Ekahau Mobile Survey delivers a promising WiFi survey tool to Android smartphones and tablets but is limited by the available pool of hardware on which to use it.
Ekahau Mobile Survey for Android-based smartphones and
tablets delivers a promising foundation for an easy-to-use WiFi
troubleshooting, assessment and planning tool. However, current limitations in
the pool of hardware on which it can be used, and feature dependencies on more
expensive Ekahau products, could limit the appeal of the product.
Indeed, in my tests, I found Mobile Survey best at identifying the weakest
points in a network, alerting on places lacking coverage up to snuff with the
network's design objectives, while not the best choice for obtaining a complete
picture of the highs and lows of network coverage and performance.
According to Ekahau representatives, Android was the only feasible choice on
which to deliver their new mobile-device-borne WiFi assessment tool, with lots
of devices on the market and lots of consumer uptake. Meanwhile, the iPhone
WiFi API was not open or accessible for
application development and BlackBerry's market potential seemed too much on
the decline. Additionally, the Windows mobile story is in too much flux with
Windows Mobile all but disappeared from the market, and Windows Phone not yet
proven to have legs or consumer appeal.
Mobile Survey, which is shipping now for $299, is not available for purchase
through the Android Market. Instead, users will need to configure the phone to
accept software from non-Market sources, then purchase and download the code
from
https://shop.ekahau.com.
I tested Mobile Survey on a Samsung Vibrant for T-Mobile. Mobile Survey
should work on most Android devices running Android OS 2.1 or higher, but the
experience is optimized for devices with at least a 480 by 800 pixel resolution
screen. However, Ekahau's Website explicitly warns that Android devices for
AT&T won't work with Mobile Site Survey due to the carrier's requirement to
block non-Market application sources. The full list of currently supported
devices can be found at
http://www.ekahau.com/products/ekahau-mobile-survey/mobile-survey-supported-devices.html.
Mobile Survey conducts both active and passive WiFi surveys, conducting the
active assessment against the connected WiFi network as configured in Android's
WiFi Settings tool. There's no link between the application and the WiFi
Settings tool, making it a bit annoying to reconfigure the device to survey a
different network.
The results of a passive survey-shown on the AP (access point) tab-shows the
MAC addresses, network name, channel,
detected signal strength and wireless security protocol used for each detected
network, features common to most free or cheap WiFi stumbling tools. When used
in conjunction with an active scan to a configured network, Mobile Survey does
try to classify rogue APs. Mobile Survey shows the associated and therefore
trusted network in green, with other SSIDs sourced to the same MAC
address as the trusted network shown in black. All other detected networks are
considered rogue and shown in red. With no network connection for active
survey, all detected networks are then considered rogue.
The active survey functionality offers a little more utility for the buck,
periodically sampling the associated network to present signal strength, data
rate, packet loss, round trip delay and detected rogue signal strength. On the
Test tab, the detected levels are then compared against baselines for each of
those metrics as defined in a Requirement Profile, which allowed me to easily
see how the performance of a real device in the field compares to the design
objectives for the network in question. Performance violations against the
baselines are noted on screen on the Test tab and recorded within the log tab
as well, for later analysis.
Mobile Survey comes with five preset Requirement Profiles-Basic
Connectivity, Web/E-mail, Voice over WiFi, High Speed Connectivity and Location
Tracking. By default, the Voice over WiFi profile is less forgiving of packet
loss and delay, while the High Speed profile looks for higher data rates, and I
could fine-tune the parameters for each criteria in any profile to better meet
my network design objectives.
Data rate assessments provided by Mobile Survey do need to be taken with a
grain of salt, as the measurements will show best effort of the client used in
the Survey rather than the possible rates delivered by the network. This is
because the typical Android phone offers a minimal 802.11n design. For
instance, my Vibrant supports a single stream for a maximum data rate of 65M
bps (MCS 7).
Also, for the bulk of potential users, Mobile Survey will only pull in
information about the 2.4 GHz band, simply because the majority of Android
devices don't yet support 5 GHz. Ekahau representatives say this limitation
isn't on the software side, and if the hardware supports 5 GHz-such as with the
Samsung Galaxy Tab-then Mobile Survey will, too.
Mobile Survey can conduct scans while the application is in the background
on Android, as I could easily trigger a background scan by pressing the Play
icon on the Test tab before switching to a different application. Mobile Survey
also delivers an Android Widget that can be used to start background scanning
from the operating system's home screen, and the nifty widget also shows the
connected AP, along with the detected signal strength and data rate for the
connected network.
Mobile Survey can present network maps as well, but only through integration
with Ekahau's Site Survey software for PCs. Once users copy over Site
Survey-generated ESX files to Android via a
MicroSD card, they should be able to view the floor plan along with
access-point placement, with the ability to tap on AP to see hardware and
configuration information, along with detected WiFi survey results for that
device. However, I didn't have a copy of Site Survey on hand, and was therefore
unable to verify that functionality.
To help customers extract the maximum benefit from Mobile Survey, Ekahau
offers slightly discounted bundles of Mobile Survey and Site Survey
Professional for the much weightier price of $4,695.
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