iBwave Wi-Fi Reviews

The object database is simply fantastic. It saves a lot of time when creating a new project.

The iBwave WiFi was really useful in terms of time saving for predictions and validation of RF coverages.

A very good instrument to create professional documents for customers and their IT staff.

Surely, one improvement could involve the materials panel in the prediction tool. For example, there are some materials missing in the materials list, like metallic shelves in a warehouse, metallic floors (mezzanine).

In the iBwave software there are some features and one of those is the capability to predict diffusion of the radiofrequency signals.
Propagation in a specific environment is conditioned by several things:
height of the RF Source, type of antenna (transmitter and receiver), obstacles between source and destination.
Obstacles may vary in a warehouse where could exist a stock of wood, or mineral water, or generic food (cartons or cans or bottles). All of this stuff may reflect or absorb the RF signal at certain frequencies so being able to predict the behavior of RF signals within a warehouse could be a very nice stuff. I tried with several different materials already in the system and I've found a good compromise but having it clear and ready to use could be great.

I have been using iBwave for more than one year.

We have never encountered deployment issues.

We have never encountered stability issues; this product looks very stable.

From 1 to 10, I would say customer service is a 10. Pre-sales and post-sales support were great.

I needed their support only two times, not so much to give them a vote, but both times it was A+.

I was using an old version of Ekahau Survey, then I decided to change because of the support level from iBwave.

Initial setup was not complex at all.

An in-house team, our team, implemented it.

For our type of business, I think that the ROI can be considered as one year. It saves time and money with predictions that are very accurate. I tested personally a prediction with real devices after deployment; the results were almost the same.

Pricing and product quality are number one.

I tested Ekahau but in demo mode; full functionality was not available for testing, not even for a few days.

iBwave were the only ones that gave me a fully functional demo (30 days). That's why I decided to buy iBwave WiFi; the only ones to give me a fully functional demo to test all the features.

Our primary use case for iBwave is for high-quality heatmap generation. We use these high-quality maps and the database functions for both pre-sales and final deliverables.

Before iBwave, we used a number of tools to collect and report RF data, and also Visio to create some of the visuals. iBwave replaced most/all of the other programs needed.

I find the high-quality heatmap generation, multi-floor, and wire mapping features to be most valuable. We have also started using the mobile app and it is proving to save us time.

Areas of improvement would include more functionality in the mobile app, expanded reporting features, and some shortcut features.

It has proven to be stable.

I am very impressed with the scalability of this solution.

Customer support is very good. Fast and effective.

We did use AirMagnet as our standard but have switched based on iBwave's ease of use and extended toolset.

This initial setup is straightforward. We have seen database location issues during upgrades.

Our deployment was in-house. The skill level in our company is high.

We find the yearly ROI is found in a single project with a size of >1000 APs (Access points).

I advise others to treat the cost as you would any tooling cost and use the monthly option as needed.

We did evaluate AirMagnet and Ekahau.

• Its primary use is building WiFi/DAS designs for customers. 
• Creating 3D modeling to better run propagation analysis.

iBwave has improved the efficiency of bidding on WiFi and DAS projects. The only tool for DAS/WiFi.

The most valuable features are being able to model venues closely to the real world. This helps when running propagation studies to see how signals will work in a real-world environment. Less guessing. 

• More features to speed up the design process
• Macros for part IDs
• Hotkeys for more commands and parts
• It's still a slow process to model venues and even rename components.

It can speed up design of a Wi-Fi network.

It could be improved by improving the speed of the product. 

It crashes often, and is not quite stable. 

Yes, I used tech support. 

I implemented the product. It was straightforward.

I am currently looking for an alternative due to my reluctance with the reliability of this product.