New topicChannel Inspector Report Fields

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Channel Inspector Report

Field Description
Operating Channel Indicates the operating channel of the AP. This is not necessarily the highest ranked channel. For best performance, you want the highest ranked channel to be the operating channel.
Last Scan Date and time of the last background scan.
Refresh Auto refresh ensures that the most recent scan data is presented. Enable or disable auto refresh at the top of the report. 30 seconds is the default auto refresh value. If auto refresh is disabled, click the Refresh button to manually refresh the display.
Auto Channel Select Initiates Auto Channel Selection (ACS). ACS will disrupt service and result in a persistent channel assignment. Use this option to reassign the channels. The ACS scan will disrupt network activity.
On-Demand Background Scan

The background scan does not change channel assignments, it simply provides details about the current assignments. Run background scan on each radio separately. To change channel assignments, you must run ACS.

Ranking Indicates the best operating channel based on a 5-star ranking. This ranking is relative to the channels that are available.
Frequency Radio Frequency channels with the beacon channel (primary) denoted with brackets. The following is an 80MHz channel example showing [5220] as the beacon channel. 44: (5180 5200 [5220] 5240).
Noise Channel noise measured in Decibel-milliwatts (dBm).
Channel Details

Interference Type

Click the details link to display the following channel details:

Describes the channel interference in relation to the operating channel. Possible values are:

  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Overlapping. Applicable for 40MGz and 80MGz channels only. The 20MGz channel is designated as the primary and the other channels are designated as extension channels (secondary). 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.

Example Notation, Co-Channel 20 44: (5220) indicates that there is co-channel interference on the beacon channel 5220.

Frequency Radio Frequency channels with the beacon channel (primary) denoted with brackets. The following is an 80MHz channel example showing [5220] as the beacon channel. 44: (5180 5200 [5220] 5240).
RSS Received signal strength value.
BSSID Basic Service Set Identifier. Identifies the AP.
SSID Service Set Identifier. Identifies the network.
AP Name Name of the AP provided at network setup.