Measuring signal strength between 2 bridges (1310s)

Hi:
I've been experiencing sporadic connectivity issues (losing association between root & non-root bridges, cannot ping remote bridge) at one of my customer's site. I am looking for a tool that will allow me to measure signal strength or noise ratio between 2 1310 wireless bridges. Does anyone know of any tools that will allow me to gather such information? Thanks for any feedback.

As mentioned above, you can look at the RSSI values; the traditional instrument-of-choice would be something like a spectrum analyzer ($$$ - possible to rent) connected to the antenna.
A spectrum analyzer will give you a sweep of the band and show you the signal strength in terms of db(microvolts) or dBm (power relative to a milliwatt) and will also show any persistent interference. Since you are seeing the direct signal, it can also be used to tweak the aim of the antennas as well (remember that there may also be differences in elevation as well as azimuth, so check the up-down as well as the left-right).
You will usually need someone at the other end to assist in verifying that you are looking at the correct signal.
If your bridges support a mode that permit simultaneous AP & bridge operation, something like NetStumbler (free, http://www.netstumbler.com )can give you signal and interference information. I don't think it supports bridge mode signaling (it might, I don't know), that's why it might be necessary to flip on AP mode for the testing.
Good Luck
Scott

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Perhaps looking at strength as a number would be a better way to determine if you have a good signal.
For those of us who have not yet upgraded to iOS4, we could get a measurement of current strength in specific locations, and compare that another iphone using iOS4, or to our own phone after updating the OS.

It seems to that this would be a more precise way to determine your signal strength.
I agree with you, Ride1992, that the best measure is whether or not your calls go through (Can you hear me now?), but people are getting really bothered and perhaps confused about the new way of presenting the signal bars. A numerical rating might be a better way.
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Just seems to me that this might be a better way to display signal strength.

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I've got a site with six 1310's installed. Prior to Hurricane Katrina we've had no problems with the setup.
Since the hurricane, we've replaced all but two of the units (those two didn't get flooded). On the units that were replaced, we also replaced the antenna's (12dBi omni's) and the cable's (100' ULL).
We are getting really poor signal strength, -85 to -90 dBm. The maximum distance between root and non-root's is about 425 feet with clear line of sight. I don't have a good calculation of Fresnel zone, but since it is 28ft at 2.8 miles, I think I'm clear on this also.
I've two non-roots that are about 200 feet away from root, on start-up they have a signal strength of about -50 dBm, but over 10-15 minutes, they degrade to -85 dBm.
The Cisco engineer I was working with was thrown in the towel, saying he doesn't know anything about antenna's.
I did a site survey and didn't come up with any interference.
Anyone have any clues?
Thanks,
Westley

Thanks for the pictures, it helps a lot to see how things are layed out.
The move to replace 200' of low loss to 100 feet of Ultra low loss was probably a Very Good Thing and should have increased the signal strength considerably.
Grounding is very important, if only for the safety aspects. "Lightning Arrestors" don't stop lightning; they bleed off static electricity and (tend to) reduce the space charge that can accumulate on exposed elements.
It's always a good idea to put in a segment of fiber between the APs and the wired network to prevent the zap from killing the rest of the network (and maybe the phones too ....).
Check the coax for kinks (or places that were kinked), sharp bends, broken jacket, etc. At Gig+ frequencies, any malformed section of cabling an have a significant impact on the propagation of the signal.
Check each connector to make sure there isn't any "stuff" that is causing a casual short between the center conductor and the shield. Look closely, wire fragments from the braid can be pretty hard to see.
Also make sure that the center pin is ~level with the surrounding sleeve. Sometime the center pin is driven back into the connector (i.e., bad termination) and is not making sufficient contact.
The "starts strong and tapers off" symptom can only be something related to power, a failing component, heat (causing a component to break down), or some safety mechanism (i.e., high SWR causing the transmitter to throttle back)....
Try another known good power brick,
Try another antenna (any antenna)
and see if the symptoms change.
Probably the most suspicious places would be the connections around the arrestor, and the connection from the coax to the antenna pigtail.
I looked at the pattern of your new antennas:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/wireless/ps469/prod_installation_guide09186a0080148acf.html
The "E-Plane" drawings are the "side view," the "H-Plane" is the "top view". Imagine the line from the center of the chart to the "90" (bottom) is your mast.
Anyway, the short version is: Check the cable and connections carefully (especially connections and the arrestors).
Second to that, make sure the power supply is stable.
It's not likely to be an IOS issue (but I'm a big fan of staying as current as possible).
Check it out and let us know if you find anything ...
Good Luck
Scott

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Hello,
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Thanks,
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SNMPv2-SMI::enterprises.522.3.12.1.1.0 = INTEGER: 10
SNMPv2-SMI::enterprises.522.3.12.1.3.0 = INTEGER: 2
SNMPv2-SMI::enterprises.522.3.12.1.5.0 = INTEGER: 0
SNMPv2-SMI::enterprises.522.3.12.1.7.0 = INTEGER: 0
SNMPv2-SMI::enterprises.522.3.12.1.8.0 = INTEGER: 0
SNMPv2-SMI::enterprises.522.3.12.1.9.0 = INTEGER: 1
SNMPv2-SMI::enterprises.522.3.12.1.10.0 = INTEGER: 1
SNMPv2-SMI::enterprises.522.3.12.1.11.0 = INTEGER: 0
SNMPv2-SMI::enterprises.522.3.12.1.12.0 = INTEGER: 0
SNMPv2-SMI::enterprises.522.3.12.1.13.0 = INTEGER: 0
SNMPv2-SMI::enterprises.522.3.12.1.14.0 = INTEGER: 0
SNMPv2-SMI::enterprises.522.3.12.1.15.0 = INTEGER: 1
SNMPv2-SMI::enterprises.522.3.12.1.16.0 = INTEGER: 0
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thanks

Hello Bradley,
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http://zone.ni.com/wv/app/doc/p/id/wv-2864
http://www.ni.com/white-paper/14311/en
http://electronicdesign.com/4g/getting-ready-8x8-mimo
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http://www.ni.com/sdr/
http://www.ni.com/usrp/
http://www.ni.com/white-paper/8787/en
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"Service isn't guaranteed inside buildings."
Nor outside,
Nor under a tower,
Nor in a car,
Nor while eating green eggs and ham,
Sam I am.
Sorry Dr Seuss.

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Where did you get that from? It displays signal strength and noise!!!
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SNR Signal Quality Chart
40+          Superior
35            Excellent
30            Very Good
25            Good
20            Fair
15            Low
10            Very Low
5              Not reliable

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Hi All,
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Thanks
Anand

Hi,
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We bought a new AirPort Extreme 802.11n for Christmas. Setup was fairly easy. We have two Macs--an 2005 iMac which is plugged into the AE via Ethernet, and a MacBook Pro from mid-2006 that we use in other rooms.
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Sorry, posted in wrong forum by accident. Please ignore.

Poor signal strength on MacBook Pro

We bought a new AirPort Extreme 802.11n for Christmas. Setup was fairly easy. We have two Macs--an 2005 iMac which is plugged into the AE via Ethernet, and a MacBook Pro from mid-2006 that we use in other rooms.
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I had the same AEx series you report. I had the problem with 10.5.4 & then with the 10.5.6 upgrade.
See the following lengthy thread for more similar tales of woe: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1815644&tstart=0.
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Thanks!

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Measuring signal strength between 2 bridges (1310s)

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