You do a site survey to check that you have your base stations placed so that the handsets can connect easily. Each base station has radio coverage of about 164 feet (50 meters) indoors and up to 984 feet (300 meters) outdoors. However, there can be interference with other equipment as well as poor coverage because of wall and door construction (for example, fire doors).

You perform a site survey:

  • During initial setup: you can place your base stations in temporary locations and power them on. They don't need to be connected to the LAN. You perform the survey to check that the handsets can communicate with the base.

  • After setup is complete: you can perform a survey to ensure that the system is working correctly and to troubleshoot user connection problems.

You use the handset to check that coverage is good for your users in all the areas to be covered.


In the handset, you can adjust the signal strength for the handset radio. However, we recommend that you speak to your service provider or Cisco TAC to discuss the signal strength change.

Perform this task when you set up your system and when there are changes to the area (for example, changes to walls, or new areas added).

Before you begin

You need at least one handset fully charged.

1

On the handset, press and hold Power/End until the screen turns on.

2

Press Menu

3

Enter *47* to get a list of base stations within range.

4

(Optional) Press Settings to view the dBm threshold for the ranges.

  • Green to yellow: identifies the threshold value for the yellow indication. For example, if this field contains -70dBm, a reading of -69 dBm will display green and -70 dBm will display yellow. The default is -70 dBm.

  • Yellow to red: identifies the threshold value for the red indication. For example, if this field contains -80dBm, a reading of -79 dBm will display yellow and -80 dBm will display red. The default is -80 dBm.

To change the range,

  1. Highlight one of the entries and press Select.

  2. Highlight a new value from the list and press Select.

5

Highlight a MAC address and IP address pair in the IP Search list and press Select.

The screen displays this information about the selected base station:

  • Signal strength icon:

    • Green check mark : the handset has very good DECT contact with the base station in the current location.

    • Amber triangle icon : the handset has adequate DECT contact with the base station in the current location.

    • Red circle icon : the handset has poor or no DECT contact with the base station in the current location. In this situation, you need to either move the base stations to get better coverage or add another base station.

  • MAC: the MAC address of the base station.

  • IP: the IP address of the base station.

    If the base station is powered on but isn't connected to the LAN, the handset displays 0.0.0.0.

  • RFPI: the Radio Fixed Part Identity (RFPI) of the base station.

  • RSSI: the Received Signal Strength Indicator of the signal from the base station to the handset.

6

Press Power/End until you return to the main screen.

7

Move to a different location and repeat Steps 2, 3, and 5 to check the coverage.