Viewing the Radio Statistics Page

The Radios Statistics page displays statistics for detecting network issues for HPE Aruba Networking APs and Cisco WLC thin APs running firmware 4.2 or later.

Depending on the AP, assigned group profiles, and recent activity on a radio, you can evaluate:

• Recent and historical changes in the network
• Real-time statistics from the AP’s controller
• Actively interfering devices (requires that you set HPE Aruba Networking to Spectrum mode)
• Summary of major issues

To view the Radio Statistics page, navigate to the Devices > List page, then select the AP from the Devices list to open the Devices > Monitor page for that AP. Locate the radio in the Radios table and click the hyperlink to open the Radio Statistics page, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1  Accessing Radio Statistics from the AP Monitoring Page

Running Commands from the Radio Statistics Page

Adaptive Radio Management (ARM) provides automated channel optimization, transmit power adjustment and channel width tuning for an individual AP or group of APs.

To run a show command:

1. Navigate to the Devices > Monitor page, then select the AP from the Devices List.
2. In the monitoring page for the AP, locate the radio in the Radios table and click the hyperlink to open the Radio Statistics page.
3. Click Run command and choose a command, as illustrated in Figure 2.

   Figure 2  Running a show command

   

   When this command is selected, a new browser window launches with the statistics in plain text. Other ARM- and AirMatch-tracked metrics are visible in the Radio Statistics page for HPE Aruba Networking APs.

Issues Summary section

The Issues Summary section only displays when noise, client count, non-802.11 interfering devices, channel utilization, usage, and MAC and PHY errors reach a certain threshold of concern, as described in Issues Summary labels and thresholds and illustrated in Figure 3:

Table 1: Issues Summary labels and thresholds

Issue	Triggering Threshold
High Noise	> -80
High Number of Clients	> 15
High Channel Utilization	> 75%
High Usage	> 75% of max
Interfering Devices Detected	Detected within the last 5 minutes
High MAC/Phy Errors	> 1000 frames/sec

Figure 3  Issues Summary Section Illustration

These issues highlighted in this section can be examined in detail using the corresponding interactive graphs on the same page. See the Radio Statistics Interactive Graphs section of this chapter for details.

802.11 Radio Counters Summary

This table appears for radios with 802.11 counters and summarizes the number of times an expected acknowledgment frame was not received, the number of duplicate frames, the number of frames containing Frame Check Sequence (FCS) errors, and the number of frame/packet transmission retries and failures. These aggregate error counts are broken down by Current, Last Hour, Last Day, and Last Week time frames, as illustrated in Figure 4.

Figure 4  802.11 Radio Counters Summary table

The frame- per-second rate of these and other 802.11 errors over time are tracked and compared in the 802.11 Counters graph on the same page.

Radio Statistics Interactive Graphs

Time-series graphs for the radio show changes recorded at every polling interval over time when polling with either SNMP or AMON. Clients and Usage data are polled based on the AP's group's User Data Polling Period. Channel, Noise, and Power are based on AP Interface Polling Period.  802.11 Counters data are based on the APs group’s 802.11 Counters Polling Period.

The two graph panes enable simultaneous display of two different information sets, as detailed in the following table:

Table 2: Radio Statistics Interactive Graphs Descriptions

Graph Title	Description
Clients	A line graph that displays the maximum users associated to the corresponding radio at polling intervals over the time range set in the slider. Select Show All for other metrics such as average users and max users for various individual devices.
Usage	An area graph displaying the average bandwidth in each direction for the radio. Select Show All for other metrics such as max bandwidth in and out, average and max mesh/overhead or overhead bandwidth, and average/max Enet0.
Radio Channel	An area graph that displays the channel changes (if any) of the radio over time. Frequent, regular channel changes on an HPE Aruba Networking or Cisco WLC AP radio usually indicate that the Adaptive Radio Management feature (ARM) in AOS is compensating for high noise levels from interfering devices.
Radio Noise	An area graph that displays signal interference (noise floor) levels in units of dBm. Noise from interfering devices above your AP’s noise threshold can result in dropped packets. For ARM-enabled HPE Aruba Networking APs, crossing the noise threshold triggers an automatic channel change.
Radio Power	A line graph that displays the average and maximum radio transmit power, between 0 and 30 dBm, over the time range set in the slider. You can adjust the transmit power manually in the Devices > Manage page for this radio’s AP, or enable ARM on HPE Aruba Networking APs to dynamically adjust the power toward your acceptable Coverage Index as needed. For more information, see the Adaptive Radio Management chapter of the HPE Aruba Networking Wireless Operating System User Guide.
Radio Errors	A line graph displaying the frame reception rate, physical layer error rate (resulting from poor signal reception or broken antennas), and the data link (MAC) layer (corrupt frames, driver decoding issues) for the radio.
802.11 Counters	A line graph that displays statistics such as frame rate, fragment rate, retry rate, duplicate frame rate, and other metrics tracked by 802.11 counters.
Channel Utilization	Displays max and average percentages on this radio for busy, interfering receiving and transmitting signals. This graph can display historical information for up to six months only, even if a longer time range is selected using the calendar tool above the graph, or longer historical data retention settings defined on the AMP Setup > General > Historical Data fields. Special configuration on the controller is required to enable this data. Consult the Aruba and HPE Aruba Networking Management Software (AirWave) Best Practices Guide in Home > Documentation for details. NOTE: (HPE Aruba Networking and Cisco WLC thin APs on supported firmware versions only)
Channel Width	A line graph that indicates the channel widths used by the AP radio (20MHz, 40Mhz, 80Mhz or 160Mhz) over the selected time frame. c
Goodput	Displays the max and average goodput values. Goodput is the ratio of the total bytes transmitted or received in the network to the total air time required for transmitting or receiving the bytes. The air time includes the retry effort taken for both successful and dropped frames.

Figure 5  Radio Statistics Interactive Graphs Illustration – Radio Power and Channel Utilization displayed

Recent ARM Events Log

If a radio references an active and enabled ARM profile and AirWave is enabled as a trap host, ARM-initiated events are displayed in the ARM Events table with the original and modified values.

You can filter the results and export the table in CSV format. The columns and values are illustrated in Figure 6.

Figure 6  ARM Events Table

The columns and values are described in ARM Events table Columns and Values.

Table 3: ARM Events table Columns and Values

Column	Description
Time	The time of the ARM event.
Trap Type	The type of trap that delivered the change information. Current ARM trap types that display in AirWave are: Power Change Mode Change Channel Change Values that display in the following columns depend on the Trap Type.
Previous Tx Power	Old value for transmit power before the Power Change event took place.
Current Tx Power	New transmit power value after the change.
Previous Radio Mode	Old value for radio mode before the Mode Change event took place.
Current Radio Mode	New radio mode value after the change.
Previous Channel	Old primary channel value before the Channel Change event took place.
Current Channel	New primary channel value after the change.
Previous Secondary Channel	Old secondary channel value (for 40 MHz channels on 802.11n devices) before the Channel Change event took place.
Current Secondary Channel	New secondary channel value after the change.
Change Reason	If the noise and interference cause for the change can be determined, they will be displayed here. Mode change reasons are not yet tracked.

For information about configuring AirWave as a trap host, see the Aruba and HPE Aruba Networking Management Software (AirWave) Best Practices Guide in Home > Documentation.

Detected Interfering Devices Table

For HPE Aruba Networking APs running in Spectrum mode, the same non-802.11 interfering devices identified in the Issues Summary section are classified in the Detected Interfering Devices table along with the timestamp of its last detection, the start and end channels of the interference, the signal to noise ratio, and the percentage of time the interference takes place (duty cycle), as illustrated in Figure 7. This table can be exported to CSV format, and the displayed columns can be moved or hidden as needed.

Figure 7  Detected Interfering Devices Table Illustration

The possible device types for the Detected Interfering Devices table includes:

• Audio Device Fixed Freq
• Bluetooth
• Cordless Base Freq Hopper
• Cordless Phone Fixed Freq
• Cordless Phone Freq Hopper
• Generic Fixed Freq
• Generic Freq Hopper
• Microwave
• Microwave Inverter
• Unknown
• Video Device Fixed Freq
• Wi-Fi
• XBox Freq Hopper

Active BSSIDs Table

The Active BSSIDs table maps the BSSIDs on a radio with the SSID it broadcasts to the network, as illustrated in Figure 8. This table appears only for HPE Aruba Networking AP radios.

Figure 8  Active BSSIDs Table Illustration

AirMatch Statistics for Mobility Conductor

AirMatch enhances ARM by analyzing the past 24 hours of RF network statistics and proactively optimizing the network for the next day.

For more information on AirMatch, refer to the RF Planning and Channel Management chapter in the HPE Aruba Networking Wireless Operating System User Guide.