Is there a plan for a Spectrum Analyzer? We have several radios that we use that do not follow a 802.11a channel set up (Orthogon has a 12hz channel and can cneter any of 19 frequences in the 5.8ghz band). The channel scanning ability in MT is good for 802.11a based radios but does not give a good picture of what all your antenna is picking up. A nice graphic out put with peak, average and noise floor every 200khz or so would be a great tool. I'd post a sample the pdf file the radio generates but I have not figured out how to include a graphic yet.
Erik
If im understanding you guys correctly ( Wanna use a 802.11X card as a spec. analyzer ? ) Quite frankly it will not and cannot work. The most it can do is detect neighboring wlans and whatever noise is present. You honestly cannot expect to do much more than that.
Expecting a 50,100,150 $ card to perform as something that cost 5K+ ?
Regards.
Expecting a 50,100,150 $ card to perform as something that cost 5K+ ?
Regards.
I'm sure the capability is dependent on the chip set but but I'm not expecting the performance of a 5k device. A Wave rider CPE a $400 piece of equipment does a nice job. Peak and average signal and noise floor neatly packaged in a down loadable PDF. It will show things like a canopy if you know what to look for, but at a minimum if you scan you can tell if some other transmission is occurring.
I'd stick in a sample but I can seem to figure out how to add it to the post.
Erik
I'd stick in a sample but I can seem to figure out how to add it to the post.
Erik
if you need affordable spectrum analyzers have a look at http://www.aaronia.de/
we are using it a lot and found many hf problems with it allready
like videocams, audiotransponders, and a lot more that have much more power then they are allowed to have...
and also a problem with a 3G Basestation that produced errors on a 2.4 G link....
we are using it a lot and found many hf problems with it allready
like videocams, audiotransponders, and a lot more that have much more power then they are allowed to have...
and also a problem with a 3G Basestation that produced errors on a 2.4 G link....
No, i don't expect this, but....have you ever heard about wi-spy? 99$ device with simple spectrum analisys on it's wireless band.Expecting a 50,100,150 $ card to perform as something that cost 5K+ ?
I think it has a particular driver (or firmware function) wich bypass the layer 2 chipset on the card, and talk directly with layer1.
The card report the amplitude of the received signal with 1MHz resolution (but the new version has higher resolution, about 100kHz).
I think this is not an impossible thing for developers...don't you think?
We do plan on purchasing a good analyzer but, you seem to miss the point. If my link or ap is having problems and I think it is interference or a new ap from a competitor, I have on easy way to do a basic check remotely. With out this feature I have to get it the car drive for an hour and hope the interference is still present when I get there. In many cases I would also have to climb a tower in order to connect to the antenna. At -40c in the winter this is not even an option.
I have solved may interference issues on wave rider on remote sites. We even did regular scans so we could monitor the noise floor across the band, This way we knew right away if there was a new AP or some other source of interference right away as we could compare scans from previous weeks or even months. It was an huge time saver, and time is money.
Erik
I have solved may interference issues on wave rider on remote sites. We even did regular scans so we could monitor the noise floor across the band, This way we knew right away if there was a new AP or some other source of interference right away as we could compare scans from previous weeks or even months. It was an huge time saver, and time is money.
Erik
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stephenpatrick
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That is NICE. Does Waverider use Atheros chipsets too?
I think the motivation to build this in can be summarised:
- some installers too mean/poor to buy a proper test set
- avoid climbing towers in poor weather or if tower-trained staff not present
- avoid driving to site - remote diagnostic
- already-installed links may be affected by other sources/interference - users could check source and take action without specialist equipment or climbing the tower/roof
Suggest, put it on the WIKI and vote for it -
Regards
CableFree Solutions.
I think the motivation to build this in can be summarised:
- some installers too mean/poor to buy a proper test set
- avoid climbing towers in poor weather or if tower-trained staff not present
- avoid driving to site - remote diagnostic
- already-installed links may be affected by other sources/interference - users could check source and take action without specialist equipment or climbing the tower/roof
Suggest, put it on the WIKI and vote for it -
Regards
CableFree Solutions.
The remote diagnostic feature is one we use regularly. In some cases an intermittent "interferer" may only be up for an hour or so every few days. We recently had a land survey crew working in our county. They had some 900MHZ data collection system. As they moved around various customers dropped. It was one of the strangest things I ever saw. The RF pattern would move from sector to sector, then back. This happened for days then I got a call that some on had just went down, I walked them through running this test the noise floor was -60 @ 908.4 (center freq for that sector)...we drove out there to find the land survey crew was in the customers back yard. (this customer also had a 900mhz phone that did not work)
Ejansson, The image is actually a link with "Image tags" around it. Imagehosting.com makes it simple.
Ejansson, The image is actually a link with "Image tags" around it. Imagehosting.com makes it simple.
I agree, this would be very nice as we have a location where a only after repeated spectrum analyzeies did we find out that the 900mhz source were two cameras that would come on and hop through every 900mhz channel looking for their non existenant base station.
funny thing....REAL FUNNY:
this camera was on a photo sensor, only to come on at night....WELLLLL we were getting interfearence during the day so we ruled out the camera...until one day a tech was doing a scan again and the signal was coming from the camera, during the day....apparently bird droppings were covering the photocell and causing it to repeadly come on and off throughout the day....and all night..
funny thing....REAL FUNNY:
this camera was on a photo sensor, only to come on at night....WELLLLL we were getting interfearence during the day so we ruled out the camera...until one day a tech was doing a scan again and the signal was coming from the camera, during the day....apparently bird droppings were covering the photocell and causing it to repeadly come on and off throughout the day....and all night..
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