Wireless Consulting Services

Ekahau has developed a comprehensive family of software apps, portable RF scanning hardware, and cloud collaboration services that allow organizations of all sizes to plan, verify, tune, manage, and troubleshoot Wi-Fi deployments. Progent's certified Ekahau experts can assist you to utilize Ekahau products to carry out any facet of Wi-Fi planning and maintenance. Services available from by Progent's Wi-Fi experts include:

• Define the RF profile of your physical environment: (floor plan, materials, ceiling height, sources of RF interference, etc.)
• Estimate your current and future requirements for Wi-Fi coverage, capacity, and throughput
• Generate a model deployment for Wi-Fi access point (AP) models, antenna options, locations, heights, and configuration
• Design a secondary coverage plan for roaming and resilience
• Onsite signal strength measurement and verification of your actual Wi-Fi deployment
• Onsite detection of radio interference from sources that are not part of your Wi-Fi implementation
• Create a channel plan that minimizes shared-channel competition and adjacent channel interference
• Centrally monitor and manage single or multiple Wi-Fi networks
• Create management reports on network performance analytics and issues
• Resolve current problems and anticipate emerging ones before they impair productivity
• Adapt your Wi-Fi network cost effectively over time to continue meeting your evolving needs

Progent also provides onsite assistance for performing Wi-Fi network surveys using Ekahau's Sidekick spectrum analyzer to measure actual performance and to find dead areas, RF interference, and other issues.

Ekahau's Product Suite for Wi-Fi Network Planning and Maintenance
Ekahau Connect is a family of software, hardware, and services from Ekahau for designing and maintaining advanced Wi-Fi networks. Used by most Fortune 500 companies, Ekahau's Wi-Fi offerings are provided by subscription as an integrated suite. Some components of Ekahau Connect are also available separately. Progent can use Ekahau technology to design, verify and tune your Wi-Fi deployment or assist your IT staff to use your own Ekahau products.

Major pieces of the Ekahau Connect product family include:

Ekahau Pro
Ekahau Pro software enables you to design, validate 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, stairways, and elevator shafts and specify building materials. Next you select specific Wi-Fi access point models from Ekahau Pro's built-in database, which includes coverage characteristics and antenna patterns associated with your selected APs. Ekahau Pro's 3-D modeling lets you add or remove access points to build a heat map of wireless coverage. You can change access pints model, location, height and antenna selection until the predictive model shows the coverage you require.

Ekahau Sidekick
After your predictive plan is completed and your APs are installed and configured, you can verify your network by carrying out an onsite survey using the Ekahau Sidekick, a portable RF scanning device that works natively with Ekahau Pro software. This allows you to measure actual Wi-Fi coverage so you can tune your access point solution as needed. Sidekick's integrated spectrum analyzer can detect areas subject to interference from sources unassociated with your Wi-Fi network and Ekahau Pro software can display these problem areas on your site map so you can fix the issues.

Ekahau Sidekick 2
The Ekahau Sidekick 2 portable scanner introduces the ability to test and measure the newer 6 GHz Wi-Fi networks (Wi-Fi 6E) as well as traditional 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz deployments. accuracy is enhanced with four tri-band radios and a spectrum analyzer that scans at 50 sweeps/second. In comparison to the earlier Sidekick device, Sidekick 2 delivers almost twice the performance for dual-band Wi-Fi surveys and is 33% quicker at measuring tri-band Wi-Fi networks. Nine built-in 3D antennas ensure omnidirectional measurement repeatability and virtually do away with discrepancies between Sidekick 2 devices. A quick-charge battery is good for two working days on an average site survey with just one charge.

Ekahau Analyzer
Ekahau Analyzer software communicates with the Sidekick signal scanner and displays the results of key health recordings of a Wi-Fi system. To assist businesses to troubleshoot RF interference problems, the Analyzer software tests against specified requirements and uses prominent pass/fail graphic alerts to show results. Whenever a problem is flagged, you can use the Sidekick's portable spectrum analysis hardware to hone in on sources of RF interference or overcrowded channels. Capabilities of Ekahau Analyzer include Auto-Test, Signal Strength Analysis, Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) Analysis, Channel Quality Analysis, and Spectrum Measurements. Results can be displayed on a mobile Android or iOS phone or tablet interfaced to your portable Sidekick signal scanner, streamlining the acquisition of diagnostic measurements.

Ekahau Insights
Ekahau Insights software provides centralized monitoring of Wi-Fi site quality across multiple Wi-Fi venues worldwide. Insight enables businesses to search and organize predictive design and Wi-Fi network survey projects, rank projects based on site health, maintain a database of operating APs based on locality and age of technology, and monitor survey projects to ensure you verify your Wi-Fi sites regularly. Automated analysis reports how your Wi-Fi deployments perform 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. Support for tags simplifies file and workflow management by permitting you to classify and search projects by client, site type, workflow status, and other meaningful groupings.

Ekahau Capture
Ekahau Capture software operates in conjunction with the Ekahau Sidekick signal scanner to collect Wi-Fi packets in order to assist experts to fix challenging network problems. Packet capture may be required to fix problems in areas such as connectivity, roaming between APs, unintelligible audio, dropped phone calls, unbalanced channel utilization, outdated or faulty Wi-Fi software drivers, hardware failure, misconfigured APs, device limitations, or cybersecurity threats such as unencrypted Wi-Fi traffic or denial of Service attacks. You can also use Ekahau Capture software to calculate Wi-Fi performance stats such as retry frequency, average throughput, and frame type distribution. Ekahau Capture saves packet collections in the PCAP file format so they can be analyzed using third-party packet analyzers. Ekahau Capture can collect and save 802.11/a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi frames and perform captures on one channel or on multiple channels.

Progent's Predictive Wi-Fi Modeling Services
Progent's predictive wireless design services can be performed remotely and make use of Ekahau's cutting-edge RF modeling and analysis products to design a cost-effective Wi-Fi network. With predictive planning, you provide Progent's wireless professionals your facility's floor plans and describe your environment including walls, doors, cabling, stairways, and fabrication materials. You also specify your coverage, capacity, and performance targets plus your constraints. Also, you project the types of devices your clients will connect, the software they will use, and the peak wireless traffic they will produce. Progent will use your information to build a digital simulation of your facility and develop a design that includes the most appropriate manufacturers for your access points, the recommended number of APs, their ideal location and antenna type, their proper configuration and their anticipated throughput.

Progent's On-premises Wi-Fi Site Survey
Progent's on-premises wireless survey uses Ekahau's specialized RF signal measurement instrument and associated software to help you to validate, optimize, and debug your current wireless deployment. This is typically undertaken shortly after a new deployment or used as a diagnostic tool to expand, optimize, or troubleshoot an older wireless LAN. Available throughout the United States, Progent's on-premises wireless survey services include walkthrough measuring for RF coverage and contention, detection of AP overpopulation, RF propagation tracking, data protection auditing, and selection of optimum locations for client-specified Wireless Access Points.

Progent's consultants can deliver online and on-premises guidance for a wide selection of Wi-Fi access points and can provide services such as Cisco Aironet wireless AP set up, Meraki wireless access point cloud management, Cisco Small Business 100/300/500 wireless AP configuration, Catalyst Wi-Fi access point deployment planning, Ubiquiti UniFi WiFi access point configuration, and Apple AirPort Wi-Fi access point installation. Progent's onsite survey features consultation with your network management staff to define performance parameters for the Wi-Fi network. Progent's BICSI RCDD and Ekahau certified wireless site survey professionals can recommend cost-effective WLAN enhancements that incorporate the latest Wi-Fi technology and deliver maximum business value.

Progent offers help for building a modern BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) wireless network by delivering services like iPhone and iPad integration, and Android phone and tablet consulting. iPhones and iPads, Androids, Windows Phones, and other mobile devices can present client density issues and can also cause transmit power mismatches that require careful configuration of access points. Progent's Wi-Fi site survey provides the insight you need to address these issues and design an efficient and productive BYOD network.

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

• Radio Wi-Fi Spectrum Analysis including detection of RF issues associated with your facility's arrangement, material structure, and other possible sources of RF interference so you can foresee and resolve issues during the WLAN design phase.
• Coverage Maps in the form of color RF contour images for the areas requiring coverage to assist you to select the most efficient quantity and location of WAPs and identify likely RF leakage areas and coverage gaps
• Capacity Plan for defining and providing the bandwidth needed to support all apps and users
• Cable Paths depicted as line diagrams you can supply to cabling installers
• Device Installation guidance on where and how to install Wi-Fi devices plus identification of additional hardware that may be needed (NEMA enclosures, radio antennas, etc.)
• Infrastructure Requirements to describe all facility and networking equipment needed to support the wireless installation like available switch ports, Power over Ethernet (POE), electrical, and rack capacity

Advanced Network Infrastructure Expertise
Progent has one of the largest rosters of certified Cisco CCIE IT infrastructure consultants 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 your company to install and manage Cisco ISR routers, switches, and security devices as well as Cisco Mobility products including wireless access points and wireless LAN controllers. Progent also can provide expertise with networking technologys from Juniper, Apple, Ubiquiti, 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 products.

To help you with company-wide cybersecurity issues, Progent can provide the services of network security experts who have been awarded advanced certifications from CISA, CISSP-ISSAP, CRISC and other prominent data security authorities. Progent's cybersecurity consultants can provide a broad range of online and onsite services that include security audits, penetration testing, disaster recovery planning, and endpoint remote security monitoring and ransomware defense with SentinelOne technology.

Contact Progent for Ekahau Wi-Fi Solutions Consulting
To find out more about Progent's consulting expertise for remote Ekahau wireless predictive design and onsite Wi-Fi site surveys, call 1-800-993-9400 or visit Contact Progent.