6 Ways iBwave Focuses on Prediction Accuracy

Without a way to generate an accurate prediction of a network design, it can’t be trusted to perform as it’s required to – and when that happens, a lot of time and money is at risk. This is why prediction accuracy has been a focus of iBwave’s since it first started over 16 years ago. It is at the core of what we are focused on and as technologies and learnings have evolved over the years so too has our prediction engine.

Here are the key ways we make sure our prediction is accurate.

1. Fast Ray Tracing

iBwave has three prediction models available in the software: VPLE, COST 231, and Fast Ray Tracing. Each of these prediction methods has different levels of accuracy and are best suited for different environments. At iBwave, because our software is relied upon so often for complex venues, our customers often rely on the Fast Ray Tracing prediction method. This prediction algorithm is based on Ray Tracing and was developed over a period of two years by RF technical experts from iBwave in partnership with scholars and experts from the in-building industry when iBwave first became a company over 16 years ago. But we haven’t stopped developing and improving it along the way – we continue to develop and fine-tune it on an on-going basis to ensure it provides the highest level of accuracy for the venues and technologies modeled in our software.

What is Fast Ray Tracing?

To look at Fast Ray Tracing, let’s first look at COST231. COST231 is the typical algorithm commonly used by other planning software on the market which is an empirical model that only considers a direct path between the transmitter and the receiver. Fast Ray Tracing, on the other hand, considers multiple effects of radio propagation to calculate the signal strength and provide more realistic results. It integrates contributions from direct path (obstructed or not), reflected paths (walls, floors, and ceilings), diffraction and wave guiding effect.

To show this, I’ll take from a previous blog I did that focuses strictly on the impact of considering reflection and diffraction in your predictive designs.

In the following images, I used a highly-reflective warehouse environment and focused on one AP – first with no reflection/diffraction considered and then with reflection/diffraction considered. You see without reflection/ diffraction (image on left) the prediction runs more straight down the warehouse rows. Looking at the prediction considering reflection/diffraction (image on right), you see how the signal reflects and diffracts off the metallic shelves as it travels down the row and gives more coverage to the adjacent rows. Without it, you may over-design the network.

Read: What’s the Impact of Reflection and Diffraction on Prediction Accuracy?

2. Prediction Calibration

If you’ve done a design then you know it can be hard to get an accurate attenuation value for the walls within the venue. And while we’ve put a lot of work into making sure materials in our database are as accurate as possible, in reality, it’s not always accurate. As a result, sometimes an AP on a Stick is used to measure wall loss. But this approach can be both time consuming and does not take into account reflection and diffraction loss. Which is why we have the prediction calibration feature.

With prediction calibration customers have the option to use the measurements taken from a survey to fine-tune the propagation model with live data captured on-site. Essentially what the software does is first try to adjust all propagation parameters and penetration and reflection loss for each material in a floor plan. If for some reason it can’t converge on a solution it will look at all calibrated parameters, choose the least significant one, set it to a default value, and then re-run the calibration without that parameter. This repeats until the solver converges. If the solution has a lot of default settings in the end, it may be a sign that the wrong type of wall material was assigned in the floor plan, or that a wall is missing.

Here is an example of a non-calibrated prediction vs. the survey results

And here is a prediction that has been calibrated using the live survey measurements.

Calibrated Prediction Results vs. Survey

The impact of calibration is obvious in this example: the calibrated prediction comes very close to the survey.

3. Inclined Surfaces

When it comes to certain venues, modeling inclined surfaces, or not, can make a very large difference in prediction results. In the most severe cases this is obvious in a stadium where there is a large number of inclined surfaces to be accounted for. But it can also matter for less complex venues but where inclined surfaces that exist in high-importance areas. For example, the staircase of a hospital where doctors often depend on the wireless network as they move from floor to floor, or the staircase of busy transportation hubs where customers often depend on wireless connectivity.

To highlight the impact it can have, here is the modeling and design of an underground train station that shows the staircase modeled as flat and then the staircase modeled with inclined surfaces. You can see that with the flat model it gives a false impression that some signal strength is present – but when modeled with an inclined surface, you see much of that signal disappear when the prediction is run.

4. Body Loss Modeling

In high-density venues, the attenuation caused by many bodies packed together can make a significant difference. Which is why we have body loss modeling in our software.

Here is a simplified example of the difference it can make. In the first prediction, there is no body loss modeling, and in the second body loss has been modeled for the seating area. In this example, as I probed around the design to compare the values it made a difference of anywhere between 5 to 12 dB difference.

5. 3D Measured Antenna Patterns

When iBwave first launched we used interpolated 2D antenna patterns to get a 3D view in the software. As the years went on and feedback from our customers came indicating that measurements did not match what they saw in the field, we made the change to consider more than just the horizontal and vertical cuts of an antenna pattern. Reaching out to OEMs we asked them to provide measurements for all possible angles for the antenna radiation pattern, which has eliminated the need to do the interpolation from 2D.

Here’s an example of a 3D antenna pattern interpolated from 2D cuts (left) vs. 3D (right) measured and modeled antenna pattern available in iBwave.

And here is an example of the same 2D and 3D antennaes with a 10 degree down tilt aimed at a 30 degree inclined surface.

6. Attenuation by Frequency

We all know that wall attenuation can have a large impact on the accuracy of prediction. In iBwave, the software comes with a large database of various materials with pre-set attenuation values – but the key difference, especially for Wi-Fi, is that it has attenuation values set for all the different frequencies 2.4GHz and 5GHz. And while this may not matter for venues with lighter materials, it can very much matter for environments that use heavier materials such as concrete.

Why does it matter?

If you’ve studied propagation then you already know that as frequency increases, path loss increases. With materials it’s a very similar situation – as frequency increases from 2.4GHz to 5GHz, transmission loss also increases. Imagining a large concrete wall sitting between an AP and a client device, consider that as the 2.4GHz signals move through the wall the attenuation is about 23 dB – now imagine a 5GHz signal moving through the same wall at a higher frequency and you will see the attenuation increase as well to about 45 dB.

In this example, I use concrete as an example with the iBwave default attenuation values set as:

2.4GHz : 22.79
5 GHz: 44.77

You can see the heatmap here that shows signal strength of -81.86 dBm for 5GHz and -55.42 dBM for 2.4GHz

Then I duplicated the material and set the 2.4GHz and 5GHz attenuation values to be the same, using an average attenuation value as the value

2.4GHz: 33.78
5GHz: 33.78

You can see the heatmap here that now shows Signal Strength of -70.09 for 5GHz and -65.53 for 2.4GHz

In this case, having different attenuation values makes a fairly significant difference in prediction results.

That’s a Wrap.

While there are many other factors in how accurate a prediction is for any given design (for example the model itself), these are just six of the many ways that iBwave works to achieve the most accurate prediction accuracy.

Hope you enjoyed the blog and see you next time!

Accurately yours,

Kelly

iBwave Wi-Fi Mobile: Taking a Tour

Lately I’ve gotten a lot of questions about iBwave Wi-Fi so it seems like a good idea to put together a blog series covering all the different aspects of the iBwave Wi-Fi solution. Today I’ll start with iBwave Wi-Fi Mobile, but first let me describe the overall solution at a really high level.

What is the solution?

iBwave Wi-Fi Mobile
iBwave Wi-Fi (PC)
iBwave Cloud (10 GB)
iBwave Viewer (Free viewer)

Together, they are a connected solution to help streamline the Wi-Fi design life cycle from survey to planning to approval and eventually, maintenance and upgrades. And while each product can be purchased separately, customers see the most value when used all together.

Alright, let’s start the tour.

What is iBwave Wi-Fi Mobile?

Simply put, it’s a mobile app that packs a powerful network survey and design punch. You can use it on-site to do surveys, document your site notes, do simple design work, run heat maps, and run reports. It runs on any Android device – phone or tablet.

When we launched our mobile apps some years ago, the goal was to enable teams to better collaborate and to help simplify the survey and design process to save customers time. We wanted to deliver an app to make surveys more time-efficient, but that could also handle simple designs right on-site. The mobile app has been a big time saver for many of our customers.

Okay, let’s go through the major functionality of the app.

Here’s what I’m going to cover:

Surveying
Gathering Site Documentation
Modeling
Design
Heatmaps
Reports
Cloud Connectivity

Surveying

With the mobile app you can do both passive and active surveys using any Android device. This allows you to see coverage and throughput from LCMI (Least Capable Most Important) device perspective.

Here is what starting a passive survey in the mobile app looks like – in the video you will see me start a passive survey, which will capture SSID, BSSID, RSSI and channel number – and then at the end an interpolation heatmap can be displayed for RSSI and CCI.

Modeling

In the mobile app you can get a floor plan a few ways: you can take a picture of one, you can select a picture from your device, or you can download the project from the cloud with the modeling already done. But if you have no floor plan at all and need to quickly put one together, this allows you to rapidly draw one out .

Here it is in action:

Site Documentation

One of the largest pain points our customers had was documenting and then processing and communicating site documentation. Previously, on-site engineers would have to take a picture, document notes on a paper floor plan or excel spreadsheet, then go back over it all at the end and communicate it to the design team. Or, if doing the design themselves, inefficiently go back through everything.

With digital documentation, that’s all streamlined. Take pictures, videos, or audio notes that are saved to geo-located pins on your floor plan – add in annotations and written notes, and then save the project to the cloud where your team finalizing the design in iBwave Wi-Fi can see your pictures, notes, etc right on the floor plan.

Here is what that looks like:

Network Design

iBwave Wi-Fi Mobile goes beyond just being a survey app – it also lets you do simple design work while you’re on site. This can be so the engineer can do a preliminary design as they walk and see obstructions. It helps you avoid placing an AP where an existing obstruction exists and can also give you an on-the-spot idea of how the network will perform, once you run the heatmaps.

What can you design? You can do manual or automatic AP placement, auto channel assignment, the manual adjustment of power, channel and antenna orientation – and you can also route cabling and place network equipment like switches and routers.

Here is a simple demo showing the placing of two APs, a switch and then routing the cabling. If you model the cable trays in the mobile app as you walk the site, you can also use iBwave WiFi PC to automatically route the cabling for you between cabling trays. Read more about automatic cable routing.

Heatmaps

With APs placed on the floor plan you can run prediction heatmaps while on site to get an idea of how your network will perform. Heatmaps available include: RSSI, Throughput, SNR, Overlap Zone, CCI, Capacity and more.

One question we get – how accurate is it? And the answer is – pretty accurate, but not as much as if you were using our PC version with 3D modeling and Fast Ray Tracing prediction algorithm. Instead, the mobile app uses an iBwave patented direct path model that can run prediction with user-defined RF propagation environments. Define the type of environment (semi-open, light, dense, very dense) and the algorithm uses it to run prediction of your on-site design.

Want to learn more about the different propagation methods in iBwave? Read my blog “No, Not All Prediction Methods Are the Same“.

Here are heatmaps in the mobile app in action:

Reporting

Reports are an important part of any network design project, so we were sure to include reporting in the mobile app. And while it is not as comprehensive as what’s in the PC version, what it does do is tie everything up in a configurable close-out package that comes as one document you can review with your customer, and even get their signature on.

Included in the close-out package report is:

Bill of Materials with cost details
Floor Plans
All annotations (pictures, vidoes, etc) with your notes and location on floor plan
Heat maps
Survey Maps

Each one of those gives you configurable options, and is optional to include in the package. So if you only want a BOM, or you only want reports for specific floors, or heatmaps, or bands etc. you can do that – it’s all customizable. You also have the option to include a Signatures page, in case you have opportunity to get sign-off while on-site.

Cloud Synchronization

The iBwave solution of iBwave WiFi Mobile + iBwave WiFi comes with 10GB of cloud storage so you can easily save your projects to files and work on them interchangeably between mobile app and PC. This enables teams to collaborate across locations on projects and overall has been a big time and pain saver for many of our customers. Use the mobile app onsite to do your survey, documentation and simple design – then save it to the cloud to either work on yourself later or to a teammate to finalize the design.

iBwave also offers a whole other cloud option called iBwave Unity, which I’ll cover in depth in another blog. But basically this is a SaaS based software that allows you oversight of all your projects from a single location. You can manage project workflow, cost reports, equipment lists, etc across all your projects vs. just reporting at the individual project level.

Wrap Up & What’s Next

So there you have it – a tour of iBwave Wi-Fi Mobile that covers all the main functionality. There are a lot more little things it does as well but this blog gives you a pretty good overview of the most key features within it. Admittedly, there are also some things it doesn’t do that our customers have asked us to look at – and while I can’t give away too many spoilers, know that improving the mobile app to be its best mobile app self, is on our list.

What do you think? What else can we do to improve the mobile app? Share your thoughts below.

Wirelessly yours,

Kelly

Meet iBwave Public Safety

While we have always been in the business of providing software to design Public Safety networks, it’s always been within the context of using our iBwave Design software – you know, the one that designs every wireless network under the sun.

But over the last couple of years, we started to notice an increase in interest in the design of public safety networks, and all you have to do is think about large emergency situations, think about the amount of data traffic – videos, voice, audio, and otherwise – flowing through the public safety networks between all first responder teams, and see why they are so important.

Simply put, without a well-designed public safety network, it can be extremely difficult for first responders to communicate vital information to and from each other. And when the ability to communicate in an emergency situation is compromised, so are people’s lives.

So Why Use this Software to Design your Public Safety Networks?

Some of you already familiar with iBwave might be wondering what’s different about this particular software – and the answer is pretty simple: it is targeted at those who are only designing public safety networks. And while you can still design public safety networks using iBwave Design, and all features in this software will be in that one – for those who only design public safety networks, this would be the best software for them to use.

Let’s talk about the specific public safety features we’ve added into this software, as well as iBwave Design.

Critical/General Zone Identification

In public safety certain guidelines need to be adhered to – in particular, you need to have -95dBM in 90% of ‘General’ area, and ‘Critical’ areas need to be -95 dBM as well, but 99%. With the new iBwave Public Safety software, you can identify both the ‘General and ‘Critical’ zones within your design and set the different compliance requirements for each area.

So for example, in the below – the ‘General’ area has been defined as well as select ‘Critical’ areas (equipment room, lobby, emergency exit, etc). Once that is done, you can right click on the area and select ‘Compliance Area Properties’ and then set your requirements for each area : General -95 dBm, 95% and Critical -95dBm, 99%. Then when you run your prediction, your compliance in each of the areas will show.

Here’s a short video of setting the different areas with different requirements. To do it you just select either one area, or all the same areas, right click and set up the compliance criteria. Then when you run your prediction, you will see the compliance labels telling you how they will perform.

Donor Isolation

A common challenge is feedback because you don’t have enough isolation between your donor and serving antennas – the donor antenna often picks up the signal of its own DAS network almost as clearly as the macro signal, which causes a feedback loop and renders the network unusable. A big problem when designing public safety networks.

To know things will work as they need to, guidelines are in place that stipulate you need -20 dB of isolation between donor and server antennas. To help with this, we’ve added this new ‘Donor Isolation’ feature which will calculate and show you the isolation dB and whether it meets the criteria of -20.

Here’s a short video showing you this. In it, I just go over to the predictions area and select ‘Donor Isolation’ – from there I can validate my design, and it will give me a result. As you can see the result shows -17.41 dB, which does not meet the -20 dB guideline and therefore it’s a fail. In this case, you would know you would need to adjust your design, and re-validate until you get a pass. Unfortunately, the feature to print a smiley face sticker out when successful didn’t make it into this version.

What’s Next for iBwave Public Safety?

The new iBwave Public Safety software is a great start, but it’s just that – only the start of what we intend to be a long roadtrip along the public safety highway. We’ve got a roadmap, we’ve got a development team, and we’ve got great customers to give us the right input to keep improving.

Interested in Learning More?

You can read all about iBwave Public Safety by heading over to the product page, found here. From there you can take a look at the datasheet, watch a demo video of it in action, and reach out to our team with any specific questions you may have.

Wirelessly yours,

Kelly