Wireless heat map

Ⅰ. Experiment ScenarioA Wi-Fi heat map is a map of wireless signal coverage and strength. Typically, a Wi-Fi heat map shows a real map of a project overlaid by a graphical representation of a wireless signal. Wi-Fi heat maps can help find dead spots and make adjustments to achieve ideal coverage. The figure below is a Wi-Fi heat map generated by Omada SDN Controller, the closer the color is to red, the stronger the signal strength, and the closer it is to purple, the weaker the signal strength.During the design phase of a project, wireless heat map simulation can help you choose a better deployment plan, including AP models, deployment number and location, transmit power and wireless channels, etc. For example, if the number of APs is too small, the wireless coverage may not be good enough to meet the demand; increasing the number can improve the coverage, but not the more the better, too many APs may instead fail to provide better wireless quality because of strong wireless interference.During the design and installation phase of the project, you can perform a small-scale test deployment according to the design, and generate a wireless heat map, so that you can know the difference between simulation and reality, then adjust as appropriate. Then in the project acceptance phase, you can get a wireless heat map of the whole project through field testing and perform wireless optimization as appropriate to get better results.Omada SDN Controller has a built-in Heat Map function, you can upload the project drawings, edit obstacles, place EAPs and perform heatmap simulations. You can place virtual EAPs for project design. You can also place real EAPs managed by the controller, the heat maps will be generated based on the operation status of EAPs, which can help monitor the wireless coverage.Ⅱ.

Working Principle1. Define Layout: determine the project layout first and upload the drawings. There are indoor and outdoor layouts and the following four indoor layouts are available: Open-Plan Space (Office, Factory, etc.) Large Open Space (Stadium, Theatre, etc.) Individual Room (Living Room, Hotel Suite, etc.) Transit Passageways (Corridor, Hallway, etc.)Choose a layout according to the actual project situation. Different layouts will affect the formulas used in the heatmap simulation process and will influence the simulation results.ou can upload images as drawings, common formats such as .jpg, .png, and .gif are supported, and you can upload CAD files in .dxf format.2. Set the map scale according to the drawing. 3. Draw walls, doors, and other obstacles, and then place APs.4. Click the “Simulate” button, wait a moment, you will see the Wi-Fi heat map, and you can adjust the AP installations.5. Draw an area to view the signal coverage, and click Export for the Network Coverage Report.Ⅲ. Objectives Master how to draw obstacles from drawings. Master how to place the EAPs and adjust the installation parameter. Master how to optimize the wireless coverage by wireless heat maps.Ⅳ. Experiment Equipment Omada SDN ControllerⅤ. Configuration StepsThis experiment will introduce how to design a wireless network solution for an office using the built-in wireless heat map function of Omada SDN Controller.1. Add a new Map.1) Run and log into the Omada SDN Controller, then go to Map --> Heat Map. Add a map. Edit maps in the pop-up window. Select a map from the drop-down list to place the devices. View the device list. Opacity Adjust the opacity of the map Icon Select the icon size of the EAPs displayed on the map. Fit the map to the web page. Zoom in or out of the map. Set the map scale. Draw a line

Wireless networks are reliant on close proximity to an access point, losing signal strength as the distance grows. Setting up a WiFi network for business often means coverage for a significantly larger area, and that requires extra considerations for a variety of potential problems that can arise.As we expand the service range, signal interference can occur from physical obstructions such as walls and furniture, but also intangible things as well. Nearby wireless devices on the same frequency, microwaves and other appliances, or even a neighboring company’s WiFi network near the building.Any combination of these factors can affect your wireless signal, resulting in slow transfer speeds, dead zones or even connection drops. This is where WiFi Heat Maps can prove to be invaluable tools, pinpointing the problematic areas and helping to narrow down the cause.What are WiFi Heat Maps?Instead of making a blind guess as to the source of problems, WiFi Heat Maps provide the ability to map out and visualize an entire wireless network. Displayed as color coded heat waves, we can easily check the signal strength in each room and see if it’s hot, cold or somewhere in between.To accurately replicate your coverage area, most tools can import images or blueprints of your layout for georeference. Alternatively, manual surveying allows you to walk around the space with a mobile device, building a dynamic map from the data it collects. For organizations where outdoor coverage is a concern, some enterprise oriented solutions even implement GPS.In a nutshell, these tools translate our environment in to a 2D or 3D space, then show us the problematic zones in our network. Several applications will even recommend changes that can help optimize performance.Here’s the Best WIFI Heat Map Tools & Software of 2025:SolarWinds Wi-Fi Heat MapEkahau HeatMapperNetSpotAcrylic Wi-Fi HeatmapsVisiWave Site SurveyAirMagnet Survey Pro1. SolarWinds

Obstacles. For example, although the materials of different walls are concrete, the thickness, material, and other characteristics must be different, if possible, you can conduct actual tests to determine the actual attenuation of certain walls and other obstacles, which can improve the accuracy of the heat map simulation.Click the button to select a type of wall and use the left mouse button to draw lines on the map, click the right mouse button to complete a line, and then you can draw new lines. Click the button to stop drawing, you can adjust the map and continue to draw the obstacles.2) Place the EAPs.Click the button, select an AP model from the list of Adopted Devices or Virtual Devices, and drag it onto the drawing.Place EAPs according to the drawing and project requirements. After placing one EAP, click on it and adjust its installation parameters, note the installation height and angle, especially for the wall plate and outdoor EAPs, click Apply to save the settings.For example, according to the actual installation, the following AP installation height should be adjusted to 1 meter and the installation angle should be 0°.You can also adjust the transmission power and wireless channel to get better wireless coverage while minimizing wireless interference.Click Done to exit the editing mode.3. SimulateClick the Simulate button to start the calculation, and you will see the wireless heat map when it is finished.Select the wireless channel and re-simulate it, you will see the wireless coverage of different wireless channels. Adjust the receiver sensitivity according to the wireless coverage required by the project, then the places that are not filled with “wireless signal” are the places where the wireless coverage does not meet the requirements, you can add or remove EAPs or adjust EAP parameters according to the project requirements.As shown

Wi-Fi Heat MapAs part of the Engineer’s Toolset, a complete bundle of Enterprise grade networking tools from SolarWinds, Wi-Fi Heat Map is one of several solutions designed to optimizing wireless networks. Capable of creating custom WiFi heat maps, you can poll the strength of signals to locate weak areas and pinpoint dead zones.In contrast to most software that requires a manual survey of the coverage area, Wi-Fi Heat Map is able to generate dynamic heat maps as well. By polling the signal strength of adjacent access points and connected clients, it is possible to plot out the area based entirely on existing device connectivity.Once the heat map has been established, you can visualize the signal strength to identify problems and make adjustments to compensate. The color coded representation makes it easy to tell where hot and cold spots exist. Best of all, when used in combination with SolarWinds Network Monitor, you can even determine the physical location of every single network connected device within a range of 3 meters.PriceFree Trial for 30 DaysDownload Ekahau HeatMapperEkahau HeatMapper is a great alternative for home, office or small business use. Advertised as the little brother to their Enterprise package called Site Survey, it’s a no-frills application, including only the essential tools needed to map out and analyze a wireless network.The Installation Wizard provides a quick, one minute setup and works on practically any machine with a Windows operating system. Out of the box it supports 802.11/a/b/g/n, capable of finding all available networks, their access points and even detects the security settings, making it a breeze to get started without a fuss.Compared to similar products on the market, HeatMapper lacks some of the more advanced features, but the simplicity is perfect for users that don’t need all the bells and whistles. Once you have

In the above figure, the top left and bottom right parts are the areas that do not meet the requirements. The project has no requirement for wireless signal coverage in the upper left corner, but there is a requirement for the lower right corner, so we can add a new AP in the lower right corner. In addition, considering the high density of wireless clients in the middle area, we can deploy HD EAPs, which have higher band capacity, or increase the number of EAPs but reduce the transmit power to reduce wireless interference.4. Network Coverage Report. Click the button to outline the area you want to evaluate the wireless coverage, and click the right mouse to complete the outline.Click “Start Calculation” to view the signal coverage.Switch each wireless band for heat map simulations, and then click the button to generate the report, which contains a list of EAPs, the layout, and the heat maps of each wireless band.