How does the environment affect the wireless network when conducting a site survey in a multifloor building?

Elevator shafts are constructed from steel and metal framing, which reflects and absorbs RF energy so effectively that signals cannot penetrate the shaft walls, creating hard coverage shadows on nearby floors. This is a well-known RF planning obstacle in multi-floor buildings and must be accounted for during site surveys. AP placement must avoid relying on RF that would need to pass through or around elevator cores.

Noise floor is elevated by active electronic interference sources such as competing radios or motors, not by passive physical inventory stored in supply rooms.

While metallic shelving can cause some multipath reflection, this effect is minor compared to the definitive blocking caused by metal elevator shafts, and reflection is not the primary concern attributed to stocked supply rooms in RF planning.

Scattering occurs when RF encounters many small objects or rough surfaces relative to the wavelength - such as foliage or rough concrete - not when it encounters large solid metal structures like elevator shafts, which block rather than scatter signals.