Onsite DAS & Cellular Signal Surveys

The Cell Surveys app captures real-time signal measurements during an onsite survey.

A grid, not a wander

Test points are laid out on a grid across each floor rather than chosen by where signal happens to look interesting. Spacing tightens in the areas that matter most — stairwells, elevator lobbies, riser closets, below-grade levels, and anywhere a fire alarm or emergency communications panel sits — and opens up across uniform open-plan space. The result is a dataset that can be honestly compared against a later re-survey, because the second pass walks the same grid.

Every carrier, at the same point, at the same time

At each test point we capture all available carriers simultaneously rather than walking the building once per carrier. This matters more than it sounds: carrier coverage differs floor by floor in the same building, and sequential single-carrier passes introduce time as a variable — network load at 9am is not network load at 4pm. Capturing together means a carrier comparison is a real comparison.

Measured at the height a phone is actually used

Readings are taken at roughly hand height, standing, in the spaces people occupy. That is a deliberate departure from a rooftop or drive-test methodology, which measures where the equipment is convenient rather than where the problem is. Building penetration loss, internal partition loss, elevator shielding and floor-to-floor variation only show up when you measure inside, and they are usually the entire reason coverage is failing.

Under real conditions, not empty-building conditions

We survey during normal business hours whenever access allows. Surveying an empty building on a Sunday produces flattering numbers and a system sized for a load that never occurs. Where occupancy varies dramatically — a stadium, a lecture hall, a terminal at departure peak — we scope the survey around the conditions the system actually has to survive.

Donor signal is measured too

Indoor readings alone cannot tell an integrator whether a passive DAS is viable. Rooftop and exterior donor readings establish what signal is available to bring inside in the first place, which is the difference between a system that can be fed off-air and one that needs a small cell or an operator agreement. Skipping this is a common way for a survey to be technically accurate and still useless at design time.

Where a project is driven by code rather than by user complaints, the survey is scoped against the standard in question instead — see the NFPA 1225 ERRCS survey guide for how a public-safety pass differs from a commercial one.