virtually eliminate discrepancies between Sidekick 2 devices. A quick-charge battery supports two working days on an average W-Fi site survey with just one charge.

Ekahau Analyzer
Ekahau Analyzer software integrates with the Sidekick scanner and displays the results of key health recordings of a Wi-Fi system. To assist you to troubleshoot RF interference problems, the Analyzer app tests against specified requirements and displays prominent pass/fail graphic alerts to show results. Whenever an issue is flagged, you can run the Sidekick's portable spectrum analyzer to hone in on sources of RF interference or congested channels. Capabilities of Ekahau Analyzer software include Auto-Test, Signal Strength Analysis, Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) Analysis, Channel Quality Analysis, and Spectrum Measurements. Collected data can be shown on a mobile Android or iOS device connected to your portable Sidekick scanner, facilitating the collection of RF measurements.

Ekahau Insights
Ekahau Insights software offers unified monitoring of Wi-Fi network quality throughput multiple Wi-Fi deployments worldwide. Insight enables you to search and sort predictive design and Wi-Fi network survey projects, rank projects according to network health, maintain a database of active access points based on location and technology generation, and track survey projects to ensure you verify your Wi-Fi venues at a reasonable rate. Automated analysis shows how your Wi-Fi networks operate as compared to your requirements by site, floor, and space within a specific floor. A heatmap viewer displays graphic renditions for primary and secondary signal quality, channel congestion, Signal-to-Noise Ratio, and other Wi-Fi network health measurements. Support for tags speeds up file and workflow organization by permitting you to classify and peruse projects by client, site type, workflow state, and other contextual groupings.

Ekahau Capture
Ekahau Capture software works in conjunction with the Ekahau Sidekick scanner to capture Wi-Fi packets to assist experts to solve challenging network problems. Packet capture may be required to resolve issues involving connectivity, roaming between access points, garbled audio, dropped calls, uneven channel use, faulty Wi-Fi drivers, hardware failure, misconfigured access points, device limitations, or cybersecurity risks such as unencrypted Wi-Fi traffic or denial of Service attacks. You can also use Ekahau Capture software to calculate Wi-Fi performance statistics including retry rates, average throughput, and frame type distribution. Ekahau Capture stores packet captures in the de facto standard PCAP format so you can analyze them using familiar packet analyzers. Ekahau Capture can collect and store 802.11/a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi frames and perform captures on one channel or on multiple Wi-Fi channels.

Progent's Predictive Wi-Fi Design Services
Progent's predictive wireless planning services can be performed offsite and make use of Ekahau's cutting-edge RF modeling and analysis products to design a cost-effective Wi-Fi network. With predictive design, you send Progent's wireless professionals your building's floor plans and a description of your environment such as walls, doors, cabling, elevator shafts, and building materials. You also define your coverage, capacity, and performance requirements plus any constraints. Also, you project the kinds of devices your clients will operate, the apps they will run, and the maximum traffic they will produce. Progent will use your information to create a mathematical simulation of your facility and devise a design that includes the most appropriate manufacturers for your APs, the required number of APs, their ideal placement and antenna selection, their most effective configuration and their predicted performance.

Progent's On-premises Wi-Fi Site Survey
Progent's on-premises Wi-Fi survey uses Ekahau's specialized RF signal measurement device and related software tools to help you to validate, optimize, and troubleshoot your current wireless deployment. This is commonly undertaken shortly after a new installation or used as a tool to expand, tune, or troubleshoot a mature Wi-Fi network. Available across the United States, Progent's onsite wireless survey services include walkthrough measuring for RF coverage and contention, checking for AP overpopulation, signal propagation mapping, data protection auditing, and identification of optimum placement for customer-specified Wireless APs.

Progent can deliver online and onsite guidance for a wide selection of Wi-Fi APs and can provide services that include Aironet wireless AP set up, Cisco Meraki Wi-Fi AP management, Cisco Small Business 100/300/500 Wi-Fi AP configuration, Catalyst wireless AP deployment planning, Ubiquity UniFi Wi-Fi access point configuration, and Apple AirPort Wi-Fi access point setup. Progent's on-premises wireless survey features interviews with your IT management to define performance parameters for the Wi-Fi network. Progent's RCCD and Ekahau certified wireless site survey engineers can recommend cost-effective WLAN improvements that utilize the latest wireless technology and provide maximum ROI.

Progent offers help for creating a modern BYOD Wi-Fi environment by delivering services such as iPhone and iPad integration, and Android phone and tablet consulting. Apple iPhones and tablets, Androids, Windows Phones, and other handheld endpoints can present user density issues and can also create transmit power imbalances that call for special setup for APs. Progent's wireless site survey services provide the insight necessary to address these challenges and build an affordable and effective BYOD ecosystem.

Deliverables for Progent's predictive and onsite wireless site surveys can include:

• RF Wi-Fi Spectrum Analysis including detection of RF issues related to your facility's layout, physical structure, and other possible sources of RF interference so you can anticipate and resolve issues during the Wi-Fi network design process.
• Coverage Maps in the form of color RF contour images for the spots requiring coverage to assist you to select the optimal number and position of wireless access points and indicate likely signal spillover areas and holes in coverage
• Capacity Plan for specifying and delivering the bandwidth needed to accommodate all applications and clients
• Cable Paths depicted as line diagrams you can supply to cabling contractors
• Device Installation guidance on where and how to deploy Wi-Fi devices plus identification of special equipment that may be needed (NEMA enclosures, antennas, etc.)
• Infrastructure Requirements to specify all facility and networking resources necessary to support the wireless environment like available switch interfaces, Power over Ethernet, electrical, and rack capacity

World-Class Network Infrastructure Expertise
Progent maintains one of the largest teams of certified Cisco CCIE IT infrastructure experts of any independent IT support company in the country. and can help you to integrate your wireless LAN seamlessly into your corporate network. Progent can help you to configure and maintain Cisco ISR routers, switches, and security appliances as well as Cisco Mobility products including wireless access points and Wi-Fi LAN controllers. Progent also offers expertise with networking technologys from Juniper, Apple, Ubiquity, and other leading providers. To learn more about Progent's online and on-premises consulting expertise for Cisco Wi-Fi solutions, refer to consulting and troubleshooting support for Cisco Wi-Fi technology.

To help you with enterprise-wide security and compliance issues, Progent can provide the services of cybersecurity experts who have earned advanced certifications from CISA, CISSP-ISSAP, CRISC and other major security organizations. Progent's cybersecurity specialists offer a wide range of online and on-premises services such as vulnerability audits, stealth penetration testing, disaster recovery preparedness, and endpoint active security monitoring and ransomware protection with SentinelOne technology.

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