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User Manual - Covera for Wi-Fi site survey and coverage simulation

1. increase the zoom factor decrease the zoom factor From this menu you can directly choose a zoom factor When set to 100 one pixel on the screen represents exactly one pixel on the map Move left down up down inside the map area Turn the map around the center of the map area If you use the mouse s wheel button the map will turn around the pointer position in the map area If you click the icon a sub menu allows to Reset the rotation angle When you click on entryis icon a slider will show up to allow you to set the level of transparency of the entire map The survey tool bar provides useful tools when performing a wireless site survey gt Start Scanning HH Pause Scanning P Add Survey Points Lock all Points ia Lock only GPS Points gt F3 Resume scanning operation on the current wireless network interface Pause airwaves scanning on the current wireless network in terface When this tool is selected clicking over the map area will cre ate a new survey point Pressing on the lock icon will display the lock menu Lock all points to forbid moving any survey point 36 User Interface Reference Lock only GPS points to forbid moving survey points with a GPS position Campaign Wizard When you add a new campaign to a Covera project the following wizard will show up on the screen as New Campaign Campaign Properties Assign a name and a background map to this new campaign My first
2. Updating a Survey Point The measurements attached to a survey point are automatically acquired when it is first created However you can update an existing point to refresh the measurements In this case the original measurements are replaced with new ones acquired while the point is being updated 1 Right click on the point you want to update to display the contextual menu go Update NS Delete Iqnore Show Data Zoom In pp Zoom Out Overlay Copy Map Area save Map rea as Print Map Area 2 Select Update in this contextual menu Wireless network measurements are acquired 3 The Last Update time shows that the point has been updated SSID RSSI MAC Address Type my Wireless O0 A0 FE A6 00 31 myWWireless O0 A0 F8 AC 61 9B my Wireless 00 A0 F8 A5 FF CA my Wireless 00 A0 FE A9 DO A4 myWireless 00 A0 F8 AS FF D my Wireless 00 A0 FB AC 63 0E Mame myname w x 154 y 92 26 Getting started Deleting survey points Covera allows you to delete a group of survey points in a single operation 1 Click on the Selection tool in the tool bar RQ om elpe 2 Select the survey points to delete by drawing a selection rectangle around them e You can also select several survey points by pressing the Ctrl key while selecting individual points with the mouse 3 Press the Delete key A confirmation dialog w
3. Comparing Covera and Covera Zone ssssesssssesssseesseressssresseresssoresserresssresseeresseressseet l SY SECM TEQUES erana CAN ANR E Ne AA Ne ela 2 Tristate COV rae ed A nie ae an den ce tee nec none i 3 OM HNESUPDOL si oia 6 What is Covera Covera is a wireless LAN site survey application software for Windows XP and Windows Vista The main features of Covera are e Survey Collect signal data and many other measurements during site survey campaigns Optional GPS support for outdoor survey e Make IP layer performance measurements HTTP throughput Iper ping latency e Show Access Points on the map What s new in Covera 2 1 Some of the most important new features of Covera 2 1 are listed below e Support for Windows Vista e Tab navigation for campaigns e Improved signal graph show both instant and averaged RSSI e Drag and drop of access point to the map e and many other bug fixes and user interface enhancements Comparing Covera and Covera Zone The family of Covera branded products is composed of e Covera a freeware application aimed at wireless site survey data acquisition e Covera Zone an application that builds on top of Covera and allows you to visualize coverage zones by using sophisticated regression algorithm to calculate views and communicate these by generating professional looking reports Introduction X X Data collection GPS HTTP Iperf measurements Calculate
4. a wavefront propagates through the air and around obstacles encountered along the way The signal loss on the path between the transmitter and the receiver is called path loss In an ideal free space environment radio waves would propagate from the access point to the wireless client without hitting any obstacles In this case the free space path loss would be due only to power lost as energy disperses into the air This why the free space loss formula given below only depends on the distance d between the transmitter and the receiver as well as the wave length and the gain Gr Gt of the receiving and transmitting antennas The ratio between the power at the receiving end Pr to the power at the transmitting ends Pt is WLAN basics l G al a D i A In this formula power are expressed with Watts However radio engineers prefer to use a different unit called decibel to manipulate power levels and antenna gain Decibels noted dBm are defined with the following formula m ro P P dB 10 log aBn of ImW On this logarithmic scale ImW is equivalent to OdBm When the power in mW is divided by a factor of 10 then the decibel equivalent decreases by one unit Using this logarithmic scale the path loss formula shows that the signal strength in dBm decreases with the logarithm of the distance between both ends of the communication P dB P dB G dB m G dB 20 log Effect of obs
5. 1415 89 E Last Update 22 02 2005 17 08 32 Name Covera automatically assigns a number to each new point The name is displayed on the map as a label below every points You can modifiy this field and set your own name 23 Getting started Last Update Time of the last update for this survey point If the point was never updated then it is the creation time y Pixel coordinates of the point on the map You can manually edit these values and see the point moving accordinly on the map When the map is geocalibrated the latitude and longitude of the point are also shown Many measurements are acquired for each survey point but by default only a few columns are displayed For more details see the section called Survey Point Data 49 MAC address unique identifier of the Access Point or the ad hoc station SSID name of the wireless network RSSI received radio signal strength as reported by the wireless NIC driver software Type Type of network A 802 1la B 802 11b G 802 11g deter mined from Max Rate Layer 2 RSSI MAC data is instantly available for all the visible stations in the air and is recorded for every survey point Covera can also make layer 3 IP level measurements Since these are longer to complete they are not enabled by default See the section called IP layer performance 44 for more information Moving a survey point l Click on the Selection icon in the tool bar RQ
6. Architecture A Wireless Local Area Network WLAN is composed of one or several access point s and wireless clients such as Wi Fi enabled laptop computers tablet PCs PDAs or Wi Fi phones Access Points are usually connected to a wired Local Area Network LAN to allow communications between the wireless clients and the rest of the wired network We will refer to access point and wireless clients as 802 11 or Wi Fi devices Wi Fi devices use microwaves to communicate at the following frequencies e 2 4GHz for 802 11 b g n compatible equipments e 5GHz for 802 11 a and some 802 11n compatible equipments 802 11 a b g n technologies used low power levels lt 100mW As a consequence the coverage area of a given access point is limited to tenth of meters in a typical office space or hundreds of meters in an outdoor set up To cover larger areas it is necessary to add several access points to the network For instance the wireless network on the following diagram is made of two access points Wired Workstations Server _ Wired LAN Access Point 1 if Access Point AP 1 A AP 2 WLAN basics Transmitter and receiver When data is sent from an access point to a wireless client the access point is a transmitter and the client is a receiver On the contrary when data is sent from the wireless client to the access point the wireless clients is the transmitter and the access point is the receiver An access point or a wireless
7. ICMP echo request packet Number of echo request to send Number of ICMP echo packets ping to send 48 User Interface Reference Timeout Replies taking longer than this timeout to get back from the test host are considered failed Time to live Time to live IP field decremented at each router hop Set IP don t fragment flag Setting this flag will ask routers along the way to avoid fragmenting the ping packets Survey Point Data The Survey Point Data tool displays all the data recorded for the selected survey point as a list of access points This data is recorded when the point is created or updated To show this tool select Tools Survey Point Data from the menu bar Alternatively you can also double click on a survey point in the map area or use the contextual menu of a survey point to open this tool Survey Point Data 28 SSID RSSI MAC Address Type my Wireless 13 dm 0O0 A0 F8 A6 00 31 myWireless 83 dBm 0O0 A0 F8 AC 63 0E my Wireless 84 dBm O0 A0 F amp AC 61 9B my Wireless 18 dm O0 A0 F8 A5 FF CA myWireless 79 d m 00 A0 FE A5 FF D Name 28 48953 30 10 M 2 1415 89 E Last Update 22 02 2005 17 08 32 Name Name of the survey point A number is assigned as the default name of a new survey point X Y Pixel coordinates of the survey point If you modify these fields the point will move accordingly in the map area When the map is geocalibrated the latitude and longitude of the point are also displ
8. The value that you see in the bottom left of the screen is the calculated value obtained as a result of the regression The value that you see as a label below a survey point is what you ve recorded for this point These two values are different because the regression algorithm does not naively fit to survey point values to account for noise and possible outliers in the measurements The interpolated value for any given position 1s calculated from all the measurements around This produces a smoothing effect and explains why the interpolated value is usually lower than the measurements for the same position If the default behavior is not satisfactory you can manually tune the Fitting factor parameter in the view properties tool What are the different methods to calibrate a map Covera offers two different calibration methods e Scaling with only a known distance as described in the section called Calibrating a map 18 This is typically used for scaling indoor floor plans e Georeferencing With two kwown points as described in the section called How to georeference a map 67 This method is typically used calibrate maps for outdoor GPS assisted campagins 73 Glossary Survey Point or point Station Source Access Point or source Old Access Points Received Signal Strength Indi cator RSSI dBm decibel NIC Network Interface Card or Network Interface Controller NMEA GPS Network Driver Interface Sp
9. Type Max rate RSSI RSSI average RSSI connected Link Quality Mode Vendor Security Cipher Authentication Supported rates Age Contextual menu User Interface Reference e 34 to 161 for 5Ghz depending on countries type of network based on 802 11 specifications a b g or n maximum supported rate advertized by the station Instant value of the RSSI on beacons Moving average of the instant RSSI Instant RSSI on the network link on network traffic only avaiable under Windows Vista topology mode of the station Adhoc or Infrastructure manufacturer of the station based on the first bytes of the MAC address declared with the IEEE Security mechanism based on Wi Fi Alliance terminology WEP WPA Per sonal WPA2 personal WPA Enterprise WPA2 enterprise Encryption cipher None CCMP TKIP Authentication and Key Management None Pre shared key 802 1X list of all the supported rates advertized by this station Time in seconds since the station was last seen When you click on a station with the right mouse button the contextual menu will propose several choices Connect Send to Graph Set Alias Chase Show old APs Show old APs Connect Send to Graph Set Alias for OE E6 36 46 85 2C Chase Initiate a connection the selected acess point available only on Windows Vista The Signal Graph tool is configured to plot the selected access point signal opens a dialog to specify a user defined alias for t
10. client can both transmit or receive but not at the same time Y mn LL Y Transmitters and receivers use antennas to change radio signals in the air into electricity or vice versa Antennas send radio signals receive signals or both Some equipment may use several antennas to improve the overall performance of the radio system Radiated power Wi Fi devices transmit data by radiating radio signal energy at a given power referred to as Equivalent Isotropically Radiated Power or EIRP gt mz A l l S C l This output power can be attenuated by cables and connectors or increased by amplifiers and high gain antennas A high gain antenna do not actually increase the power but concentrate it to a certain direction of space The more directional the antenna the higher the gain and the EIRP in this direction Typical WLAN devices use omnidirectional antennas that radiate the signal in all directions hence providing only a modest gain in a given direction The actual EIRP varies with product manufacturer and antenna used Access points and clients on the same network may transmit at different power levels Usually Access Points transmit at a higher EIRP than clients because they have no need to save on power as they are permanently connected to a source of electrical power In most countries the EIRP is subject to regulatory limits Path loss When energy is radiated from the transmitter s antenna EIRP
11. e mx ef C 8 Move the cursor over a survey point Notice that the point turns red Click on the point while it is red A white frame appears around the survey point to show that it is selected Click on the selected point and keep pressing while you move it When you release the mouse the survey point will keep its new position All the measurements attached to the point when it was created remain unchanged This feature is useful to adjust a position 24 Getting started Renaming a survey point Covera automatically assigns a number to every new survey point and uses this number as a name for the point You can assign a more meaningfull name 1 Right click on a survey point to display the contextual menu ge Update Delete Ignore 5how Data Zoom In Zoom Out Overlay Copy Map Area save Map Area as Print Map Area 2 In this contextual menu select Show Data A window similar to this one below appears Pe MAC Address my Wireless 00 AMFE A6 00 31 mylWireless 00 A0 F8 AC 61 9B my Wireless 00 A0 F8 AS FF CA my Wireless O0 A0 FE AS DO A4 my Wireless 00 A0 F amp AS FF D6 my Wireless 00 A0 FB AC 63 0E i x 154 y 92 48 53 30 90 Nae 14 13 22 E Last Update 22 02 2005 17 02 09 3 Inthe Name field you can enter your own text For instance type my name 4 Press Enter to validate the netry The new name is now used to label the point on the map 25 Getting started
12. regression views Create reports License Price on line store System requirements Covera has been designed to work with computers or tablet PCs with a Wi Fi interface 802 11 a b g and running one the following operating systems e Microsoft Windows XP SP2 x86 e Microsoft Windows XP SP3 x86 e Microsoft Windows Vista x86 and x64 e Microsoft Windows Vista SP1 x86 and x64 Minimum configuration e Ghz processor e 256 MByte of available RAM e 65536 color video card 1024x768 e 80 MByte of free disk space Recommended configuration e 2 Ghz processor e 512 MByte of available RAM e True Color Video Card 24 or 32 bits 16 8 M colors 1280x1024 e 150 MByte of disk space For GPS assisted site surveys you can use a NMEA 0183 compatible GPS receiver with a serial port For USB and Bluetooth GPS receivers without a physical serial port you may use virtual serial port software drivers supplied by the GPS reciver manufacturer O Note Some Wi Fi interface drivers may be detected as Bad Drivers on your system In this case you will be invited to upgrade to the latest drivers when launching Covera 2 1 This will ensure that Covera works as expected and offers the best performance Introduction Installing Covera Once you have obtained the installer file follow this procedure to install the software on your system 1 Double click on the installer file Setup _Covera_2 1 exe EN a Setup Covera_21 N
13. tate meeaates 23 Momo SEM DO rodadas 24 Remato Sue DOME D ne ann da na de D dot tte eE 25 Update SUT Ve POINT src dE on or Ei 26 Delete Surve DOME do ae ed oo D D on 27 Creating a project A Covera project is made of all the data recorded during a wireless site survey as well as all the parameters required to generate and display views and reports based on this data A project is organized in campaigns It should contain at least one campaign to be useful but can hold any number of campaigns A project is saved in a file with a cvr extension Note On Windows XP you must run Covera from an account with administrator privileges By default Covera will open on an empty project when you launch it In this case the map area is grey and contains only two shortcut buttons to open an existing project file or to add a new campaign to this empty project la K E Covera Untitled Project N File Edit Survey Tools Device Help CEMIS 8 1 3 Signal Graph CELTRIO 00 14 BF 3C A5 84 El 23 Visible APs ZyDAS ZD1211 802 11 b g Wireles SSID RSSI MAC Address 14 WESEA_NONE 74dB 00 A0 F8 A8 F6 FA 14 Webreflexe 84 dB 00 14 BF 26 75 34 yp SKY21_92 85 dB C6 4F 69 2E 4E 78 Cp NEUF_D1F4 86 dB 00 17 33 53 D1 F5 NEUF 76DC 85 dB 00 17 33 27 76 DD yp Neuf WiFi 86 dB 00 17 33 27 76 E4 A 19 Neuf WiFi 86 dB 00 17 33 53 D1 FC E Add Campaign m Open Project 1 MANAGEMENT 62 dB 00 OF 66 1A 53 B
14. the area to survey with enough details to easily pin point locations This could be a floor plan for indoor surveys or an aerial photography for outdoor surveys a Click on the Browse button The file selection window will show up Open image GO hassan Documents maps Search P LM Organize P Views M New Folder Favorite Links pate taken Tags Size gt gt de trunk M Desktop 5 Recent Places 3 Computer E Documents E Pictures Ne Music dy Recently Changed E Searches Ji Public Folders A File name aerial_image png All Supported Images Cpng b Select a bitmap image file on the disk Most bitmap image formats are supported PNG GIF JPG TIF BMP c After a bitmap file is selected press Open 16 Getting started We have set a name and a background map for this campaign To actually create the campaign and add it to the project just press Create If you do not want to create a campaign now you can cancel the operation by closing the wizard or pressing Cancel The selected image will now be displayed in the map area with a red ribbon around The red ribbon indicates that the map is not calibrated For more information see the section called Calibrating a map 18 Covers Untitled Project Campaign 1 N SES File Edit Survey Tools Device Help Che k Q 10 Signal Graph CELTRIO 00 14 BF 3C A5 84 E E x 27 Visible APs ZyDAS ZD1211 802
15. 0 sec 14 8 MBytes 12 4 Mbits sec E Enable Iperf TCP Address IP address or fully qualified host name of the Iperf test server Enable Iperf If checked the Iperf test will run for new survey points and the result will be recorded on the new point Clear Clear the console window 46 User Interface Reference Run Run the Iperf test and output the result in the console winow The result is not recorded in any survey point Depending on the protocol used for an Iperf test the following data is recorded in survey points e For TCP tests TCP throughput is recorded e For UDP tests UDP throughput and jitter are recorded Iperf Options You can set several options of the Iperf client in both TCP and UDP mode To modify these press the Options button lt 3 Iperf TCP Options 5 Iperf UDP Options Port 5001 Port 5002 Interval Interval Time To Transmit Time To Transmit Buffer Length Buffer Length UDP bandwidth Len Window Size Maximum Segment Size 0 came Port Port number Default is 5001 Interval Number of seconds between periodic bandwidth reports Time to transmit Time in seconds to transmit for default 10 secs Buffer length Length of buffer default 8 KByte Maximum segment size Set TCP maximum segment size MTU 40 bytes Window size TCP window size socket buffer size UDP bandwidth bandwidth to send at in bits sec e g 54M for 54 Mbit s Recom mended value above the expected thr
16. 11 b g SSID RSSI MAC Address 19 WESEA NONE 73 dB 00 A0 F8 A8 F6 FA 19 Webreflexe 84 dB 00 14 BF 26 75 34 5 t TORTUE _LAN DE E6 36 46 85 2C 00 titi 00 0F A3 E0 16 E4 t SKY21 92 C6 4F 69 2E 4E 78 op NEUF_D1F4 00 17 33 53 D1 F5 4 NEUF_76DC 00 17 33 27 76 DD 0e Neuf WiFi 00 17 33 27 76 E4 op Neuf WiFi 00 17 33 53 D1 FC yp MANAGEME 61 dB 00 OF 66 1A 53 BD _ frat I a crono CEIO 06 AD An 16 MT nA OF 924 4 1 gt Wireless connection The interface is conne Ssid CELTRIO Link Speed 54 Mbit s Alias Mac Address 00 14 BF 3C A5 84 Encryption WPA Personnal A diate Signal RSSI os 59 dBm Uncalibrated Map You can check that the campaign has been added to the current project Notice that a tabulation has been added below the map area with the name of your campagin You can also see a campaign has been added to project with the Campaign Manager tool In the menu bar select Tools Campaign Manager This will ensure that the Campaign Manager window is visible on the screen Outdoor survey Access Points The list of campaigns contained in the current project is displayed In our example there is only one My first campaign 17 Getting started Calibrating a map When you import a background map to a project Covera does not know its scale This is why any background map must be calibrated before it can be used There is a red ribbon displayed all around the map ar
17. A Chased Access Point This is the alias of the chase AP Since a default alias based on the SSID is automatically assigned when taking a new survey point you may see the SSID here 42 GPS User Interface Reference Rssi Instant value of the Received Signal Strength Indicator in dBm Mac Address Mac Address of the chased access point Vendor Manufacturer of the access point based on the first bytes of the MAC address declared at the IEEE Estimated distance This is an estimation of the distance based on the RSSI assuming a logarimthmic pathloss law You can change the unit in the menu The bar graph gives a visula representation of this estimation amp Click on this icon to toggle the sound feedback The closer the Chase AP the higher the frequency of the sound A different sound can be specified in the options The GPS tool enables automatic survey point acquisition based on the position fix provided by a GPS receiver Please note that the GPS will only work for outdoor surveys This tool is not visible by default to show it Select Tools GPS from the menu By default the GPS is not setup and a GPS not running state will be reported GPS Not available GPS receiver Current Time Take a survey point every Add Point Now To use the GPS receiver you must set the appropriate serial port parameters and Enable GPS in the options When correctly set the GPS receiver will be detected when the app
18. Alias for 00 A40 FR 45 FF DB6 Find Source M Remove Visible APs 2 Intel R PRO Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection MAC Address Type RSSI Oe MANAGEMENT 00 0F 66 1A 53 BD G 41 dBm This tool shows the list of all visible APs in the neighboorhood The name of the wireless device used to get this scan list is given between bracket in the title bar of the window The list is refreshed periodically according to a scanning interval defined in the options Each visible access point in the list is represented with an icon that you can drag and drop to e the Map area e the Signal Graph tool This icon also provides additional information about the listed access point ee EN Available data connection established to this access point signal of this access point is being plotted the Signal graph tools access point is being chased in the Chase AP tool access point is being chased and plotted represents an adhoc station A lot of data is available for each station but by default only a few is exposed Right click on the column header to display the list of all available data and choose what to display as new columns SSID Mac Address Alias Channel Service Set Identifier of the address network name broadcasted by the access point MAC address of the station user defined MAC address alias radio channel number as per the 802 11 specification e to 14 for 2 4Ghz depending on countries 40
19. CMP pings e TCP throughput with perf e UDP throughput with Iperf To acquire these measurements you will need a test network with a HTTP server and or perf server For more information to set up a test network have a look at the section called How to measure HTTP throughput 61 Covera embeds a HTTP client to measure HTTP throughput It will request a test file from a test HTTP server The amount of data transfered divided by the time to complete the transfer provides an estimation of the HTTP throughput 1 Enter the complete URL of the test file on the test server in the Address field 2 Press the Run button The result of the HTTP request is printed in the console window Please note that this throughput depends on network and RF conditions during the test Address htto 192 168 17 2 hij test data HITP 192 168 17 _2f h1j test data 20 297 Mbit a 2477 67 Kbyte s 692638 bytes transferred in 273 ms E Enable HTTP Address URL of the test file Enable HTTP If checked the HTTP throughput test will run for new survey points and the result will be recorded on the new point Clear Clear the console window Run Run the HTTP test and output the result in the console winow The result is not recorded in any survey point O Test file size A large test file will provide more repeatable measurements but will take more time to download Choosing the appropriate size for the test file is a matter of balancing t
20. D 19 Livebox FE38 83dB 00 16 CF A4 8E 34 04 Livebox E730 86 dB 00 1C 26 12 D6 0F CP freephonie 85 dB 8A DA 5C 52 AF 2F Empty Project io CELTRIO AAR 0014 BFW 20 A524 A project is made Tess Wireless connection The interface is connected t Eq A campaign is a map of the area to be surveyed on which you will record measurements of your wireless Ssid CELTRIO network signal by taking survey points from Link Speed 54 Mbit s different locations Alias To add a new campaign to this empty project you Mac Address 00 14 BF 3C A5 84 can use the Add Campaign icon Encryption WPA Personnal g Signal RSSI ques 59 dBm Close and do not show next time You can create a new empty project by clicking on the project icon in the tool bar This will open a new project window 14 Getting started Alternatively you can also create a new empty project from the menu bar File New project At this stage you have an empty project If a wireless device is detected on your machine you can see in formation about the wireless network you are connected to as well as the Visible APs in the neighborhood Adding a campaign to a project Before you can add measurements to your project you must create a campaign that will contain your measurements and a background map A campaign is a map of the area under test on top of which you will position wireless network measurements A campaign will contain measurement data
21. MANUAL MANUAL 5 C2 09 BC 2B E4 AE MANUAL MANUAL 6 C2 09 BC 2B E4 2F MANUAL freephonie 6 Click on the OK button 7 Inthe map aera you will see a station icon If you double click on this icon you will see the Access Point Data How to merge survey points from two different projects For large site surveys you can save time by working in parallel to gather survey data Two persons with two survey machines can explore different areas of the netwrok under test and merge their data in a single project afterwards This is easily done using copy paste 1 Open the two projects you want to merge in two different Covera windows Let s call them project A and project B 2 Select the survey points you want to merge in project A 3 Inthe project B window simply paste the points Scaled projects should share the same background image This is not required for georeferenced cam paigns 57 How to How to set up a GPS receiver Covera supports GPS receivers exporting NMEA messages over a serial port The serial port can be a normal physical serial port or virtual serial port for USB and Bluetooth GPS receivers In this case you will have to install additional software provided with the GPS receiver Please refer to your GPS receiver documentation 58 How to The first step is to determine the port number COMx for your physical or virtual serial port Under Windows XP you can follow this p
22. OMING SIGNAL If there are many objects in the signal path and the objects are small relative to the signal wavelength then the propagated wavefront will break apart into many directions The resultant signal will scatter in all directions adding to the constructive and destructive interference of the signal SCATTERED WAVEFRONTS INCIDENT WAVEFRONT In indoor environments the wave front radiated from the transmitter antenna will experience many different transformations and different reflection paths as shown in the picture below At the receiver antenna the resulting signal will be the sum of propagation along multiple paths Signals along different paths have traveled different distances and hence reach the receiver with different phases This will create constructive and destructive interferences 10 WLAN basics Receiver Sensitivity When the transmitted signal eventually reaches the receiver it may be so attenuated that the receiver cannot handle it depending on the sensitivity threshold of the receiving device 1 e the minimum power required to handle arriving frames at a given link speed Receive Sensitivity is a distinctive characteristic of a 802 11 device and will vary across different products Signal strength is measured on a logarithmic scale expressed in decibels The higher the signal the better the performance of the wireless network At the client side Covera does not directly record the signal but an indicator
23. Point Data Tools Access Point Data Tools Reset Workspace Tools Options Device menu Open close Survey Point Data window Open close Access Point Data window Reset the workspace i e reset dockable windows reset dockable areas toolbars Open the Options dialog This menu contains the list of wireless NIC detected on your machine Device Properties Help menu Help Use Guide Help gt About Covera Open the device properties dialog Open Covera on line help Show version and legal information about Covera 34 User Interface Reference Help gt Purchase Covera Zone Open your web browser to http www celtrio com store Help gt Check for updates Show check for updates dialog Help gt Send feedback Open web browser on the on line feeback form Keyboard shortcuts F1 Launch the on line help ALT Underline the shortcut keys in the menu 35 User Interface Reference Map tool bar The map tool bar provides tools to control how the map is displayed in the map area 4 Selection tool Zoom tool Zoom Zoom Zoom factor 100 wt Move Tool T Cc Turn around Tool Transparency Survey tool bar 60 gt 1C Allows you to select survey points or access points When this tool is active the pointer is changed into a magni fying glass the mouse wheel increase decrease the zoom factor the left mouse button increase the zoom factor
24. SSI 75 dB 84 dB 85 dB 86 dB 85 dB 85 dB MAC Address z 00 A0 F8 A8 F6 FA NE 00 00 00 00 00 14 BF 26 75 34 W 17 33 53 D1 F5 W 17 33 27 76 DD M 17 33 53 D1 FC N 17 33 27 76 E4 N 1 MANAGEMENT 59 dB 00 0F 66 1A 53 BD N m Tools in the bottom dock areas amca X amp Covera C Program Files x86 Celtrio Covera 2 1 samples indoor cvr Campaign 1 en File Edit Survey Tools Device Help SOW NX e C MFI Signal Graph CELTRIO 00 14 BF 3C J ES 1 Visible APs ZyDAS ZD1211 802 11 5 RSSI Link Qualit Ssid CELTRIO g Link Speed 54 Mbit s Alias Mac Address 00 14 8F 3C A5 84 Encryption WPA Personnal Signal RSSI ms 60 dBm Wireless connection The interface i Dock area above the map area 30 User Interface Reference Signal Graph CELTRIO 00 14 BF 3C A5 84 11 Visible APs ZyDAS ZD1211 802 11 b g Wi El SSID RSSI MAC Address 19 Webreflexe 83 dB 00 14 BF 26 75 34 TORTUE LAN 86 dB OE E6 36 46 25 2C NEUF D1F4 86 dB 00 17 33 53 D1 F5 6 NEUF _76DC 85 dB 00 17 33 27 76 DD t Neuf WiFi 85 dB 00 17 33 53 D1 FC Neuf WiFi 85 dB 00 17 33 27 76 E4 0 CELTRIO 60 dB 00 14 BF 3C A5 84 4 p I Wireless connection The interface is connect EJ Ssid CELTRIO Link Speed 54 Mbit s Alias Mac Address 00 14 BF 3C A5 84 Encryption WPA Personnal Signal RSSI gu
25. a el User Manual version 2 1 Covera 2 1 User Manual 2 1 0r1797 Published Feb 2008 Copyright O 2008 Celtrio Sarl All rights reserved Covera is a registred trademark of Celtrio Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners Table of Contents I ROUE RO 6 DO EU RE E E A A O l WR GO I 16 RAR E cdi l Whats New m COVER acne E A ion ai dite ue l Comparing Coveraand C overd ZoNe A E E l SYS regu EMCS att ai dci 2 OSAMA CONEA aa E E ieee 3 ODIDE SUDDOLE espresso daras id aA had 6 ZEN LANE DASS en nn en tia one dasa peda ner De en ne 7 NEWOIK AICHIICCIUTG tarta llar ee E retiens 7 Trans mier ETCEN lada stos 8 Radiated Power 2252208 aia serias A codicia ide ii daria caia 8 DAMOS E E EA A ASE 8 PTTCClUOF ODS ACIES estan Tess 9 Receiver Sens diana 11 Factors mpatt RSS sde ne cs ete A tia 12 WI COVES a SA A 12 TIPS TOP SUEVO Y gt arar it et 13 PEDE Slanted ai led isis 14 AN O O dou de 14 Addme a Campa nO POETA EA A etes 15 Calibratie a Map ii a daa 18 Controllimo the map display saca 20 SURVEY PODIS Ness ne id id delete iaa 22 Adde a SUYO DOME Ae 23 Contentrot a SUN PONE reia delia Till cited 23 Movima A SUIVEY POME til rs cacas 24 R enamins assurvey POL nierien oaa te red ds cio dado ad 25 Updatino a Survey POME a A AS ASES 26 Delete Suve POMS qu tata tt dit it et ads 27 A User Intertaco RETSrente tna 28 DAT A aE AE A Selection 29 DOCK ATCA A A da 30 DOCRADIS FOOIS sr Aer nr ne a n
26. alibration tools after clicking on Create Directly set the Scale 2 pixels for every Meter Only advanced users should directly set the scale Show Grid lt Back create __ cancel Find dialog Covera can represent stations with icons on the map The Find dialog will help you locate either stations or survey points on the map area To show this dialog select Edit Find from the menu Find 00 14 BF 3C A5 84 Locate source Access Point Reset Location Find Survey Points cese V Center Map Area on Position Locate source Access Point Check this to find an access point The drop down menu will be populated with the list of all kown stations Find Survey Points Check this to find a survey point The drop down menu is populated with the list of all survey points sorted by name Find Look for a matching item based on the input given in the drop down menu Survey points are matched by name and access points by Mac address If a matching item is found it is then selected Center Map Area on Result If checked the map area is automatically centered on the selected item when a matching item is found Reset Location By default an access point is located on the survey point with the strongest signal However you can move the station s icon after wards Pressing this button will move the station back to its default position Close Close the dialog 38 User Interface Reference See als
27. and equipment characteristics will impact the performance of a wireless LAN hence the size and shape of the coverage area We can group these parameters in three categories Access Point e transmitted power e receive sensitivity for client to access point transmissions e antenna used plus cable connector losses if external antennas are used Environment e Physical obstacles to the radio wave propagation e Distance between the transmitter and the receiver e Interferences from other access points clients on your own network or from neigh boring networks e Radio interferences from non 802 11 sources Client e transmitted power when the client is transmitting e sensitivity for access point to client transmissions e antenna used e orientation of the client s antenna relative to the access point s antenna The performance of a wireless network will not only depend on the quality of the access points but also on the quality of the wireless clients A given access point may exhibit good performance when used with high quality wireless clients The exact same access point in the same environment may exhibit a lower performance when lower quality clients are used The higher the sensitivity and the antenna gain at the client the better For instance most USB client sticks have a poor antenna because the antenna must fit on the USB stick when compared to laptops with an embedded 802 11 interface usually mounted on larger surface behind the LCD s
28. and want to specify different reference points just click on a new position and start again 6 Exit the calibration mode by pressing Done on the red ribbon or in the calibration tool bar Note Until the map is calibrated it is not possible to take survey points or use any functionality beyond calibration and basic map control operations 7 The map is now scaled Covera will display a scale legend box overlay a Click with the right mouse button over the map area Make sure the Scale item is selected a Zoom In a Zoom Out Eceitan Signal Copy Map rea Scale N Save Map rea as North Print Map Area Grid Bounding Box Labels APs b You should see a scale box at the bottom right corner of the map area If you want to move the scale box to a different position just grab it with the mouse to move it around the map area Controlling the map display Covera offers many features to control what is displayed in the map area and how it is displayed For instance you can reveal details by zooming in or moving around the map The following procedure will show you some of the useful tools available to control the map display 20 Getting started 1 To see more details on your map you can magnify it by increasing the zoom factor a Inthe tool bar select the Zoom tool a b Use the mouse wheel to increase the zoom factor If you have a mouse without a wheel click the left mouse button to increa
29. as default units for a new campagin If checked Covera will contact the update server on the Internet ev ery time it launches You will be notified if a new version is avail able 52 User Interface Reference User interface options Main Window Title Maximum projects to remember Clear History Size of the Navigation Miniature Signal Graph Show RSSI Show RSSI moving average Moving average on the last Show horizontal lines Show vertical lines Visiable APs This allows you to customize what is shown in the main Window title bar You can use special keywords between curly brackets that will expand to the appropriate value appname name of the application Covera file absolute path to the project file campaign Name of the campaign can represent any character s that will be printed only if there is a campaign is the project When no campaign is defined nothing is printed campaign expands to my first campaign Defines how many recently opened projects will be remembered in the File gt Recent projects menu Clear the history of recently opened projects Set the size of the navigation miniature Default value 100 pixels Display the instant RSSI in the Signal Graph tool as green bars Display the moving average of the RSSI in the the Signal Graph tool as a yellow line Number of past measurements used to compute the moving aver age Show or hide the horizontal lines of the s
30. associated with a position We call this assocation a survey point You can think of a campaign as a container for a back ground map and survey points A project can contain one or more campaigns For instance if you want to survey two different floors in the same building you could add two campaigns to your project with a different floor plan for each campaign To add a campaign to an empty project follow these steps En From the menu bar select Survey gt Add Campaign e You can also click on the Add Campaign in the map area of an empty project The campaign wizard will show up You can set your own name for this new campaign instead of the default one proposed by the wizard For instance type My first campaign into the Name field E New Campaign Campaign Properties Assign a name and a background map to this new campaign My first campaginl descriptive name for this campaign e g first floor Background Map bitmap file to use as the campaign s background can be a floor plan an aerial photograph To add this new campaign to your project just cick on the Create button Otherwise you may specify some parameters on the Next screen lt Back Create Cancel This new name will only be recorded when the campaign is actually created You can modify it anytime before pressing the Create button 15 Getting started The background map is the main visual element of a campaign You should use an image of
31. ayed You can sort the list of access point by clicking on the headers If you click on the column header with the right mouse button you will be able to set which additional columns to show and which columns to hide The list all available properties is given below O Note Certain properties are available only for the connected access point when the survey point was acquired Moreover optional IP layer measurements In this case the content column will be empty of these access points SSID 49 User Interface Reference Service Set Identifier of the address network name broadcasted by the access point Mac Address MAC address of the station Alias user defined MAC address alias Channel radio channel number as per the 802 11 specification e to 14 for 2 4Ghz depending on countries e 34 to 161 for 5Ghz depending on countries Type type of network based on 802 11 specifications a b g or n Max rate maximum supported rate advertized by the station RSSI Instant value of the RSSI on beacons RSSI average Moving average of the instant RSSI RSSI connected Instant RSSI on the network link on network traffic Link Quality only avaiable under Windows Vista Mode topology mode of the station Adhoc or Infrastructure Vendor manufacturer of the station based on the first bytes of the MAC address declared with the IEEE Security Security mechanism based on Wi Fi Alliance terminology WEP WPA Per sonal WPA2 personal WPA E
32. campagin descriptive name for this campaign e g first floor Background Map bitmap file to use as the campaign s background can be a floor plan an aerial photograph To add this new campaign to your project just dick on the Create button Otherwise you may specify some parameters on the Next screen You can replace the proposed Name for the campaign with a personalized one The Browse button allows you to pick up a bitmap file to use as the background Map for this campaign When you click on the Create button after selecting a bitmap file you will jump directly to the calibration You can click on Create without setting an image for the map In this case Covera will choose a default scale You can modifiy this default scale in the second step of the wizard shown below E New Campaign Background Map Calibration No background map specified You are about to create a new campaign with no background map In this case you must directly set the scale by defining the equivalence between pixels and actual distances Scale E pixels for every Meter W Show Grid After setting a path to an image you can manually define the number of pixel per meters instead of relying on the calibration tools Check Directly set the scale and press Create The image will be precalibrated with this scale 37 User Interface Reference a New Campaign Background Map Calibration Select the map calibration method O Use the c
33. creen Why Covera As we have seen in the previous sections the performance of a wireless network depends on a number of factors some of which are difficult or costly to model properly such as the propagation environment This is the reason why verification or audit site surveys are necessary to validate that a newly installed wireless LAN performs as expected Covera is such a post installation wireless site survey tool It will assist you in auditing the actual coverage and performance of the wireless network under test Covera will allow you to make RSSI measurements from various places This data is later processed to create visual coverage maps Covera Zone will cal culate a signal strength for locations you haven t visited during the site survey This operation 1s called regression 12 WLAN basics Tips for surveys Temporary modifications to the propagation environment like people walking in an office corridor do impact RSSI measurements When you walk around the network under test your own body can create a screen between the access point and the wireless client running Covera if you don t pay attention To conduct repeatable site surveys we recommend that you follow these rules e Conduct campaigns with a measurement terminal whose wireless device is similar to the devices used on the network When different NICs are used on the network make the measurements with the lowest specification device e The more measurements y
34. cryption type Possible values are None WEP WPA Personal WPAZ2 personal WPA Enterprise WPA2 enterprise Bit rates supported In proposed example access point support 1 OMbit sec 2 0Mbit sec 5 5Mbit sec Channel used by the access it specify the frequency during wireless communication Wireless network mode infrastructure or ad hoc The hardware vendor extracted from the Mac address Wireless network type 802 1 1a b g n Alias for this Mac Address You can modify it by editing the content of this field Pixel coordinates of the stations If you modify these values the access point icon will move accordingly on the map area Pressing this button will reset the position of the access point and locate it where it was seen with the strongest RSSI To open the option panel use the menu bar Tools Options 51 User Interface Reference Options General Options 4 User Interface Signal Graph Visible APs Gps receiver Survey Options View Options Sound Options General Options Project Auto save interval 10sec Y Save workspace in project file v Save view calculations in project file v Calculate views when opening a project file Maximum Memory Footprint Prompt when memory requirements exceed 64 Megabytes Localization Preferred Units Metric System y Software Updates v Check for updates at start up Co J _cmes am General options Auto save interval Save wo
35. d Requires the most disk space This screen is your last chance to exit the installation procedure Press Install to start the actual installation Ready to install Covera 2 1 Click Install to begin the installation Click Back to review or change any of your installation settings Click Cancel to exit the wizard Wait till the installation completes Installing Covera 2 1 Please wait while the Setup Wizard installs Covera 2 1 Status Copying new files AA Introduction 8 When you see this last screen Covera has been successfully installed on your machine y Covera 2 1 Setup EN maj C ove GA Completed the Covera 2 1 Setup Wizard gt Click the Finish button to exit the Setup Wizard Y Launch Covera 2 1 V View README file On line support You can obtain additional information and the latest version of this documentation from http www celtrio com support You may also send an e mail to support celtrio com Please note that Covera is a free product Celtrio can not guarantee that your request will be answered in a timely manner Chapter 2 WLAN basics Table of Contents NON OCR ATC HECTIC telas 4 Transmitter and T C IVCE a E SE A ele ea ee A Len 8 Radrated power DR SR ai 8 Pati dose sti dad 8 Ence Or ODSta les as di id o o cs 9 RECEIVER SENSICIVINY a a a e E E N N ANA arenes 11 Factors Impact ISS Li an 12 NWN COV EIA aristas NN abia 12 TAPS TOR SUE rs Se ot 13 Network
36. e Wireless Connection window tool in the screenshot shown below Tools can be docked or undocked to and from the dock area just grab the tool with its title bar and move it into the target dock area while pressing the mouse Only the left dock area is visible by default but you can dock tools at the top bottom left right of the map area Covera C Program Files x86 Celtrio Covera 2 1 samples outdoor cvr Outdoor survey N LISE File Edit Survey Tools Device Help F a x BOW NA em e C UNFP Signal Graph CELTRIO 00 14 BF 3C A5 84 11 Visible APs ZyDAS ZD1211 802 11 b g Wireless LAN Ed SSID RSSI Link Quality C Add Mc Webreflexe 84 dB 00 Infrastruc NEUF_D1F4 85 dB 00 Infrastruc NEUF_76DC 85 dB 00 Infrastruc _ Neuf WiFi 85 dB 00 Infrastruc F Neuf WiFi 84 dB 00 Infrastruc 9p Livebox FE38 85 dB 00 Infrastruc 6 CELTRIO 63 dB 00 Infrastruc 19 lt Hidden gt 84 dB 00 Infrastruc lt Hidden gt 78 dB FA Infrastruc _ n _ imn s nr OO A gt EJ 4 LJ 4 la y Ssid CELTRIO Link Speed 54 Mbit s A Mac Address 00 14 BF 3C A5 84 in Encryption WPA Personnal Signal RSST ques To SBE RP EEE O od Workspace e The Map Area is where the background map stations and survey points are displayed not represented here Graphical overlays can be dispayed over the map area
37. ea as long as the map 1s not calibrated yet Covera Untitled Project Campaign 1 N Cola Em File Edit Survey Tools Device Help 5 Xx e Y h A 100 Signal Graph CELTRIO 00 14 BF 3C A5 84 El 27 Visible APs ZyDAS 7D1211 802 11 b g ER SSID RSSI MAC Address yp WESEA NONE 73 dB 00 A0 F8 A8 F6 FA 19 Webreflexe 84 dB 00 14 BF 26 75 34 6 TORTUE LAN 86 dB OE E6 36 46 85 2C op titi 87 dB 00 0F A3 E0 16 E4 P SKY21_ 92 85 dB C6 4F 69 2E 4E 78 NEUF _D1F4 85 dB 00 17 33 53 D1 F5 W NEUF 76DC 85dB 00 17 33 27 76 DD Neuf WiFi 85 dB 00 17 33 27 76 E4 CP Neuf WiFi 85 dB 00 17 33 53 D1 FC yp MANAGEME 61 dB 00 OF 66 12 53 BD y ul I inba LEDO QOR AD an 1c Fr na oF 24 4 uw b Wireless connection The interface is conne Ssid CELTRIO Link Speed 54 Mbit s Alias Mac Address 00 14 8F 3C A5 84 Encryption WPA Personnal Signal RSSI quem 59 dBm There are two different methods to calibrate a map Scaling The scale of the map is determined by providing the actual distance between two reference points This method typically used on floor plans Georeferencing The map is fully georeferenced by providing the absolute position latitude longi tude of two reference points This method is typically used for aerial photographs and is compulsory if you want to use a GPS receiver Each of these two methods is represented with an icon in the calibration tool bar T
38. ec ification NDIS MAC address Service Set Identifier or SSID Equivalent Isotropically Radi ated Power or EIRP Path Loss Throughput Iperf Association of a position and network measurements acquired from this position To be defined Access point recorded from at least one survey point Access point once detected during airwaves scans but not seen again for a long time Radio signal strength reported by the wireless interface to Covera Logarithmic unit for radio signal strength reported by your Wireless NIC Computer hardware designed to allow computers to communicate over a network stands for the National Marine Electronics Association NMEA 1083 Standard defines GPS data exchange over a serial line GPS stands for Global Positioning System A radio localization system formed from a constellation of 24 satellites Can optionally be used by Covera for outdoor surveys Windows API for Network Interface Cards including wireless devices NDISS I is supported in Covera 2 1 A unique identifier for all the Wi Fi access points or NICs A code attached to all packets on a wireless network to identify each packet as part of that network Amount of power that would have to be emitted by an isotropic antenna that evenly distributes power in all directions to produce the peak power density ob served in the direction of maximum antenna gain Attenuation undergone by a RF wave in transit from a transmitter to a rec
39. eck the Enable GPS checkbox 5 Enter the port number in the Port field You can usually keep the default values for the other settings 6 Click on the OK button 60 How to We can now check that the GPS receiver has been succefully detected l From the menu select Tools GPS 2 After some time required for the GPS receiver to start up up to a few minutes you should see something like this GPS receiver State NME4 Detected Position 48 54 S8 56 W 2 17 37 56 E Satellites 4 HDOP 4 1 Current Time 02 04 2007 20 56 35 PS Survey Points Take survey point every Add Point Now gt Start How to measure HTTP throughput Your wireless infrastructure may be rated at 11 Mbps or 54Mbps it is not the throughput that network users will experience These figures give the raw capacity at the wireless physical layer When a network appli cation sends traffic on the wireless network this traffic traverses the full protocol stack Physical MAC IP TCP or UDP Each layer introduces an overhead In the case of a web client if you measure the payload throughtput at the HTTP level you will find a much lower data rate that the advertized physical data rate We give here below the theoritical maximum HTTP throughput for a 802 11b network employing short preamble Physical data rate TCP throughput Efficiency Mbit s Mbit s With Covera you can make several application level measurements We are going to explore
40. eiver Path loss may be due to many effects such as free space loss refraction diffrac tion reflection In communication networks throughput is the amount of digital data per time unit that is delivered to a certain terminal in a network from a network node or from one node to another for example via a communication link The throughput is usually measured in bit per second bit s or bps Iperf is a tool to measure maximum TCP bandwidth allowing the tuning of various parameters and UDP characteristics Iperf reports bandwidth delay jitter data gram loss 74 Index A Access Point 7 Chase AP 42 Data 50 Find 38 Visibles APs 40 C Calibration 18 Campaign Definition 15 Manager 39 D Dock Area 29 E Equivalent Isotropically Radiated Power 8 Map Area 29 R RSSI 12 Sensitivity 11 S Signal Diffraction 10 Loss 8 Reflection 9 Scattering 10 Signal Graph Dockable tool 39 Survey Point Data 49 Definition 22 W Wireless client 7 Workspace 29 75
41. endor expands to name of the vendor Organizational Unique Identified found in the MAC address Covera can play WAV sounds on various events Play sound on handover Play sound when joining a new network Play sound when adding a GPS point Chase AP If checked Covera will play the sound defined by File when the wireless device is switching to a different Access Point on the same network same SSID different MAC If checked Covera will play the sound defined by File when the wireless device is associating to a new SSID SSID changes from the current one If checked Covera will play the sound defined by File when a new survey point is automatically added to the project only when the GPS automatic mode is enabled See the section called GPS 43 Defines the sound file played when an access point is being chased See the section called Chase AP 42 55 Chapter 5 How to Table of Contents HOw to locate stations on the map enanas 56 How to merge survey points from two different projects oooooooncocccconcnnoncnnoncononnoncnnoncononnonannns 57 How to Sep a GPS receiver eco ae E AE EEPE te on 58 How to measure HTTP throughput eximir coat lados 61 How to make Iperf measurements esoo oaleares 64 Hov to COLIS OS Map srt EEE EE EEE 67 How to locate stations on the map Covera can show an icon on the map area for every known stations By default the station icon is displayed on the survey poi
42. erence a map Georeferencing a map will allow Covera to locate your current position on the map from the information provided by a GPS receiver This is useful for outdoor surveys In this section we will assume that you are using Google Earth to obtain high resolution aerial images 1 If Google Earth is not installed on your machine you can download it from http earth google com a Launch Google Earth and navigate to the place you want to survey b Set the Zoom factor so that the area of interest is taken the whole screen C The save an image File Save Save Image 67 How to Google Earth 2104 ll a Bae to My Places lt Save Place az Cris Email Save My Places Share Post Print Ctrl F Server Log Out Create a new Covera campaign with this image a Launch Covera b Click on the Add Campaign c Inthe Add Campaign wizard press Browse d Select your file and press Open e In Covera s calibration toolbar select the Georeferencing map tool 68 How to 8 Covera Untitled Project Campaign 1 File Edit Survey Tools Device Help ON Georeferencing Map 5 y A N aly ad l E Uncalibrated Map We are now going to geocalibrate this map by placing two reference points with known coordinates on the Covera map a In Google Earth Add a placemark and mo
43. ges Baud Set the baud rate or speed for the port The default value is 4800 Bits The default value is 8 Parity Parity is a method of detecting some errors in transmission The default value is No Stop bit Stop bits are sent at the end of every byte transmitted in order to allow resynchronization The default value is 1 The status of the GPS as well as your current position are displayed in the GPS tool Survey options Scanning interval Defines how often Covera will ask the wireless device to scan the airwaves Depending on the quality and responsiveness of your wireless device driver you may want to decrease this interval to improve the quality of the scan results used by Covera The default value is 3 seconds Shutdown Zero Conf at start up This setting is only available under Windows XP Zero Conf is the Windows XP service that manages your wireless connection The wireless device driver may face too much pressure when both Cov 54 Automatic MAC address alias Sound options User Interface Reference era and Zero Conf ask to scan Shuting down Zero Conf will re lease this pressure and improve the quality of the scans reported by Covera This mask is used to automatically create an alias for a newly de tected MAC address It may mix the follwing data ssid expands to the SSID of the access point identified by the MAC address channel expands to channel used by the station identified by the MAC addres v
44. he access point MAC address open the Chase AP tool If checked all the access points detected in the session are listed Otherwise only the access points seen recently are listed Wireless Connection This tool shows information about the access point you are currently connected to 41 User Interface Reference Wireless connection The interface is connected to a network F4 Ssid CELTRIO Link Speed 54 Mbit s Alias Mac Address 00 14 68F 3C 45 34 Encryption WPA Personnal Signal RSSI Gem de SSID Service Set Identifier of the current connection Link Speed Link speed of the current connection in Mbit s Mac Address MAC address of the access point you are currently connected to Alias Alias of the access point Mac Address if any Encryption Authentication and encryption used on the network you are current ly connected to WEP WPA Personal WPA2 personal WPA enterprise WPA2 enterprise Signal RSSI Bar graph representation of the Received Signal Strength Indicator Chase AP The Chase AP dockable tool provides an estimation of the distance to a chased access point with a sound feedback This is useful to locate rogue access points This tool is not visible by default to show it Select Tools Chase AP from the menu Chased Access Point 00 14 BF 30C A5 84 CELTRIO Infos Chased Access Point CELTRIO Rssi 39 dBm Mac Address 00 14 BF 3C A5 34 Vendor Cisco Estimated distance 0 Meters
45. he campaign is georeferenced For more information see the section called How to georeference a map 67 Meter R Kilometer Foot Yard Mile Lat Long 32 User Interface Reference Menu File menu File gt New Project Windows Open a new window and create an empty project Ctrl N File Open Ctrl O Open the file selection dialog to select an existing project file File gt Recent Projects Show the list of recently opened projects File gt Close project Close the current project without closing the window File gt Save Ctrl S Save the project to a file on the disk File Save As Save the project to a file on the disk under the filename you ve specified File Export Data Export raw data to various formats XML file CSV file Google Earth KML file Save a bitmap image of the map This bitmap can be larger than the File gt Save Map as Image ES map area visible on the screen File gt Page Setup Open the Page setup dialog to specify parameters before printing File gt Print Map Ctrl P Print the map using the parameters specified in Page Setup File gt Exit Alt F4 Close Covera and exit Edit Menu Edit gt Cut Ctrl X Copy the selected elements to the application clip board and delete them from the current campaign Edit gt Copy Ctrl C Copy the selected elements to the application clip board Edit Paste Ctrl P Paste the elements in the application clip board point
46. hese two factors In any 45 User Interface Reference case a test file larger that 1 Mbyte is recommended However Covera will accept any file larger than 64Kbytes Iperf What is IPerf perf is acommonly used client server network testing tool that can create TCP and UDP data streams and measure the throughput of a network that is carrying them For more informatio see http dast nlanr net projects Iperf Using Perf Covera 2 1 embeds an Iperf client to communicate with an Iperf server running on a test host and acquire TCP and UDP network performance measurements in the process Ideally the test host should be logically located just behind the wireless network For more information see the section called How to make Iperf measurements 64 You can make both TCP or UDP Iperf measurements with Covera Select the appriopriate tab in the IP Layer performance tool 1 Install Iperf on the test host You can donwload Windows and Linux version from the Iperf home page 2 Enter the address of the Iperf test host in the Address field 3 Press the Run button The result of the Iperf test is printed in the console window By default Covera is set for a TCP test IP Layer Performance Address 192 168 17 2 iperf c 192 168 17 2 p 5001 Client connecting to 192 168 17 2 TCP port 5001 TCP window size 8 00 EByte default 2024 local 192 168 17 102 port 49261 connected with 192 168 17 2 port 5001 2024 0 0 10
47. his tool bar is visible only when the map is not yet calibrated or is being re calibrated AO Done Undo For the purpose of this tutorial we are going to use the simplest calibration method scaling You will need to know the distance between two reference points on your map for instance the length of a corridor If you don t have any reference distance you can use an approximate value since the map can be re calibrated later 1 Select the Scaling Map icon from the calibration tool bar This is the default calibration tool so it may be selected already 18 Getting started 2 On the map click on the position of the first reference point with the left mouse button A cross symbol will be displayed on this first reference position 3 Move the pointer to the second reference point while pressing the left mouse button This will draw a line between the two reference points 4 The Scaling Map dialog box will show up after you released the mouse over the second refrence point Now enter the known Distance between the two points You can choose the length unit in the menu 19 Getting started 5 Inthe Scaling Map dialog press OK to validate the distance between your two reference points At the bottom of the map area the message on the red ribbon will change to Map is scaled OPP PPP ee ee EE A CC eC CNE CR MR MAR MA MA M M RM M MN M RM uc uns A oo K j i Map is sca e If you have made a mistake
48. ide observe the client connection Server listening on TCP port 5001 TCP window size 85 3 KByte default 4 local 192 168 17 2 port 5001 connected with 192 163 1 7 105 port 4488 4 0 0 1 0 sec 888 KBytes 7 27 Mbits sec 4 1 0 2 0 sec 888 KBytes 7 27 Mbits sec 4 2 0 3 0 sec 1 00 MBytes 8 42 Mbits sec 4 3 0 4 0 sec 1 43 MBytes 12 0 Mbits sec 4 4 0 5 0 sec 1 77 MBytes 14 8 Mbits sec 4 5 0 6 0 sec 1 46 MBytes 12 2 Mbits sec 4 6 0 7 0 sec 1 65 MBytes 13 8 Mbits sec 4 7 0 8 0 sec 1 28 MBytes 10 7 Mbits sec 4 8 0 9 0 sec 1 17 MBytes 9 84 Mbits sec 4 9 0 10 0 sec 1 01 MBytes 8 47 Mbits sec 4 0 0 10 0 sec 12 5 MBytes 10 5 Mbits sec The result in the Covera Iperf client is 65 How to Address 192 168 17 2 Iperf c 192 168 17 2 p 5001 Client connecting to 152 168 17 2 TCP port 5001 ICP window size 8 00 EByte default 2024 local 192 168 17 102 port 49261 connected with 192 168 17 2 port 5001 2024 0 0 10 0 sec 14 8 MBytes 12 4 Mbits sec E Enable Iperf TCP We can also use Iperf to generate UDP traffic that will simulate real time voice traffic 1 On the server side stop the server with Ctrl C and restart it with the following options bash iperf server port 5001 udp Server listening on UDP port 5001 Receiving 1470 byte datagrams UDP buffer size 107 KByte default In Covera at the client side click on the Options button In the Options dialog lt
49. ignal graph grid Show or hide the vertical lines of the signal graph grid The string displayed in the title bar of the Visible APs can be customized using keywords Window Title Gps receiver options adapter name of the current wireless device naps number of visible APs dur ing the last scan on the cur rent wireless device Covera can get your position from a GPS receiver exporting NMEA messages over a serial port To be able to use the GPS receiver check the Enable GPS receiver box 53 User Interface Reference Options ollel General Options Gps receiver 4 User Interface Enable GPS Signal Graph Serial Port Settings Visible APs Port AUTO DETECT Survey Options Bits E m View Options Parity No v Sound Options Stop bit 4 y Default Settings Co J _cma ay USB and Bluetooth GPS receivers are also supported via virtual serial ports A virtual serial port is a software driver that will create a new serial port on your system bridging USB Bluetooth communication with the GPS receiver Covera will see this virtual port just like a normal serial port Please check with your GPS manufacturer for the availability of a virtual serial port driver Port Index of the serial port on your Windows system COMx If set to AUTO DETECT then Covera will try to detect on which port a GPS receiver is connected but trying to open every port and listen to NMEA compatible messa
50. ill show up D Confirm Survey Points Delete ES Delete these 3 Survey Points Mes Alternatively you can also delete selected points from e the contextual Menu e the Edit menu 4 Click on Yes in the confirmation box 2l Chapter 4 User Interface Reference Table of Contents ONCE D De D Ae re DOCK ATC rs AR dt St eo Dockable Tools A A enter n ant Mapas a a o tl Ce er A E A A O A A FUE MINS nda A A a SUTVEY VICO a o caos TOO MENI 1 A A AAA A AD Device MONU a A ds Help MORT rr AAA A AR KeyboardshortGuts picando did da Napo BARS RS Sd ai SULVEY LOOL DA SR cod Campani WIZARD ete Fad daon yd side o A O A A A O A ee ee ROT ee Se a LAA bis Campai Manager al as WiISIDIC INES ado a da Wireless OMR CO A O CASAR da ES A A A de dt tienne EPdayer PerlOrmanCe a da a ees SUV CY EME DATA 10 E E aaa telat Gils e ido ACCESS Pont Dala oasis ODONI a E RAA cna eens eae Gt ahaa Ne de Ne General Options ardido ad Ser internace ODAONS ni A atau GPS TECE Ver OPON a Motos SUNE OPUS AA A A SOU OPLONS air 28 User Interface Reference Overview Covera s workspace is divided in two main areas e At the top of the main window you will see the menu and tool bars Each tool bar can be individually moved or hidden A right click over a tool bar will show the associated contextual menu Menu bar File Edit Survey Tools Device Help w Sud ina e KAMA e The Dock area can hold dockable tools like th
51. lication is launched and reported in the NMEA Detected state However the GPS receiver may need some time to provide the first position fix When it is ready and starts sending positions the GPS tool will look like this 43 User Interface Reference GPS receiver State NMEA Detected Position 4 8 54558 56 M 2 17 37 56 E Satellites HDOP 4 1 Current Time 02 04 2007 20 56 35 GPS Survey Points Take a survey point every Meters LA JP Add Point Now gt Start The following GPS survey points actions are available only for georeferenced campaign Start Click on this button to start automatic survey point acquisition Take a survey point every Minimum distance between two GPS position fixes that will trigger a survey point acquisition The unit can be specified in the drop down menu qu Ada Point now A a survey point with the current actually last known GPS position If the map is georeferenced two circles centered on the position reported by the GPS receiver are displayed on the map ION AE VON ATA a You can get more information on geocalibration in the the section called How to georeference a map 67 IP layer performance Beyond layer 2 RSSI measurements Covera can also make IP layer performance measurements when you add a new survey point on the map Four different measurement methods are available 44 HTTP User Interface Reference e HTTP throughput e Latency of I
52. like a scale legend at the bottom right corner 29 User Interface Reference Dock Area You can undock a tool by grabbing its title bar and move it out of the dock area while pressing the mouse as shown below bebaja X E Covera C Program Files x86 Celtrio Covera 2 1 samples indoor cvr Campaign 1 File Edit Survey Tools Device Help au Na e e C 8 HS 3 Signal Graph CELTRIO 00 14 BF ES 8 Visible APs ZyDAS ZD1211 802 El SSID MANAGEMENT 19 Livebox FE38 CP freephonie CELTRIO 19 lt Hidden gt 19 lt Hidden gt 19 lt Hidden gt lt Hidden gt RSSI 61 dB 85 dB 86 dB 60 dB 83 dB 86 dB 86 dB 86 dB Link Qui CELTRIO p Wireless i interface i El Ssid CELTRIO Link Speed 54 Mbit s Alias Address 00 14 8F 3C A5 84 Encryption WPA Personnal Signal RSSI som 60 dBm f To completly show hide a dock area use the handlers shown below Different possible configurations of the dock areas are shown below Signal Graph CELTRIO 00 14 BF 3C A5 84 F1 Wireless connection The interface 9 25 Visible APs ZyDAS ZD1211 802 11 b g Wire E Ssid CELTRIO Link Speed 54 Mbit s SSID op WESEA_NONE Alias Mac Address 00 14 8F 3C A5 34 Encryption WPA Personnal Signal RSSI som 62 dBm C Webreflexe yp NEUF_D1F4 Ow NEUF _76DC Neuf WiFi Y Neuf WiFi R
53. lt Iperf UDP Options Port 5002 Interval Time To Transmit Butter Length UDP bandwidth a Check the UDP radio button b Set the UDP Bandwith field to 50m for 5OMbit s We want to estimate the maximum throughput on the wireless network That s why we should set UDP Bandwidth greater than the maximum throughput expected on the network If this setting is too small Iperf will just confirm that the defined amount of UDP packet have gone through without problem without stressing the network c Click on the OK button 66 How to Make sure the server s firewall allows UDP traffic on port 5001 and press Run 5 At the server side you will see something like this Server listening on UDP port 5001 Receiving 1470 byte datagrams UDP buffer size 107 KByte default local 192 168 17 2 port 5001 connected with 192 168 17 105 port 1136 3 0 0 10 0 sec 14 1 MBytes 11 9 Mbits sec 2 569 ms 0 10072 0 3 0 0 10 0 sec 1 datagrams received out of order amd in Covera on the client machine Address 192 168 17 2 Client connecting to 152 168 17 2 UDP port 5002 Sending 1470 byte datagrama UDP buffer size 8 00 KByte default 2004 192 168 17 2 port 500 2004 0 0 10 0 sec 14 1 MBytes 11 8 Mbits sec 2004 Sent 10064 datagrams 2004 Server Report 2004 local 192 168 17 102 port 49245 connected with 0 0 10 0 sec 14 1 MBytes 11 8 Mbits sec 2 342 ma 07 10064 0 Enable Iperf UDP How to georef
54. n Iperf is a free commmand line tool for measuring TCP and UDP throughput performance in a client server set up Covera contains an embedded Iperf client to make measurements against a test Iperf server To run an Iperf test you will need e A Windows machine with a wireless connection to the wireless network under test and running Covera e A test server Linux or Windows with a wired connection to the wireless network under test Ideally the server is plugged on the same Ethernet switch as the access points 64 How to We are now going to prepare the Iperf server for a TCP test that will simulate typical data application traffic like Web or Mail traffic 3 Download Iperf from http dast nlanr net Projects Iperf and install it on your test server Windows or Linux On the server machine type the following command to start the iperf server bash iperf server port 5001 interval 1 Server listening on TCP port 5001 TCP windows size 85 3 KByte default If you want to use a different port replace 5001 with the desired port number The Iperf server is now waiting for a connection from a test client Make sure the firewall on the test server will allow TCP traffic on port 5001 On the test machine running Covera pd From the menu select Tools IP Layer Performance Press the Iperf tab Set the address of the server in the Address field In our case 192 168 17 2 Press the Run button At the server s
55. n my laptop goes into sleep mode Covera and the necessary Windows services may no longer be running Disable the sleep mode Option Panel gt Power gt to be complete 12 Frequently Asked Questions 2 Miscellaneous My firewall software raises an alert when I open the user guide Why Personal firewall software may issue a warning about the connection Covera makes to the help browser process using the machine s internal loop back interface This connection is not visible on any external interface and no data is sent to or received from the Internet How can I speed up the calculation of a view Use the Easy Regression algorithm instead of the slower Legacy regression If you really wan to use Legacy Regression decrease the regularization factor With both regression algorithms you can also improve the calculation time by decreasing the Resolution Decreasing the resolution will reduce the quality of the countour lines but should be OK for heat maps What is the maximum number of survey points in a project The number of survey points Covera can handle will depend on the configuration of your machine For a typical configuration you can handle thousands of points However opening and saving a project will take more time in this case If a given source AP is recorded in all these points the view calculation for this source will be important Why are the RSSI values shown in the bottom left different from the measurements
56. nt where the signal from this station is the strongest You can manually move this icon if you kown the exact position the station 1 We need first to create a simple campaign with some dummy data a From the menu Survey gt Add Campagin b We do not need a background image for this dummy campaign In the Add Campagin dialog just click on the OK button c Inthe toolbar select the Add survey point tool d Now take a few survey points by clicking on the map area When you took this survey point you have probably recorded the signal of some stations From the menu select Edit Find 3 Inthe Find dialog check the Find access point radio button Find 00 14 BF 3C A5 84 x Locate source Access Point Reset Location Find Survey Points 4 Center Map Area on Position e You can also display the dialog by pressing Ctl F on the keyboard 4 Check Center map area on result 5 Now select the Mac address of the station you want to locate in the drop drop menu When opened you can resize the menu by gradding its bottom right corner 56 How to lt gt Find 00 14 BF 3C A5 84 Cisco Linksys CELTRIO 00 16 38 57 20 F5 Tecom Tecom 00 16 38 F5 19 D9 Tecom Tecom 2 00 0F 66 14 53 BD Cisco Linksys MANAGEMENT 00 A0 FE AB F6 FA Symbol WESEA NONE 44 14 39 71 14 80 MANUA MANUAL 4A4 14 39 71 14 81 MANUAL MANUAL 2 4A 14 39 71 14 82 MANUAL MANUAL 31 4A 14 39 71 12 83 MANUAL MANUAL 4 C2 09 BC 2B E4 AD
57. nterprise WPA2 enterprise Cipher Encryption cipher None CCMP TKIP Authentication Authentication and Key Management None Pre shared key 802 1X Supported rates list of all the supported rates advertized by this station Connected Network connection was established with this access point when the survey point was recorded HTTP Throughput throughtput measurement during a HTTP test optional Iperf TCP throughtput measurement during an TCP Iperf test optional Throughput Iperf UDP throughtput measurement during an UDP Iperf test optional Throughput Iperf Jitter jitter measurements in ms during an UDP Iperf test optional Access Point Data The Access Point Data dockable shows data recorded for an access point or station in adhoc mode identified by its MAC address To show this tool select Tools Access Point Data from the menu bar Alternatively you can also double click on an access point icon in the map area 50 Mac Address SSID Encryption Supported Rates Channel Mode Vendor Type Alias X Y Locate Options User Interface Reference MAC Address SSID Encryption Supported Rates Channel Mode Vendor Type Alias Kr 00 0F 66 14A 53 B0 MANAGEMENT None 175 569 11 12 18 74 35 418 54 6 Infrastructure Cisco Linksys G MANAGEMENT ch6 360 Reset Position MAC address of the station Network name broadcasted by the station authentication and en
58. o the section called How to locate stations on the map 56 Tools All the available tools are described here after You can see the list of all these by opening the Tools menu Signal graph This tool shows the RSSI signal strength history of the station identified in the title bar The green graph represents the instant RSSI the yellow line represents the moving average of the instant value You can modify the averaging windows in the options By default the station you are currently connected to is plotted You can change this by dragging a station from the Visible APs tool and droping it into the Signal Graph tool The pace of the horizontal scrolling is defined by the scanning frequency which can also be set in the options Campaign manager This tool shows all the campaigns contained in the project a Outdoor survey 00 40 F5 AC 61 9E myWireless 00 A0 F A5 FF myWireless 5 00 A0 FS A6 00 31 myWireless 0 00 A0 F5 A45 FF CA myWireless 6 00 40 F5 49 D0 44 myWireless 1 00 A0 FS5 AC 63 D0E myWireless 2 i Access Points Add campaign create a campaign with the Campaign Wizard x Delete remove the selected campaign and all its data from the project For every stations listed a contextual menu is available with a right click The Locate source action will display a station icon on the map area next to the survey point with the strongest RSSI 39 Visible APs User Interface Reference Set
59. ote If you are installing Covera on a Windows XP machine make sure you are using an account with Administrator privileges 2 Under Windows Vista and depending on the machine s security settings you may see the following additional dialogs Do you want to nun this file CE Name CUsersitest Desktop Setup_ Covera_2 1 exe Publisher CELTRIO Type Application From C Users test Desktop Setup_ Covera_2 1 exe Always ask before opening this file al While files from the Intemet can be useful this file type can E potentially harm your computer Only run software from publishers you trust What s the risk Click on Run P A program needs your permission to continue If you started this program continue io Covera 2 1 Installer CELTRIO User Account Control helps stop unauthorized changes to your computer Click on Continue de Introduction This will launch the Covera installer wizard C ove fo Welcome to the Covera 2 1 Setup Wizard Ss The Setup Wizard will install Covera 2 1 on your computer Click Next to continue or Cancel to exit the Setup Wizard Click on Next to start the installation procedure If you want to exit the procedure just press Cancel Read the License Agreement and check the I accept the terms in the License Agreement box then press Next End User License Agreement Please read the following license agreement carefully This License Agreement is a legal agreement between
60. ou take the better the regression and the accuracy of the generated coverage map e FOR DRIVE TESTS You should use an external antenna connected to the client Ideally this antenna will be mounted on the roof of the car It is recommended to set a step of at least 50 meters between automatic GPS survey points If the GPS step is too small a new wireless scan cannot be completed between each step and you will record the same wireless network data on multiple GPS positions e FOR WALK TESTS You should always face the closest access point when making a survey point This will ensure that the measurements for the closest AP will not be biased by the body screen effect Ve NO YES e Try to make site survey campaigns while the area is quiet this is to avoid temporary obstacles like people walking in the corridors e For each survey point make sure the measurement terminal always have the same vertical orientation As most Access Points have vertical antennas this will ensure that the same relative orientation to the access point is maintained for all survey points 13 Chapter 3 Getting started Table of Contents CRCAMM OG o A PP PE o A In 14 Adding a campaign to a project oocccococccconcnnoncnnoncnncnnononno eens eens eens eee ee eee eeeeseeeeeenseaeeseeeaennegs 15 CAD AS ATMA noia 18 Controles CARS DES DA pios 20 SN POS Doc lie guste ches Go ee ot de 22 Adding a s rvey Point serrat 25 Content Ot A SUIVey PO as D ne ie ae
61. oughput Covera can make network latency estimation by measuring ICMP ping packet round trip time from Covera to a test host ideally just behind the wireless network 1 Enter the address of the test host in the Address field 2 Press the Run button The result of the ping request is printed in the console window 47 User Interface Reference Address www google com Ping www google com Pinging www l gqoogle com 209 85 135 103 with 32 bytes of data Reply from 209 85 135 103 bytes 32 time 46ms TIL 244 Packets Sent 1 Received 1 Lost O 0 loss Minimum 46ma Maximum 46ms Average 46ms E ent Pns Address IP address or fully qualified host name of the test host Enable Ping If checked the ping latency test will run for new survey points and Clear Run O the result will be recorded on the new point Clear the console window Run the ping test and output the result in the console winow The result is not recorded in any survey point Note Make sure that the firewall running on the test host will allow replies to ICMP pings The embedded ping client accepts the same options as the command line ping command Press on the Options button to open the Ping Options dialog lt gt Ping Options Number of bytes to send Number of echo requests to send Timeout in seconds Time to live E Set IP don t fragment flag Number of bytes to send Number of bytes in the payload of every
62. provided by the wireless interface driver called the Received Signal Strength Indicator or RSSI On a typical WLAN RSSI will range from 20 dBm very close to the AP to 95 dBm away from the AP The following table shows the sensitivity threshold for a typical 802 11 b g network device Assuming a 10 dBm margin to account for the inevitable RSSI fluctuations in the link budget the current generation of 802 11b g devices can maintain a wireless connection for a signal stronger than 84 dBm However a good connection will require at least 75dBm Signal Strengh Link Speed Theoretical free Theoretical free dBm Mbps space range space range meter feet Given the above client sensitivity specification we make the following assumptions to calculate the the oretical range of an access point e the access point transmits at EIRP 100 mW 20 dBm e free space loss propagation i e no obstacles at all along the way e 10 dB margin in the link budget As the client moves away from the access point the signal decreases an the wireless client access point will automatically switch to a lower but more robust link speed The calculated ranges may seem very optimistic when compared it to real world ranges The reason is that in real world deployments obstacles do exist and even a few of them will severely impact the range 11 WLAN basics Factors impacting RSSI As we have seen in the previous sections different propagation effects
63. r dic 31 INIAP ANCA RER An os 31 o A na estecn se heeeanuadaGc E EA 33 Pale Menu a EA Na 33 EXILE METU astra ti 33 SUE MEDU o add 34 MA AN 34 DEVICE MON A o 34 HEMEN at a A A iS 34 Keyboard shoricuis ant da ae it lie 35 Map stOOl Dak usd loe ae de dad tien td 36 SUNO TOOL DA ni ni A abs 36 Campas Wizard daria o to isis are a datos wits 37 Fad e a e ie des yes ened dan nn need 38 A O AE 39 DISMAL CLAP NA E Suaaens 39 Campa oi Mmana er tai iia da dr in 39 VMISIDIS ARS andado 40 Wireless E ORNEC THON aiana AEE dd criba ica tunes 41 1V Covera 2 1 CASAR da 42 CES ais bossa 43 IP layer PerlOrmanCe gt iv SS ESA AA AN 44 Suvey POM Data anal 49 ACCESS POMEDALA A 50 ODORS stain resale sate ete la De rea 51 Genial ODUGNS a a AS A ido 52 USSFAINM EACS ODUONS ta 53 CDS T CCIVeL ODUONS dy do imenne ire ea lite 53 SN OPUS ds once SR ed to 54 SOU ODLIONS NN AE A AU RS 55 D HOME TO A IO A ian techs heed E 56 Howto locate Stations on the map ada iaa 56 How to merge survey points from two different projects oooooocccoconcnnoncnnonnoncnnoncnnoncononos 57 How to setup a ES CRIN cs nr a E a a 58 Howto measure HT IP throughput ad ad 61 How t make Iperf measurements eiii dan 64 HOw 1O SCOnElerenCe DaD sii 67 0 tequentiv Asked Questions a A A is 12 GLOSSA dt SAA UA dut 74 EEE A NA 75 Chapter 1 Introduction Table of Contents Wat 1S COVER di E A A A AA A l Whats new MEO ra Jl ta a Ses en l
64. rkspace in project file Save view calculations in project file Calculate views when opening a project file Prompt when memory require ments exceeds Preferred Units Check for updates at start up Your project data can be regularly saved in the background In cash of a crash you will have the opportunity to recover your data when re launching Covera You can specify the interval in seconds be tween auto save events If set to Never 0 sec project data will not be automatically saved If checked Covera will save your workspace state dockable tools positions dock areas toolbars to the project file In this the case the workspace is restored when you open the project file The results of the view calculations can be saved in the project When the project is opened all the views are restored without any calculations This will increase the size of the project file but will save the calculation time When a project file is opened Covera automatically start calcula tions to restore the views The whole uncompressed image of the background map must fit into memory This may cause your system to swap when very large images are imported Covera will show a warning message if the required memory execeeds this limit If you have enough memory on your system you can safely ignore this message or increase this value which is set to 64 Mbytes by default Define whether the Metric system or English units should be used
65. rocedure l In Windows XP select Start Control Panel 2 Click on the System icon 3 Select the Hardware tab 4 Press on the Device Manager button 5 In the tree list showing all the devices open the Ports COM amp LPT branch a Gestionnaire de p riph riques OI Fichier Action Affichage an S eee 5 2 INSPIRON6400 DEL Batteries ME Cartes graphiques x Cartes h te SD Ga EF Cartes r seau HeD Claviers i Contr leurs audio vid o et jeu fa G Contr leurs de bus USE a Contr leurs de stockage Ga q Contr leurs h te de bus IEEE 1394 61 63 Contr leurs IDE ATA ATAPI Lecteurs de disque a 3 Lecteurs de DVD CD ROM a g Modems mM Moniteurs ELS Ordinateur q 4 P riph riques d interface utilisateur H E P riph riques systeme a Ports COM et LPT m Ed Prolific USB to Serial Comm Port COMA m i Processeurs c souris et autres p riph riques de pointage 6 Identify the serial port used by the GPS and note down the port number x COMx In this example a virtual port is created on COM4 for a USB GPS 59 How to Now we can configure Covera 1 Launch Covera 2 Select Tools gt Options from the menu 3 Select the GPS receiver branch Options General Options Gps receiver 4 User Interface Fl Enable GPS Signal Graph Serial Port Settings Visible APs Port AUTO DETECT Saud 4300 Survey Options sE View i i ac Parity No Default Settings 4 Ch
66. s to the cur rent campaign Create a new campaign with the elements in the application clip Edit gt Paste as new campaign board map and points Edit gt Delete Del Delete the selected elements Edit gt Select All Ctrl A Select all survey points and stations on the map Edit Invert Selection Ctrl I Invert the selection of survey points Set a survey point ignore flag Ignored points are not used by the Edit gt Ignore point regression algorithm when calculating views 33 Edit gt Update point Edit gt Find Ctrl F Survey Menu Survey Add campaign Survey Delete campaign Survey Recalibrate Survey gt Set Background Im age Survey gt Lock points Lock all points Survey gt Lock points Lock only GPS points Survey gt Circle GPS survey points Tools menu User Interface Reference Update the measurements for the active survey point represented with a blue dot Open the Find dialog to locate survey points or stations on the map Add a campaign to the current project Delete the current campaign Recalibrate the background map Change the background map None of the survey points can be moved None of the points acquired automatically with a GPS receiver can be moved Display a circle around GPS survey points Manual survey points will be represented normally The Tools menu contains the list of all available dockable windows Tools gt Survey
67. s transferred in 273 ms If you make the same several times by pressing Run you will notice some random variability in the result A large test file will give more repetable measurements but entails a longer measurement Choosing the right size for your test file is a matter of compromise between these two factors Covera will refuse files smaller than 64Kbyte We recommand using a file at least 1 MByte Because the HTTP test takes some time to complete it is not enabled by default when you make a new survey point on the map If you want to run a HTTP for each survey point just check the Enabled check box 63 How to HITE 192 168 17 _2f h1j test data 45 419 Mbit s 5544 30 Kbvyte s 692638 bytes transferred in 122 ms W Enable HT O Note e Make sure there is no throttling in your network e Make sure there is not firewall or port blocking to access the test server on port 80 e If you have several network interface on the test client make sure only the wirelss interface is activated Otherwise you may measure throughput on a different interface How to make Iperf measurements In a wireless network the following factors may cause much lower IP throughput than the advertised link speed e Protocol overhead e Retransmission of lost or corrupt packets at the TCP level or the 802 11 MAC level e collision avoidance in 802 1 IMAC may cause back off waiting time and retransmissio
68. se the zoom factor 2 You can also move around the map a Inthe tool bar select the Move tool DE When you move the cursor over the map area it turns into an opened hand icon b Press the left mouse button over the area you want to grab The cursor turns into a closed hand C When you release the mouse the map will keep its new position inside the map area 21 Getting started 3 When the zoom factor is important it is easy to get lost in the magnified map In this case you can display a navigation map that shows an overview of the whole map We call it the navigation miniature a At the bottom right of the main window press on the navigation miniature icon e The navigation miniature is visible as long as you keep pressing on the mouse a z Je Ae b While pressing move the cursor over the navigation miniature Notice the black frame over the miniature it shows the portion of the whole map which is currently visible inside the map area The size of the black frame depends on the zoom factor the higher the zoom factor the smaller the frame Additionnally when you move the black frame over the miniature notice that your position is modified accordingly in the main map area The size of the navigation miniature can be defined in the the section called User interface op tions 53 For more information see also the section called Map tool bar 36 Survey Points Survey poin
69. tacles We have seen that microwaves used by Wireless LANS propagate along straight lines from the transmitter to the receiver This is the ideal case in real environments air and distance are not the only obstacles encountered by WLAN transmissions Typical obstacles such as windows doors walls desks and even people will significantly attenuate WLAN transmission signal but it can still be strong enough to maintain a link over tenths of meters with only a near line of sight or even without line of sight at all depending on the environment This is due to the properties of radio waves that can be reflected diffracted or scattered by obstacles Eventually the transmission reaches the receiver attenuated by the combination of all these effects When the transmitted signal is striking a surface it will either be absorbed reflected or be a combination of both depending on the obstacles and signal properties Obstacles properties are the surfaces geome try texture and material composition Signal properties are the arriving incident angle orientation and wavelength Incoming Signal Partial Thru Signal Reflected Signal A diffracted wave front is formed when the transmitted signal is obstructed by sharp edges in the prop agation path Secondary waves are formed behind the obstructing body even though there is no line of sight Indoor environments contain many such edges and openings WLAN basics DIFFRACTED SIGNAL INC
70. the simplest throughput test HTTP To do that you will need a server running a HTTP daemon Covera will use its embedded HTTP client to fetch a file from the test server throught the wireless network under test and calculate the observed HTTP throughtput from that To measure the performance on the wirelss segment of your network make sure the Test client is as close as possible to the HTTP test server in terms of network topology The wireless access points and the test server should be all connected to same Ethernet switch 61 How to From the menu select Tools IP Layer Performance The corresponding tool window will show up Address 192 168 17 2 _ Pinging 192 168 17 2 with 32 bytes of data Reply from 192 168 17 2 bytes 32 time ims TIL 64 Received 1 Lost 0 0 loss Minimum 2ms Maximum 2ms Average m8 Packets Sent 1 Seti Pra Select the HTTP tab Enter the full URL to your test file on the test server On Celtrio s test network it is http 192 168 17 2 test data 62 How to Address htto 192 168 17 2 135 data HTTP 192 168 17 _2 135 data 11 690 Mbit s 1426 99 Ebyte s 137356 bytes transferred in 94 ms Co 4 Press on Run and observe the output in the console Address http 192 168 17 2 hij test data HITP 192 1608 17 _2 h1 test data 20 297 Mbit s 2477 67 Ebyte s 692638 byte
71. ts are a key concept in Covera Think of a survey point or point as the association of the following elements e a position e measurements typically RSSI acquired while the client is standing at this position e meta information time name Survey Points are taken manually by clicking on a position on the map or automatically with a GPS receiv er that will provide the positionning data See the section called How to set up a GPS receiver 58 for more information 22 Getting started Adding a survey point Once you have created a campaign and calibrated a map you can start adding survey points to the current campaign 1 Select the Add Survey Points tool in the toolbar DAS 2 If you move the cursor over the map area it turns into a target symbol 3 Click on the map to add a survey point For each click Covera records network measurements and associates the results to the position pinpointed on the map Every point is automatically labeled with a unique number Content of a Survey Point To view the data recorded for a survey point just double click on the point The Survey Point Data tool appears on the screen You can resize it so that all the columns and lines fit the window Survey Point Data 28 SSID 5 MAC Address Type myWireless 00 A0 FE8 A6 00 31 myWireless 00 A0 F8 AC 63 0E myWireless 00 A0 FE AC 61 9B myWireless O0 A0 FE AS FF CA myWireless 00 A0 FA A5 FF D6 Mame 28 48953 30 10 M 2
72. utton 2 In the contextual menu choose Overlay North 71 Chapter 6 Frequently Asked Questions Table of Contents l Network and Wireless MEASUPEMICNIS ta ia SLR Ne Der tin 12 Q My Internet access is slow when I m running Covera Why ccccececeeceseeeeeeenenees 12 Oe What does RSS Mean A AAA 72 Q After I ve set the scanning interval to 1s I get weird RSSI measurement Why 72 Q I have a Wi Fi interface mon my machine but I get the message Cannot find a wireless device at launch What s the problem ooooccccccocccconcnnoncnncnconcnnononncncononnonannons 12 Q A flat signal is reported all over the survey area Why 2 12 Q Covera does not record anything when my laptop goes into sleep mode 72 DVIS CEM ANC OU Gr Sr taamaw easel E ds nus fn 15 Q My firewall software raises an alert when I open the user guide Why 73 Q How can I speed up the calculation of a view 2 0 cece cece cence cence eee ee ene eens eeeea enone 73 Q What is the maximum number of survey points in a project 73 Q Why are the RSSI values shown in the bottom left different from the measurements 73 Q What are the different methods to calibrate a Map cece cece cence cence sence eeneneeaeneenes 73 1 Network and wireless measurements Q A My Internet access is slow when I m running Covera Why If
73. ve it to a first reference point The coordinates of the placemark are shown in the Google Earth New dialog 69 How to 5 Google Earth New Name enter tu Latitude 464030 F6 N Longitude 248 28 42 Description Style Color Description b Copy the latitude to the clipboard c In Covera click on the same reference point position The Georeferencing map dialog will show up d Copy the clipboard into the Latitude field Y Georeferencing map Coordinates for the pixel 162 168 Latitude 49 2418 93 N Longitude e Back in Google Earth copy the longitude f In Covera copy the clipboard into the Longitude field g Press the OK button to validate the first reference point Repeat the previous operation for a second reference point The further from the first one the better the calibration a In Google Earth move the placemark to a second reference point 70 e f How to Copy the latitude to the clipboard In Covera copy the clipboard into the Latitude field Back in Google Earth copy the longitude In Covera copy the clipboard into the Longitude field Press the OK button to validate the second reference point 5 In Covera click on the Done button You now have a geocalibrated campaign that you can use with a GPS receiver You may check that the geocalibration is correct by showing the North on the map 1 Click on the map area with the right mouse b
74. you either an individual or a single entity and CELTRIO SARL CELTRIO BY DOWNLOADING AND INSTALLING COPYING OR OTHERWISE USING THE SOFIWARE YOU AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THE TERMS OF THIS LICENSE AGREEMENT IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT YOU MAY NOT DOWNLOAD INSTALL COPY OR USE THE SOFTWARE AND YOU MAY RETURN THE UNUSED SOFTWARE TO THE VENDOR FROM WHICH YOU ACQUIRED IT WITHIN THIRTY 30 DAYS AND REQUEST A REFUND OF THE LICENSE FEE IF ANY ALREADY PAID UPON SHOWING PROOF OF PAYMENT YOU MEANS THE NATURAL I accept the terms in the License Agreement If you want to install Covera in a different place than the proposed folder you can specify it on this screen Press Next to continue Destination Folder Click Next to install to the default folder or click Browse to choose another Install Covera 2 1 to C Program Files Celtrio Covera 2 11 6 Introduction On this screen you can choose to make a Typical installation or to select components for a Custom installation It is recommended to choose the Typical installation Press Next to continue Choose Setup Type Choose the setup type that best suits your needs Typical Installs the most common program features Recommended for most users O Custom Allows users to choose which program features will be installed and where they will be installed Recommended for advanced users Complete All program features will be installe
75. your machine is connected to the Internet via the wireless interface you will notice that the Internet throughput is lower when Covera is running This is because Covera frequently scans the airwaves leaving less time for actual traffic to go through the wireless link If you shutdown Covera or if you decrease the scanning frequency the situation will improve What does RSSI mean RSSI means Received Signal Strength Indicator It is a measurement of the signal strength acquired by the 802 11 device in the machine running Covera See also the section called Path loss 8 After I ve set the scanning interval to 1s I get weird RSSI measurement Why Covera will ask your wireless device for a new scan every x seconds When this interval is set below below 2s the driver may report strange RSSI measurements depending on the driver implementation In this case just increase the interval in the options I have a Wi Fi interface mon my machine but I get the message Cannot find a wireless device at launch What s the problem Make sure your are running Covera from an account with administrator privileges A flat signal is reported all over the survey area Why Certain versions of the driver for Broadcom 802 11 chipset will erroneously report a flat signal The solution is to upgrade your driver to the latest version For Dell systems upgrade your driver to 4 100 15 5 or higher Dell file R140747 Covera does not record anything whe
76. ys Dock area at the right of the map area You can reset the workspace at any time and get all the dockable tools back to their default positions by choosing Tools Reset Workspace from the menu bar Dockable Tools To dock undock a tool just grab its title bar and moved it in out the dock area while pressing the mouse You can also move a tool over the workspace and avoid docking by grabbing its title bar and clicking the right mouse button Alternatively you can use the left mouse and the Ctrl key at the same time All the dockable tools share the same action icons in the title bar Fa expand or collapse the dockable tool E Close the tool You can always re open a closed dockable tools by selecting 1t directly from the Tools menu Map area The background map are displayed inside the map area Scroll bars around the map can be used to navigate in large maps The navigation icon located on the lower right corner of the map Er is used to show a miniature of the background map This 1s useful to simplify the navigation over large maps as shown below 31 User Interface Reference When you move the mouse over the map notice that the corresponding coordinates are displayed in the Status bar 364 000 1116 000 px If you click on the coordinates in the status bar you will have the option to select the coordinates unit You can choose to display latitude and longitude coordinates when t

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