WiFi Overview dashboard

WiFi overview dashboards are instrumental for enterprises in monitoring the health and performance of the WiFi network. This dashboard represents key performance indicators (KPI), in the form of widgets, of a WiFi network to monitor the network. You can navigate further from these widgets to analyze specific diagnostics.

The WiFi Overview is based on the following three key components:
  • Client Count: The number of clients that are connected to any particular WiFi network (SSID) or Access point (AP) informs the network administrator about the amount of load on that SSID or Access point. At any given point in time, if the client count increases, network administrator can take a decision on moving clients between Access Points or SSIDs and reduce the load on network.
  • Signal Characteristics: WiFi overview dashboards, display signal quality details by using two characteristics as follows.
    • Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI): RSSI is an estimated measure of power of frequency of a signal that a client receives from the access points. It varies with the distance between clients and access points, hence indicates the network administrator to adjust the client-access point locations and maintain the overall network performance.
    • Signal-to-Noise ratio (SNR): Signal-to-Noise ratio, is the comparison between the power of signal and the presence of noise in the network. This ratio is an indicator of the quality of the signal. The more the noise the less healthy a signal is. If a client is experiencing low signal-to-noise ratio, a network administrator adjusts the placement of AP to avoid physical obstacles or adjust the client count of the network.
  • Worst Performing channels: The worst performing channels widget in the dashboard, gives the details of the channels that are facing high intensity of interference and noise. It helps to identify the channels that are acting as loopholes in the network, and gives the network administrator a lead to analyze the network to improve the performance.

Refer the widget details to understand the fundamentals of WiFi overview dashboards.

Available widgets and their interactivity

The drill-down widget interactions can be seen in the following ways:
  • For any widgets with the (drill down icon) drill-down icon, from the chart, click any bar that represents the interface or metric to open the drill-down dashboard page, which contains the associated widgets.

The diagram shows the interactions between widgets and their drill-down widgets:

WiFi Overview dashboards

Network Performance Overview

  1. Click Home > WiFi Overview.

    The WiFi Overview dashboard loads.

    This dashboard displays the metrics values for KPIs.

  2. You can filter data based on the following filters:
    • Controller, contains the IP address of a controller that manages the Access Points of the network.
    • Time Period, the list contains of Last Hour, Last 6 Hours, Last 12 Hours, Last 24 Hours, Last 7 Days, Last 30 Days, Last 365 Days and Custom.
Table 1. Widget interactions
Master widgets Drill-down dashboard
Total APs N/A
Total SSIDs N/A
2.4 GHz Clients WiFi Client Count
5 GHz Clients
Clients by RSSI Quality: Poor WiFi Client Count
Clients by RSSI Quality: Average
Clients by RSSI Quality: Good
Clients by SNR Quality: Poor WiFi Client Count
Clients by SNR Quality: Average
Clients by SNR Quality: Good
WiFi Network Details N/A
Access Points Details N/A
2.4 GHz: Worst 10 Performing Radio By Channel Utilization (%) N/A
5 GHz: Worst 10 Performing Radio By Channel Utilization (%) N/A
Worst 10 Performing Channel By Interference WiFi Interference and Noise Performance
Table 2. Available Widgets
Widget name Chart type Typical uses
Total APs Badge Displays the number of Access Points that are connected to the selected controller.
Total SSIDs Badge Displays the number of SSID (WiFi Network) configured to the selected controller.
2.4 GHz Clients Badge Displays the client count to 2.4 GHz frequency band of signal.
5 GHz Clients Badge Displays the client count to 5 GHz frequency band of signal.
Clients by RSSI Quality: Poor Badge Displays the number of clients who are receiving a poor signal strength. The standard RSSI range is less than or equal to -70 dBm.
Clients by RSSI Quality: Average Badge Displays the number of clients who are receiving an average signal strength. The standard RSSI range is -46 to -69 dBm
Clients by RSSI Quality: Good Badge Displays the number of clients who are receiving a good signal strength. The standard RSSI range is greater than or equal to -45 dBm.
Clients by SNR Quality: Poor Badge Displays the number of clients experiencing the lowest signal-to-noise ratio. The standard SNR range is 0 to 12 dBm. If more number of clients are in the Poor range, network performance is hampered.
Clients by SNR Quality: Average Badge Displays the number of clients experiencing moderate level of signal-to-noise ratio. The standard SNR range is 13 to 19 dBm.
Clients by SNR Quality: Good Badge Displays the number of clients experiencing the highest signal-to-noise ratio. The standard SNR range is equal or greater than 20 dBm. The more number of clients in this range the better for network performance.
Wi-Fi Network Details Grid Displays the list of attributes of SSID.
  1. Status of SSID as Enabled (1) or Disabled (0)
  2. QoS Profile (0: Bronze, 1: Silver, 2: Gold, 3: Platinum)
  3. Number of clients connected to the SSID
Access Points Details Grid Displays the list of attributes of Access Points (AP)
  1. Location of AP
  2. IP address of AP
  3. Status as Enabled (1) or Disabled (2)
  4. Number of clients connected to the AP
2.4 GHz: Worst 10 Performing Radio By Channel Utilization (%) Bar Displays the channels that are utilizing most of the bandwidth of 2.4 GHz frequency.
5 GHz: Worst 10 Performing Radio By Channel Utilization (%) Bar Displays the channels that are utilizing most of the bandwidth of 5 GHz frequency.
Worst 10 Performing Channel By Interference Bar Displays channels that are experiencing highest intensity of interference.