Sensor Mode Overview

When configuring AP models to operate as sensors, there are two sensor mode types:

Dedicated
Radio-Share

Note

Sensor mode is not user-selectable and is determined by the AP model.
If an AP has a radio designed to operate as a full-time sensor, then that particular radio can only operate in dedicated sensor mode.
Some AP models have radios that only operate as full time sensors, for example the AP410i/e.
If an AP model does not have a radio designed to operate as a full-time sensor, that AP model can only operate in radio-share sensor mode.

Dedicated Sensor Mode

For APs operating as dedicated sensors, the individual dedicated sensor radio in the AP cannot service clients. The sensor radio scans full-time and senses on all available channels.

On some AP models, enabling the radio designed for dedicated sensing disables a frequency spectrum (2.4, 5, 6 GHz) for wireless client service. For example, an AP4000 disables the 6Ghz spectrum for client service on the third radio when you enable dedicated sensing.

Note

Dedicated sensors scan all available channels, so no need to configure all dedicated sensor capable APs as sensors. How many and which AP models to configure as dedicated sensors is out of scope for this document. For assistance, contact your Extreme Networks® professional services provider.

Radio-Share Sensor Mode

For APs operating as radio-share sensors, AP radios can service the wireless clients as usual. All radios configured for radio-share mode (one or both can be selected) also perform security scans on the same channels that the radios are operating for client service.

Additionally, radio-share sensors only analyze wireless traffic for connected wireless clients. Radio-share sensors scanning coverage is reduced compared to dedicated sensors.

A best-practice is to configure all radio-share AP models to operate as radio-share sensors to sense as many channels as possible.