Wireless Access Point
Viewing Status on the Wireless AP 117
Spectrum Analyzer
Spectrum analysis on Wireless APs is a distributed capability that automatically
covers the entire wireless network, since a sensor is present in every unit. APs
monitor the network 24/7 and analyze interference anywhere in the network
from your desk. There’s no need to walk around with a device as with traditional
spectrum analyzers, thus you don’t have to be in the right place to find outside
sources that may cause network problems or pose a security threat. The AP
monitors all 802.11 radio bands (a/b/g/n), not just those currently used for data
transmission.
The RF Spectrum Analyzer window displays instantaneous traffic statistics and
RF readings for all channels, as measured by the AP’s monitor radio. This differs
from the RF Monitor-Radio Monitoring window, which displays values measured
by each IAP for its current assigned channel. For the spectrum analyzer, the
monitor radio is in a listen-only mode, scanning across all wireless channels. Each
channel is scanned in sequence, for a 250 millisecond interval per channel. The
spectrum analyzer window presents the data as a graphical display of vertical bar
graphs for each statistic as shown in Figure 64 (the default presentation), or
horizontally as bar graphs or numerical RF measurements. The measurements
displayed are explained in “Spectrum Analyzer Measurements” on page 119.
As an aid to viewing data for a particular channel, click the channel number. The
channel will be highlighted down the page (or across the page for a rotated view,
in both text and graph modes). Click additional channels to highlight them for
easy comparison. To remove the highlighting from a channel, click the channel
number again. Click Refresh to update the information at any time. Click Auto
Refresh to instruct the AP to refresh this window automatically.
The RF measurements for this feature are obtained by the monitor radio. You
must have a radio set to monitor mode for any data to be available. See
“IAP Settings” on page 312.
Spectrum Analysis is not available for APs or Access Points featuring
802.11ac IAPs.
To Next Page
Loading...
Need help?
General
