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I meet more and more iDevices in WLAN designs today. It is not easy, because, unfortunately, these devices do not have reliable site survey tool (may be, you happen to know such). Also recently I tried to discover their Wi-Fi technical specifications (transmit power, receiver sensitivity) and was not able to find them on apple.com.
Has anybody from community happen to know iPhone Wi-Fi module technical specifications?
Thank you in advance!

The iPhone specifications are probably changing quite a bit at the PHY levels, as manufacturers often try to reduce costs with different chipsets. However, I'm sure Apple meets the CTIA and probably CWG requirements. You should look into those requirements to get a feel of the minimum performance.

Apple probably has their own internal, meaning in-the-phone, firmware that they can run to perform tests in the field. They may even have firmware available that will run Veriwaves Wave-Deploy software - but unless you have an "in" at Apple, I doubt you'll be able to get any of that.

In the past, cell phone operators had applications hidden in phones to perform these exact operations. I don't think they do now. Try looking into iPhone hacking for possible help.

Good luck.

As Wlanman says, there are often ?hidden utilities? in many devices. The Queensland Attack was a famous case where something that was meant to aid in testing in a lab environment could be used for jamming etc.

http://www.airspy.com/uploads/Protecting%20WiFi%20Networks%20from%20Layer%201%20Security%20Threats.pdf

http://www.cwnp.com/bbpress/topic.php?id=256

Dave

Couple things:
1. The store genius at the bar I understand have some sort of test software. Good luck getting it.
2. There are some functions that are are available to a jailbroke phone but it requires a jailbreak. This is a problem for me as my phone is subject to certain regulations. Not sure if jail breaking is negligance.
3. I was analyzing some traffic today and consistently found iPhones with 1500 associations counted with 1 AP. Why they are associating and disassociating so much I need to explore.
4. I've seen facetime teaffic setting the from and to ds bits like a WDS or bridge link.

***Disclaimer*****
the following does not reflect any sound engineering practices and should only be practice out of deaperation
***End Disclaimer***
I really wish there were some engineering tools for these things. In the meantime I have a method for these situations. Use a wireless packet analyzer to observe at what RSSI your laptop NIC reports the device under test transmitting and receiving at each data rate. You can get a crude idea of the iPhones RSSI requirements in terms of your laptop's RSSI. This is certainly analogous to performing surgery with a machette.