Ekahau, the leading provider of Wi-Fi site survey and planning tools, today released Ekahau Site Survey (ESS) version 7.5, which significantly improves how Wi-Fi networks are designed and the speed with which wireless network deployment reports are generated.

The primary goal of Wi-Fi planning tools such as ESS is to reveal optimal locations and configurations for Wi-Fi access points. However, varying radiofrequency “RF” environments pose challenges to Wi-Fi planning.

Since office cubicles and warehouse shelves at different heights act as RF barriers, ESS now accounts for different height barriers, offering accurate 3D simulation of the interior environment so that network engineers can prevent WLAN design flaws and mitigate future performance problems.

Ekahau Site Survey 7.5 brings the height of objects (RF barriers) and even buildings into the Wi-Fi design equation, combining it with other unique features such as the up-tilt and down-tilt of directional Wi-Fi antennas, resulting in more accurate designs, while minimizing the risk of over-spending on infrastructure.

Conventionally, a Wi-Fi network report which explains how the network was designed, built, and verified requires entry of customer data by hand and, along with image attachments, separately. Instead of this manual process, ESS 7.5 automatically fills in the blanks in the network report with data including  heat maps, lists, tables or text. This built-in ESS reporting feature will cut reporting time in half, while minimizing the chance for human error.

John Yrigoen, Managing Mobility Principal at General Datatech (GDT) notes, “GDT designs and builds highly optimized reliable Mobility (WLAN) networks. Our customers expect nothing less than the best. For Wi-Fi site surveys and planning we support several tools for our customer needs, but we are standardizing on Ekahau Site Survey. In fact, we’ve recently signed a distributor agreement with Ekahau to distribute the Ekahau products to our end customers.”

“Ekahau Site Survey is by far the fastest and easiest to use both on-site, and off. The new reporting system in ESS 7.5 is also huge for generating better reports straight from the tool. And, the responsiveness of their support is unlike anyone else’s,” Yrigoen adds.

Jussi Kiviniemi, Vice President of Wi-Fi Tools at Ekahau adds “We’ve invested heavily in our Wi-Fi Tools team within the last year and were lucky to hire some of the smartest developers out there. This has resulted in the release of many new ESS features, in a very short timeframe. I’m happy to say that today ESS appears to have earned a reputation as the only tool in its class that people actually enjoy using.”