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

This episode was 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