Date: Sat, 2 Feb 2008 14:40:05 -0200 From: JoaoBR <joao@matik.com.br> To: Sam Leffler <sam@errno.com>, current@freebsd.org Subject: ATH rate and rssi considerations Message-ID: <200802021440.05965.joao@matik.com.br>
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I understand the difference between FBSD v.6 and v.7 regarding the RSSI val= ue=20 displayed by `ifconfig ath list stat` on a machine running ath as hostap an= d=20 the reasons for this change but I think it is not so a very good idea at th= e=20 end, I explain why. BTW `ifconfig ath0 list ap` on the client station does it well, showing the= =20 signal strength and the noise level. By only showing the RSSI value I have no chance to guess what is wrong with= a=20 station with a low rssi. Perhaps the client antenna is bad aligned or if=20 interference or something else is drawing the rssi down. If I had the signa= l=20 strength and it is good I could say it is not antenna alignment but somethi= ng=20 else by looking at the noise level. So now the sys-adm has a hard time=20 figuring out what is going on. At the end it is not only the cosmetic issue, in fact the signal strength o= f=20 the ATH cards felt down, by 5-10 points or when looking at percentage, by=20 almost 50%. This is measured on the client with any 11abg card and as well = on=20 freeBSD with the same ath card as on the AP. *** I like to suggest that this is reconsidered and displayed as in FBSD v.= 6x=20 or displaying S:N which than would be much more useful on an AP and making= =20 sense *** At the same time the rssi change came up the RATE displayed when running OF= DM=20 as 11g or 11a went amok, any station which had before a at least 12,24 or=20 higher RSSI felt down to 5.5 or often lower, most of them to 1 or 2M. Can y= ou=20 tell why ? In order to answer possible daughts, I change the AP which runs= =20 7-STABLE, lets say a 6.3 or a early 7-Stable (~07/2007) with same configs a= nd=20 wthout touching the antenas the RSSI comes back to normal and the noise lee= vl=20 is less and at the end the signal strength measured on the client station=20 (whatever 11a/b/g gear) almost doubles. =2D-=20 Jo=E3o A mensagem foi scaneada pelo sistema de e-mail e pode ser considerada segura. Service fornecido pelo Datacenter Matik https://datacenter.matik.com.br
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