planner release notes

of 9 AirMagnet Planner 5.0 Release Notes

PLN-v50-10866-RLN-12-100307

AirMagnet Planner 5.0 Patch

Release Notes October 3, 2007

Table of Contents Introduction ...................................................................................................................................1

Special Notes..................................................................................................................................1

Key Features ..................................................................................................................................2

Known Issues.................................................................................................................................8

Release History..............................................................................................................................8

Technical Support .........................................................................................................................9

Introduction This document highlights the new features and system requirements for this AirMagnet Planner 5.0 release (build 10866). It also contains installation instructions as well as some known issues.

Special Notes Planner 5.0 requires a new license file in order to run. You can obtain the new license by either:

1. Selecting the option to download your license from www.airmagnet.com during installation, or

2. Clicking the License Download link from your MyAirMagnet Download page and saving the file to a local directory. You can then browse to it during installation.

If you are upgrading from Planner 4.0 to Planner 5.0, your serial number must be under active support in order to obtain a new license file. Please check your support status before upgrading.

Each time you upgrade your product, you must download a new license file using either of the above steps in order to run the new version of the product.

It is strongly recommended that you register your product on My AirMagnet (http://www.airmagnet.com/support/register.php), download your license file, and save it in a safe location. Because you will no longer be able to access license files from AirMagnet's website once your support contract expires, the backup license file will allow you to reinstall the application anytime, if needed.


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New Features Channel Selection for Planner Advisor

Channel Selection for Planner Advisor The Channel Allocation dialog box accessed from Planner’s Configuration window allows users to easily specify the channels available to Planner Advisor. Using this function, Planner can be customized to eliminate specific channels for regions with restricted allocations to the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands.

To allocate Planner Advisor Channels:

1. Click File>Planner Configuration… and click the Channels… button. The Channel Allocation dialog box appears.

Figure 1: Advisor Channel Allocation

2. Check the Usable box for each channel that Advisor may use. 3. Click OK to save the changes.

Note: The Default button will automatically restore Planner's default settings; as shown in the image above, channels 1, 6, and 11 are checked by default for the 2.4 GHz band. For the 5 GHz band, channels 36, 44, and 52 are automatically selected.


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Key Features This AirMagnet Planner 5.0 release has the following key features. Descriptions of the features will follow after the list.

Microsoft Windows Vista Support Planner Advisor Area and Wall Manager AP List Manager Planner Configuration Menu User Interface Enhancements Speed Data for Virtual Surveys

Microsoft Windows Vista Support Users running Windows Vista may now use AirMagnet Planner 5.0 on Vista machines.

Known Limitations with Windows Vista Integration:

Maximizing AirMagnet Planner may result in small portions of the bottom and right edges of the application to be cut off. (15939)

Planner Advisor Planner 5.0 implements an advisor feature to help users optimize the layout of APs on site plans. Users can specify two new types of areas to narrow advisor’s focus: coverage areas and AP exclusion areas. Coverage areas represent portions of the site plan that absolutely must have signal coverage and can contain APs; AP exclusion areas are those in which APs cannot be placed.

In order to use Planner’s Advisor, users must lay out the site plan as normal (draw out walls, cubicles, etc.). After the general areas are drawn, coverage and exclusion areas can be added, in order to define the required signal coverage area.

To use Planner Advisor:

1. Draw out walls and areas on the site plan. Add coverage and AP exclusion areas to the plan using their respective tools from the toolbar (see Figure 1). Note that if an AP exclusion area overlaps a coverage area, the exclusion one takes precedence (thus, an AP will not be placed there).

Figure 2: Advisor Tools

2. After the regions are defined, click (Planner Advisor) to open the Advisor Criteria dialog. See Figure 2.


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Figure 3: Planner Advisor

3. Specify the plan’s criteria as described below:

Minimum Signal Strength Coverage (dBm)—Enter the minimum signal strength required for coverage areas.

AP Properties—Enter the default properties of the APs to be placed.

4. After making the appropriate selections, click OK. Advisor will start testing AP placement configurations. When finished, APs will be placed on the map in their optimal locations.

Area and Wall Manager Users can define custom wall and area types and store them for future use using the Planner Object Manager. Accessing this feature brings up a window that lists all material types currently stored on the computer running Planner. This allows users to create or modify color settings and attenuation indices for Planner and use these same settings in any future plans created.

To modify Area/Wall settings:

1. Click File>Planner Object Manager…. The Planner Object Manager window appears. See Figure 3.


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Figure 4: Object Manager

5. Select the tab for the type of material to modify (Area or Wall). 6. To modify existing materials, simply click the field to change. The attenuation index can be

changed by deleting the current value and typing in a new one; double-clicking the color field will bring up the color selection dialog to help specify a new setting.

7. Use the (Add) button to add a new material type. The (Delete) button can be used to remove materials.

8. To reset all values to the factory default settings, click the (Default) button. Note that this will remove any custom-defined materials.

AP List Manager The AP List maintains an up-to-date list of all APs placed on the current plan. This allows the user to quickly view or adjust the properties of any given AP from one convenient location.

To View or Change APs:

1. Click View>Show AP List. The AP List window appears. See Figure 4.


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Figure 5: AP List

2. The AP List itself allows the user to enable or disable antennas on any selected AP as well as to lock the AP so that no more changes can be made to it.

Note: Double-click an AP from the AP List to open that AP’s properties window.

Planner Configuration Menu The Planner Configuration dialog can be accessed by clicking File>Planner Configuration; the menu contains several options designed to help users customize AirMagnet Planner’s functionality (descriptions of each option can be found below Figure 5). See Figure 5.

Figure 6: Planner Configuration

Clear signal distribution when switching tools—If this option is checked, the planner heat map will clear whenever the user selects a new tool.

Auto prompt after placing an AP—If checked, the AP Properties dialog will appear every time a new AP is placed on the plan.


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Lock wall thickness to __ pixel(s)—If checked, all walls drawn will be the specified number of pixels wide. When unchecked, wall thickness varies based on dB drop.

Auto processing data after Advisor result—If checked, Planner will automatically refresh data to generate the heat map after Advisor finishes placing new APs.

Show AP label—If checked, APs placed on the plan will display small informative labels that contain the AP’s name, media type, and channel.

Undo buffer size—This field allows the user to specify the number of operations that will be saved in Planner’s undo buffer. By default, users can undo up to 20 operations by repeatedly pressing Ctrl+z; to adjust this value, simply enter the desired number.

User Interface Enhancements Thanks to customer feedback and on-site testing, Planner 5.0 incorporates several usability improvements designed to make the program easier to work with. Such improvements include:

Updated and expanded toolbar—The Planner toolbar contains reworked icons designed to display more clearly. Additionally, several new tools have been added to work with Planner Advisor (see above), and a Delete All button allows the user to easily clear the current site plan of any or all types of placed objects.

Double-click ends drawing—Users can now double-click to finish drawing a wall or area.

Wall drag points—When selected, walls display square drag points that allow the user to easily modify a wall’s location by dragging the point.

Undo/Redo—The Undo feature (accessed via Edit>Undo or pressing Ctrl+z) will reverse the user’s most recent action, whether it was placing an AP or shifting a wall’s location. This process may be repeated as many times as needed; the Redo feature (Edit>Redo or Ctrl+y) will reverse the most recent undo command.

Color-Coded AP Icons—AP icon colors reflect their media types: represents 802.11b/g-only APs, represents 802.11a APs, and represents 802.11a/b/g APs.

Speed Data for Virtual Surveys Planner can now calculate speed characteristics for devices placed on a virtual survey. These speed data can give users an approximate idea of the speeds in use without having to conduct an active survey.

Note: The speed calculation process is done without any user input required. However, it depends on the settings made in the RF Calibration screen (Configure>802.11>Calibration …). See Chapter 4 of the AirMagnet Survey User Guide for RF Calibration information.


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Known Issues This section documents some known issues with AirMagnet Planner.

1. Floor plans in .jpg or .jpeg format may sometimes appear blurry. (7100) 2. Planner doesn’t distinguish between antennas pointing up or down. (12810) 3. The first time Planner is launched, it may go directly to the Survey page. (13650) 4. Drawn areas may not affect the plan’s signal strength as strongly as those in a real

environment. 5. Large sites may require extremely long processing times to plan when using the default

sampling density. 6. Planner heat maps may not print properly using ‘D’ size paper. (15905) 7. Planner Advisor may place APs inappropriately close to the edges of walls or AP Exclusion

areas. (16403) 8. Standalone Planner licenses (A4012) should not prompt the user for a wireless card during

installation. (16635) 9. Users installing AirMagnet Planner under Windows Vista may have to manually select the

network adapter for license binding, even if the adapter already appears selected. (17059) 10. Clicking File>Configure…>AP Grouping while in the Planner screen may cause an

error to appear. To work around this, modify AP Group properties from the Display screen. (17167)

11. Users may be able to make changes to a Planner project while Planner Advisor is processing information. The resulting Advisor data will be invalid if the project is changed during processing. (17288)

Bug Fixes 1. Using Survey with a European language pack could cause corrupted data in saved projects. 2. Re-opened projects could have distorted or incorrect margins. 3. Virtual Surveys opened in Diff View would not properly reflect changes made to the

Planner project. (17241) 4. Planner data did not display properly on GPS-enabled projects. (17265) 5. Planner’s AP List function would sometimes display all channels as zero. (17381) 6. Planner Advisor did not allow users to specify utilizing both 2.4 and 5 GHz bands at the

same time for AP allocation. (17471) 7. Zooming in and scrolling on a Planner heat map could cause the displayed data to vanish.

(17703)

Release History 10/03/2007: AirMagnet Planner 5.0, Patch release (Build 10866).

09/07/2007: AirMagnet Planner 5.0, Patch release (Build 10845).

08/24/2007: AirMagnet Planner 5.0, FCS release (Build 10822).

07/11/2007: AirMagnet Planner 5.0, Beta release (Build 10695).

05/30/2007: AirMagnet Planner 5.0, Beta release (Build 10119).


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Technical Support Technical support for registered AirMagnet products is available from the following sources:

Phone: (877) 624-6385 (Toll-free, US only), or (408) 400-0200 (Option 3), Monday through Friday, 6:00 AM - 6:00 PM Pacific Standard Time.

Fax: (408) 744-1250

Email: [email protected]

Web: www.AirMagnet.com

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