Channel Inspector Report — Fixed Channels

Use the Channel Inspector Report to gain insight into channel interference on fixed radio channels.

Note

This report does not support Smart RF. For information on Channel Inspection Report for Smart RF, see Channel Inspector Report — Smart RF

Configure radio channels from the device group configuration Profile or override the Profile configuration for an individual AP. Then, run this report against radio channels that are configured as Fixed Channel. Select to jump to the AP radio configuration.

To access the Channel Inspector Report for Fixed Channels:

Go to Monitor > Devices > Access Points.
Select an AP.
Select Troubleshooting > Channel Inspector.
Configure the following:

Duration

Enter the number of minutes to run the report. Consider the OCS Interval configuration under the radio Advanced Settings.

Radios 1-3

For each radio that is configured for Fixed Channel, select the channel to inspect. Radios that are configured with Smart RF or MESH/ACS, are indicated and cannot be included in the report.
Select Start.

A report label indicates that channel inspection is running. The following information is available for each AP or beacon:

AP Type
- Managed — Indicates an AP or beacon that is adopted by ExtremeCloud IQ Controller.
- External — Indicates an AP or beacon that is not adopted by ExtremeCloud IQ Controller.
The Channel Inspector widget does not address radio frequency noise from non-Wi-Fi sources.
BSSID. Basic Service Set Identifier. Identifies the AP.
SSID. Service Set Identifier. Identifies the network to which the station is associated.
While the BSSID identifies the AP interface that the station is using, the SSID identifies the overall service being used. The BSSID has the same structure as an AP MAC address, but you can have multiple BSSIDs coming off the same physical interface. The SSID is typically a human readable word, like “FreeWi-Fi”.
AP Name. Name of the AP provided at network setup.
Radio. Indicates the radio number.
RSS. Received Signal Strength value.
Last Seen in Minutes
Channel:
- Number
- Width
- Power
- Attenuation

Additionally, information for each radio is presented that ranks available channels, presenting levels for each type of interference.

Table 1. Channel Inspector Interference Report
Field	Description
Frequency	Radio Frequency channels with the beacon channel (primary) denoted with brackets. The following is an 80 MHz channel example showing [5220] as the beacon channel. 44: (5180 5200 [5220] 5240).
Noise	Level of measured internet noise on the selected channel.
Ranking	Ranks selected channel against other available channels. Ranking is indicated by 1-5 stars. The higher the rank value, the more stars, and the more desirable the channel. The algorithm takes four input parameters: Noise Overlap Count Co-Channel Count Adjacent Count
Interference Types	Describes the channel interference in relation to the operating channel.
Overlap	Applicable for 40MGz and 80MGz channels only. The 20MGz channel is designated as the primary and the other channels are designated as secondary extension channels. If the primary channel of one AP is the same as the extension channel of another AP it is considered overlapping. Overlapping is the worst type of interference.
Co-Channel	All the APs on the same channel as the target AP are competing. Using Distributed Control Function (DCF) collisions are avoided because the APs know to avoid each other; however, the more traffic on the channel the greater the chance of collisions. Throughput slows but all packets get through. Example Notation, Co-Channel 20 44: (5220) indicates that there is co-channel interference on the beacon channel 5220.
Adjacent	APs on adjacent channels are close enough to interfere but not close enough to know they are interfering. They do not have the benefit of DCF.