Applies To: WatchGuard Cloud-managed Access Points (AP130, AP330, AP332CR, AP430CR, AP432)
WatchGuard’s Wi-Fi design team can help you collect your requirements and create a predictive site survey that shows the approximate number of access points and install locations for your deployment.
WatchGuard provides to partners a Wi-Fi Requirements Questionnaire that specifies the data required to create a site survey report for the deployment. The site survey includes sizing information for the number and types of access points required by the wireless network, and a deployment floor plan with suggested access point placement.
To view the questionnaire, log in to your partner account on the WatchGuard web site and go to Product > Selling Secure Wi-Fi.
Wi-Fi Requirements Questionnaire
The Wi-Fi requirements questionnaire includes several sections about the deployment.
Facility
This section goes into physical detail about the facility where the Wi-Fi network will be deployed. It is very important that you provide as many specific details as possible to make sure the predictive site survey is accurate.
- Type of building (Office, school, retail, etc.)
- Indoor or outdoor deployment
- Length and width of the floor plan (For example: 23 x 22 meters)
- Type of building materials for the walls, ceiling, doors, and exterior (For example: drywall, concrete, glass, metal, brick etc.)
Users and Applications
This section requires detailed information about the number and types of users and applications that will use the wireless network. This includes:
- Total number of users
- Expected number of simultaneous Wi-Fi users
- Highest density of users at a single time
- Applications and services in use (For example: web, email, audio, video)
- Estimated bandwidth usage (For example: 50 Mbps per user)
Power
This section defines the power requirements, cabling systems, and capacity of the network equipment:
- Power requirements for your access points such as PoE, PoE+, and power adapter availability.
- Bandwidth capacity of the access point switch port (between the AP and the edge switch. For example: 10 Gbps)
- Bandwidth capacity of the uplink switch port (between the edge switch and the core/distribution switch. For example: 60 Gbps)
Access Point Mounting
This section describes how the access points will be placed and mounted. For example, wall mount or ceiling mount for indoor access points, or pole or wall mount for outdoor access points.
Upload Floor Plans
In the final section, you upload floor plans or facility diagrams of your deployment before you submit the questionnaire to WatchGuard.
Example Floor Plan
This is an example of the type of floor plan to submit that enables WatchGuard's Wi-Fi design team to accurately measure and design the wireless network.
Make sure to specify the length and width of the floor plan in the Facility section to help with network sizing.
Example Site Survey Report
This is a sample Site Survey report that WatchGuard generates after processing the data in the Wi-Fi requirements questionnaire.
Project Description
- Open offices with some closed spaces
- 5 GHz spectrum emphasis and a minimum RSSI value -65 dBm
Technical Specifications
- Number of floors — 2
- Total number of users — 85
- Total number of simultaneous Wi-Fi user connections — 100
Heat Map By Location
WatchGuard generates predictive surveys based on the information provided about the coverage area in the requirements questionnaire. Access point placement is then performed based on specific RF algorithms.
The objective of a predictive survey is to provide an estimate for the number of access points required to cover a specific area and their approximate locations. The exact access point locations need to be determined based on an on-site walk-through and active site survey.
Heat maps are provided for both the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands. In this example, we show the first ground floor of the deployment.
