Thank you for joining us on another great episode. The topic of episode 39 is when and how to use spectrum analysis.
Spectrum analysis is a crucial part of wireless site surveys and for troubleshooting. When performing spectrum analysis as part of a wireless site survey, an engineer can determine which areas contain sources of interference that can greatly degrade the performance of a wireless network.
Some interference is non-802.11 traffic. Wireless NICs within devices cannot demodulate these signals. If a transmission occurs with interference present, the frames are corrupted.
It’s important to know the different kinds of interferences that can exist.
- Sporadic (happens only at specific times). An example is bluetooth
- Constant (the interference is there all the time). Example: Wireless Video Camera
— Both can be disruptive to the Wi-Fi if the duty cycle is high
— There is also the width of the interference to validate. - Do not forget to watch out for interference from other Wi-Fi networks (even yours…)
- Duty cycle
- ACI
Links and Resources
- David Coleman, WLPC 2016, Wi-Fi Troubleshooting
- Metageek Chanalyzer
- Spectrum XT
- Ekahau
- Tamograph
