Wireless Consulting Support

Ekahau has developed a comprehensive suite of advanced software tools, portable scanning hardware, and collaboration services to enable organizations of all sizes to plan, validate, optimize, monitor, and troubleshoot Wi-Fi networks. Progent's certified Ekahau experts can assist you to utilize Ekahau products to perform any facet of Wi-Fi planning and management. Services offered by Progent's Wi-Fi experts include:

• Establish the RF profile of your physical environment: (floor plan, construction materials, ceiling height, sources of radio frequency interference, etc.)
• Estimate your present and future requirements for Wi-Fi coverage, workloads, and throughput
• Create a predictive plan for Wi-Fi AP types, antenna options, placement, heights, and setup
• Propose a secondary coverage design for roaming and high availability
• Onsite signal strength measurement and validation of your actual Wi-Fi implementation
• On-premises identification of radio noise from devices independent of your Wi-Fi implementation
• Create a channel strategy that minimizes shared-channel competition and adjacent channel disruption
• Centrally manage single or multiple Wi-Fi networks
• Provide actionable reports on Wi-Fi health analytics and problems
• Resolve existing issues and anticipate looming ones before they impair productivity
• Improve your Wi-Fi solution intelligently over time to continue meeting your evolving requirements

Progent also offers onsite assistance for carrying out Wi-Fi network surveys with the help of Ekahau's Sidekick RF analyzer to verify real performance and to identify low-signal spots, RF congestion, and other problems.

Ekahau's Product Line for Wi-Fi Network Planning and Support
Ekahau Connect is a suite of applications, hardware, and services from Ekahau for planning and managing advanced Wi-Fi networks. Used by most Fortune 500 companies, Ekahau's Wi-Fi products are available on a subscription basis as a comprehensive bundle. Some components of Ekahau Connect are also available separately. Progent can utilize Ekahau technology to plan, verify and troubleshoot your Wi-Fi network or assist you to use your own Ekahau products.

Major pieces of the Ekahau Connect product suite include:

Ekahau Pro
Ekahau Pro software allows you to design, verify and debug Wi-Fi networks. To build a predictive model, you draw a floor plan of your building. You then manually draw walls or read them into Ekahau Pro from a CAD program. You include doors, cabling, stairwells, and elevators and list building materials. You then select various Wi-Fi access point models from Ekahau Pro's database, which features coverage characteristics and antenna patterns related to your selected APs. Ekahau Pro's 3-D planner permits you to increase or take away access points to create a heat map depicting Wi-Fi coverage. You can instantly adjust AP model, location, height and antenna selection so the predictive model displays the coverage you require.

Ekahau Sidekick
Once your predictive model is finished and your access points are in place and set up, you can test your deployment by carrying out an on-premises survey using 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 adjust your AP deployment as needed. Sidekick's built-in spectrum analyzer can identify locations subject to interference from transmitters not part of your Wi-Fi network and Ekahau Pro can display these trouble spots on your screen map so you can fix the issues.

Ekahau Sidekick 2
The Ekahau Sidekick 2 portable scanner introduces the capability to test and measure the latest 6 GHz Wi-Fi 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 earlier Sidekick scanner, Sidekick 2 delivers almost twice the performance for dual-band Wi-Fi surveys and is 33% faster at surveying tri-band environments. Nine built-in 3D antennas ensure omnidirectional measurement repeatability and help do away with discrepancies between Sidekick 2 scanners. A fast-charge battery is good for two working days on a typical site survey with just one charge.

Ekahau Analyzer
Ekahau Analyzer software integrates with the Sidekick scanner and displays the results of key health measurements of a Wi-Fi site. To help you to debug RF interference sources, the Analyzer app tests against specified standards and displays pass/fail graphic alerts to highlight results. When an issue is detected, you can run the Sidekick's portable spectrum analyzer to pinpoint causes of RF interference or congested channels. Features 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 displayed on a handheld Android or iOS phone or tablet connected to your compact Sidekick signal scanner, streamlining the collection of RF data.

Ekahau Insights
Ekahau Insights software offers unified visibility into Wi-Fi site quality across multiple Wi-Fi deployments around the globe. Insight enables you to search and organize predictive design and Wi-Fi site survey projects, rank projects based on network health, maintain an inventory of operating access points organized by locality and age of technology, and monitor survey projects to ensure you verify your Wi-Fi venues regularly. Automated analysis reports how your Wi-Fi networks operate in comparison to your goals by site, floor, and space within a specific floor. A heatmap viewer provides visualizations for primary and secondary signal quality, channel congestion, SNR, and other Wi-Fi network health measurements. Support for tags simplifies file and workflow organization by permitting you to classify and peruse Wi-Fi 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 to assist experts to solve complex network problems. Capturing Wi-Fi packets may be necessary to resolve problems in areas such as connectivity, roaming between APs, garbled audio, dropped phone calls, unbalanced channel utilization, faulty Wi-Fi software drivers, broken hardware, misconfigured access points, outdated devices, or cybersecurity risks such as unencrypted Wi-Fi traffic or denial of Service (DoS) attacks. You can also utilize Ekahau Capture software to determine Wi-Fi traffic stats such as retry rates, average data rate, and frame type distribution. Ekahau Capture stores packet collections in the libpcap (pcap) format so you can analyze them with third-party tools. Ekahau Capture can collect and store 802.11/a/b/g/n/ac frames and perform captures on a single channel or on multiple channels.

Progent's Predictive Wi-Fi Modeling Services
Progent's predictive Wi-Fi design services can be carried out offsite and utilize Ekahau's cutting-edge RF simulation and analysis tools to design an efficient Wi-Fi network. With predictive design, you provide Progent's Wi-Fi experts your facility's floor plans and describe your environment such as walls, doors, cable access, elevator shafts, and fabrication materials. You also specify your coverage, density, and throughput requirements as well as your constraints. In addition, you project the types of endpoint devices your clients will operate, the apps they will run, and the maximum wireless traffic they will generate. Progent will utilize your information to create a digital simulation of your facility and devise a design that details the most appropriate vendors for your access points, the required number of APs, their optimal location and antenna type, their proper configuration and their predicted performance.

Progent's On-premises Wi-Fi Site Survey
Progent's on-premises Wi-Fi survey utilizes Ekahau's specialized RF signal collection instrument and related software to allow you to validate, optimize, and debug an existing wireless deployment. These services are commonly performed immediately after a new installation or used as a diagnostic tool to scale, optimize, or debug a mature wireless LAN. Available throughout the U.S., Progent's onsite Wi-Fi site survey services feature walkthrough testing for radio frequency coverage and interference, checking for AP overpopulation, signal propagation tracking, data protection assessment, and identification of optimum locations for client-specified Wireless Access Points.

Progent can deliver remote and on-premises guidance for a wide array of Wi-Fi APs and can provide services such as Cisco Aironet Wi-Fi AP integration, Cisco Meraki Wi-Fi AP management, Cisco Small Business 100/300/500 wireless access point consulting, Cisco Catalyst wireless AP deployment planning, Ubiquiti UniFi WiFi access point configuration, and Apple AirPort wireless access point installation. Progent's on-premises wireless survey includes consultation with your IT management staff to determine target functionality for the Wi-Fi network. Progent's BICSI RCDD and Ekahau certified wireless site survey experts can propose affordable Wi-Fi network enhancements that utilize modern Wi-Fi products and deliver maximum business value.

Progent offers help for creating a modern BYOD Wi-Fi environment by providing services such as iPhone and iPad integration, and Android phone and tablet consulting. Apple iPhones and iPads, Androids, Windows Phones, and other mobile devices can pose user density challenges and can also create transmit power imbalances that call for careful configuration of access points. Progent's Wi-Fi site survey services provide the insight you need to address these issues and build an efficient and productive BYOD ecosystem.

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

• RF Spectrum Analysis including identification of RF issues associated with your environment's arrangement, material structure, and other potential sources of interference so you can anticipate and resolve problems during the Wi-Fi network planning process.
• RF Coverage Maps in the form of color RF contour images (heat maps) for the spots that need coverage to help you to select the most efficient number and position of WAPs and identify potential signal spillover areas and holes in coverage
• Capacity Plan for defining and delivering the bandwidth required to support all apps and users
• Cable Paths depicted as line diagrams you can provide to cabling contractors
• Device Installation advice on where and how to install wireless devices plus identification of special equipment that may be needed (NEMA enclosures, radio antennas, etc.)
• Infrastructure Requirements to describe all facility and networking equipment needed to support the Wi-Fi environment such as available switch interfaces, Power over Ethernet (POE), electrical, and rack space

World-Class Network Infrastructure Expertise
Progent has one of the largest rosters of certified Cisco CCIE network consultants of any independent IT support firm in the country. and can help you to integrate your LAN seamlessly into your corporate network. Progent can help your company to configure and maintain Cisco 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, Ubiquiti, and other leading vendors. To find out more about Progent's online and onsite consulting services for Cisco Wi-Fi technology, refer to consulting and debugging support for Cisco wireless products.

To help you with company-wide cybersecurity issues, Progent offers the services of network security experts who have been awarded advanced credentials from CISM, CISSP-ISSAP, CRISC and other recognized data security organizations. Progent's cybersecurity experts offer a broad range of online and on-premises services that include vulnerability assessments, stealth 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 planning and on-premises wireless site surveys, call 1-800-993-9400 or visit Contact Progent.