Hello,
I’ve been meaning to post something on wirelss for a while, actually since I gained my CCNA Wireless cert, but I’ve not really been sure what to post…until now.
I install quite a lot of Cisco wireless in factories and although I’m new to Ekahau (any complimentrary Ekahau training would be awesome) recently had the opertunity to test the attenuation of some insulation.
The kit I used to test was:
- Ekahau sidekick (great bit of kit, go and get one) – https://www.ekahau.com/products/sidekick/overview/
- Ekahau sofware (the only survey software to buy in my opionion – https://www.ekahau.com/products/ekahau-site-survey/overview/
- Dell laptop,
- Cisco 2802 external AP with (AIR-AP2802I-E-K9) with a patch antena (AIR-ANT2566P4W-R)
- HiveRadar Wireless Site Survey Kit – this is a awesome, if you’re starting out with surveys, this is a must – https://www.hiveradar.com/wssk/
I tested two types of standard foam insulation that I currently cant name but here are the results:
Here’s the free path loss from the AP to the sidekick
Here’s with some insulation in the way:
So,
free loss -46dBm
insulation = 2.4m in length and 2m depth and 3m height.
loss = -45dBm
= 1dBm loss!
Second piece of insulation:
free loss -58dBm
insulation = 2.4m in length and 2m depth and 3m height.
insulation -52dBm
= 6dBm loss.
So all in all I’d say depending on the insulation there can be quite a lot of attenuation.
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