User's Guide

These connectivity tests can be run automatically or manually. The AP test uses the deployed
sensors as a wireless station to connect to an AP and validate the available resources. The test
validates wireless authentication, encryption, DHCP, ACL, firewall testing, general network
connectivity and application availability testing.
• Configuration/Compatibility - 802.11 Wireless networks operate in unlicensed frequency ranges
capable of operating in numerous dierent configurations. Monitoring the wireless devices operating
configuration will ensure maximum compatibility and network performance.
• Congestion - 802.11 Wireless network operate in a shared and uncontrolled medium; congestion is
inevitable as the number of wireless devices and bandwidth demands increase. AirDefense
Enterprise proactively monitors for congestion problems to ensure maximum performance on the
wireless network.
• Coverage - 802.11 Wireless networks operate in unlicensed frequencies; however the allowable power
output by any single device has been regulated. This limits range and coverage capable by any
single 802.11 capable wireless device. The main causes of coverage problems are related to
deployments. AirDefense Enterprise provides detections of coverage problems to assist in
troubleshooting specific areas of the wireless networks.
• LiveRF - LiveRF is a tool to that uses live data from sensors and WLAN infrastructure to provide real-
time visualizations of the environment. The use of live data feeds ensures the visualizations
accurately represent environmental changes and transient issues which may not have been captured
in the plan or site survey. Visualizations provided allow administrators to troubleshoot wireless
connectivity, throughput issues, capacity problems and identify RF interference sources for a floor or
entire building. All of this is performed from a central console, so troubleshooting can be performed
without having to send administrators out to remote locations. LiveRF also allows runs in the
background to automatically detect network problems based on thresholds defined by the
administrator. The alarms in this category are a result of these proactive network problem detection
capabilities.
• Potential Interference Sources - 802.11 devices operate in unlicensed frequency ranges, 2.4GHz for
b/g and 5GHz for a-channels and are subject to interference from other devices utilizing the same
frequency. Common examples of these devices are: microwave ovens, Bluetooth devices, baby
monitors, cordless telephones, Zigbee devices, non 802.11 wireless security cameras and wireless
USB devices (wireless keyboard and mouse).
• RF Spectrum Analysis - 802.11 Wireless networks operate in unlicensed frequencies. This includes
any non 892.11 transmitters such as cordless phones, and Bluetooth share frequency spectrum with
802.11 wireless networks. A non 802.11 transmitter can impact the network by causing interference.
Identifying the source is dicult with standard 802.11 hardware as these simply appear as noise.
Spectrum Analysis can be used to identify the source of the interference and judge the impact the
interferer will have on the wireless network.
• Utilization - 802.11 Wireless networks operate in a medium where all devices share the available
bandwidth. Any single device is capable of impacting performance by using all available wireless
resources. AirDefense Enterprise monitors over 50 performance related utilization statistics for the
authorized wireless devices, to ensure that utilization related performance problems are discovered
before causing significant wireless network performance degradation.
Alarm Library
To view a list of Performance Alarms for each alarm sub-type, go to Configuration > Operational
Management > Alarm Configuration, open Performance, and then open the alarm sub-type to see all
the alarms associated with the sub-type.
Operational Management
Legacy Content
1160 Extreme AirDefense User Guide for version 10.5.