Helium's Wireless Recon™ system combines a location-tracking cart, and an enterprise-class wireless network survey and design software package. It's the only system that continuously collects wireless signal measurements AND precise location data indoors.

Ride on the Shoulders of Giants.

Wireless Recon™, with its SiteSense™ software and the SiteScout™ cart, is based on the pioneering network mapping and optimizing methods developed at CMU by Dr. Alex Hills. SiteSense™ includes a wireless client module that models the legendary NetStumbler software, whose author, Marius Milner, has worked with Helium to deliver a powerful toolset.

How Wireless Recon Works

1. As a user rolls the Wireless Recon system through the areas inside/outside a facility, the electronics mounted on the SiteScout™ wheels continuously measure the distance and direction of the travel, and send this data to the SiteSense™ software on the user's laptop.
2. SiteSense™ polls the Wi-Fi client device on the laptop, simultaneously collecting wireless measurements from all the access points in range.
3. SiteSense's Survey module automatically plots the map of the path traversed by the SiteScout™ in real-time. The survey screen offers features normally found with GPS navigation software, like displaying the heading and adding waypoints.
4. SiteSense's Analysis module transforms the plot into a color-coded coverage map, so you can get a detailed view of your wireless coverage.
5. The Analysis module also provides a rich set of what-if and simulation features. An expanded and simulated coverage map is shown here.
6. Next, SiteSense's Channel Assignment module can automatically assign optimal channels to the access points to significantly improve network capacity.
7. Finally, the Report module allows you to quickly create wireless LAN design or audit reports filled with visually charged coverage maps and detailed network information.

It's all about location, location, location

• Tell the SiteScout™ cart where it is when you start.
• Its location electronics will track distances and turns.
• While you roll SiteScout around, SiteSense is automatically polling access points, and logging wireless signal and noise data.
• The software overlays location and signal data.
• You get precise, rich-data coverage maps of signal strength, noise and SNR.

Survey at Speed

Wireless Recon™ is the most efficient wireless LAN site survey & audit system. Set it up, and then walk around with SiteScout.

• Expect a 50-66% decrease in site surveying time.*
• Avoid the drudgery and inaccuracy of the 'clicking on a map' method of plotting your position.
• You don't need RF expertise to do the survey.

Long Live Ergonomics: Do Site Surveys without Pain

Wireless Recon™ is a nice change from the traditional (read backbreaking) site survey.

• Our SiteScout™ cart takes the weight. It's sturdy, compact, lightweight, and collapsible. We include a rugged travel case, for easy transport between facilities, and for safe storage.

Work With Whatever Building/Site Information You Already Have

• Survey large, multi-floor buildings in a single setup.
• If you have .jpg, .gif, or .png floor plans or maps, import them to underlie your wireless surveys.
• If you don't have building floor plans; that's ok. SiteScout™ can generate an approximation as you wheel around.
• There's no guesswork, or trying to extrapolate likely coverage from knowing building materials! It's easier and more accurate to wheel SiteScout™ around, get a rich, real-time data set, and use that.

Enjoy Having a Well-Equipped Site Survey Toolbox

• Capture 802.11 a/b/g signal and noise data from Atheros chipsets
• Scan for all available access points, or locking on to a particular SSID.
• Use a built-in ping test.
• Name/rename access points for surveys.
• Add notes (such as interference sources) as you survey, with icons for common types.
• Attach digital images to your notes.
• Detect access points that don't broadcast the SSID.

Visualize it: A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

• See the Wi-Fi network's coverage in easy-to-understand, color-coded reports.
• Quickly see interference and poor coverage areas.
• Visualize the quality of Wi-Fi coverage for individual access point or group of access points.
• Gain more control of wireless propagation.
• Generate detailed, customized wireless network design or audit reports in Microsoft Word or HTML that includes coverage maps.

Enjoy Enterprise-Class WLAN Design Tools. Be All the Network Engineer You Can Be

• Optimize capacity in seconds with a patented channel assignment algorithm that minimizes co-channel interference. We've seen capacity increases of as much as 300%.
• Readily determine the access points whose channels interfere.
• Use our What-if (simulation) analysis capability to test proposed changes.
• Change the threshold values of signal strength, noise and SNR to see impact on the quality of coverage and throughput.
• Virtually turn off (constrain) one or more access points for design and troubleshooting purposes.
• Change the power settings for each access point to see impact on the coverage in 3D.
• Drill down to specific values of signal strength, noise and SNR with precise location information.
• Identify best access point locations.
• Scale your network confidently to support more users and applications, like VoWLAN.
• Provide reliable 100% coverage in required areas.

Secure your Network

• Accurately visualize coverage leaks.
• Detect and locate rogue access points.
• Audit for unsecured access points.

In the Wireless Recon System, The SiteSense software on a laptop is connected to the location-tracking SiteScout™ cart.

A WLAN surveyor wheels a Wireless Recon™ system through a facility to collect and interpret location and radio signal data.

Optical encoders in the wheels of your SiteScout™ measure distance and direction, and send that information to the SiteSense™ software.

SiteScout™ is a pretty neat design. We get people just wanting to buy plain carts when they see them. Our newest generation of carts, including the MineComms Mapper off-road cart/trailer, is being designed in collboration with SkyMark and RoPro Design - two innovative Pittsburgh companies that you might like to learn more about.

The path traveled by the cart is traced on the floor plan of a building, in the survey window of the SiteSense™ software.

Above, users can show access points and see their characteristics. Below, a coverage map shows leakage into outside areas.

ROI - the Bottom Line

Invest. Buy a Wireless Recon system. Then use it, and get these small-ish but important returns:

• Save half of survey time and cost.
• Cut the time it takes to design /optimize networks.
• Usually, you'll save money on hardware and the work to install it. Our optimizing software typically recommends 33%-50% fewer AP's than "normal".

But these are the big, really important returns:

• Get a much better network - more reliability, capacity, and security.
• Help the people who depend on your network do what they need to do. This is huge.
• Save a ton of tech support /grief counseling time.

Please contact SkyMark today. Call 800-826-7284, or send an email to: info@skymark.com.