Follow me:

Useful Wi-Fi Metrics To Track

CTS 108: Useful Wi-Fi Metrics to Track

Which Wi-Fi metrics are worth tracking and what can you do with those metrics?

This episode was sponsored by Metageek

Sponsored by Metageek

Useful Wi-Fi Metrics To Track

Today’s Wi-Fi networks are the main point of access to network resources and have become mission critical service to employees. To monitor the Wi-Fi network, which metrics should you track to show the Wi-Fi network is performing optimally? We list our six useful Wi-Fi metrics worth tracking.

RSSI

  • Most looked at metric
  • Determines the strength of the signal
  • Good to get both from AP and client perspective. Client may hear AP loudly but not the other way around

SNR

  • Indication of signal quality
  • Difference between the signal and noise
  • Example: concert, kids talking over parents

Channel Utilization

  • How busy the channel is
  • Both 802.11 and non-802.11 traffic
  • Congestion and capacity
  • If youre seeing high channel utilization you may need to add more capacity
  • Tells us if CCI is an issue

Data rate

  • Especially useful on the client side
  • Tells us how well the client is able to decode the Rx signal
  • Tells us how the driver is handling data rates

Retry Rate

  • Does it correlate with high channel utilization
  • Are basic data rates too high
  • If you’re seeing too high (10-15%) retry rate look into lowering data rates, look at potential interference, maybe even hidden nodes or devices with bad drivers

Association Time

  • Why would it take a long time to associate
  • Bandsteering could cause long association times because of delayed probe responses
  • Are devices scanning DFS channels
  • Can client and AP hear each other
Hosted by
Rowell

Rowell, CWNE #210, is a network engineer in Higher-Ed. He enjoys working with wireless networking technologies and loves to share and engage with the community. You can connect with him on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

Join the discussion

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

1 comment

More from this show

Episode 108