A tier 1 operator was deploying a SpiderCloud small cells network in a warehouse for a leading American retailer. We joined them onsite with our mobile app, iBwave Mobile Planner , giving the operator an opportunity to see how they could significantly reduce the amount of manual work required on a site survey, and complete a full design on-site. They were very happy with the results.

QUICK FACTS

THE CHALLENGES WE SOLVED

Conducting a site survey can be a timely and manually intensive task. Often times the field technician carries paper floor plans, taking notes and pictures as they go. Afterwards, hours can be spent renaming the pictures and organizing the documentation to be used by an RF engineer during the design. Almost always, additional visits after the survey are required to physically validate the design. Documentation is often an issue as well, with various versions saved in various places, making coordination amongst team members frustrating and difficult.

THE RESULTS

Less Manual Work

With the building floor plan already uploaded onto iBwave Mobile Planner the field technician didn’t need to carry the paper floor plans during the site survey. This also meant that they could capture notes, pictures, videos, and voice memos using the tablet – and pin them directly onto the floor plan. And since everything was geo-located, all pictures and notes were automatically saved with relevant names. All of this eliminated the need to reorganize the documentation after the survey and saved the field technician hours of manual work post-survey.

Design Completed On-Site

Previously, the design of a network required an RF engineer to do the work, using the documentation collected during a site survey. With iBwave Mobile Planner , a simple network design can be completed by a technician during the site survey.

In this case, as we walked around with the technician, we selected small cells from our vendor neutral database of 17,000+ components and placed them onto the floor plan in order to determine the best installation locations. But even more exciting to the field technician was the ability to predict and visualize the signal strength and data throughput of each small cell we placed. This essentially enabled them to complete the design of their small cells network right there on the spot, as we went. This meant hours of design work typically spent by an RF engineer back at the office, being saved. It also meant they didn’t have to return to the site for a pre-construction validation walk because they validated as they surveyed.

Better Coordination

On any network design project, the documentation from a site survey is usually gathered by one person and then used and referenced by other project members. Often, the documentation isn’t stored and accessible in a single location and coordination frustrations quickly arise. Information goes missing, multiple versions of the design and documentation exist and time is lost trying to figure it all out. With iBwave Mobile Planner , all site survey documentation is centrally organized and can be quickly accessed by all project team members from the iBwave Cloud.

THE FUTURE

In the end, the operator estimated iBwave Mobile Planner saved them about 10 hours of planning and design work. And they were so confident in the design completed on-site they indicated they wouldn’t have to return. The field technicians using iBwave Mobile Planner were very happy with the time it saved them and were excited to use it again.

SURVEY & DESIGN TIME WAS REDUCED BY 10 HOURS