Dynamic channel selection

I am posting this article to introduce DCS ( Dynamic Channel Selection ) feature of Identifi wifi solution, which is similar with smart-rf in WiNG based wifi system. And added test result of DCS

Dynamic channel selection

DCS allows a Wireless AP to monitor congestion and noise levels on the channel on which the Wireless AP is currently operating.

Operation mode

Monitor — When DCS is enabled in monitor mode and traffic or noise levels exceed the configured DCS thresholds, an alarm is triggered and an information log is generated. The

DCS monitor alarm is used for evaluating the RF environment of your deployed Wireless APs.

Periodic DCS alarms may be due to transient events and may not require any action.  Persistent alarms from the same AP radios should trigger some manual action based on the threshold that is being crossed.

Active — When DCS is enabled in active mode and traffic or noise levels exceed the configured DCS thresholds, an alarm is triggered and an information log is generated. In addition, the Wireless AP ceases operating on the current channel and ACS is employed to select an alternate channel for the Wireless AP to operate on.

Configuration option

DCS has three configurable options – two threshold values and an update period.

DCS Noise Threshold - value (in dBm) above which the AP will begin a search for another channel for this radio.

DCS Channel Occupancy Threshold - value (in %) that is synonymous with the channel congestion described previously. Above this value the AP will start to look for another channel for this radio.

DCS Update Period - time (range 1 to 5 minutes, default 5 minutes) between the AP evaluating the average noise and average congestion numbers to determine whether an action should be taken based upon the thresholds that have been defined.

DCS Update Period - time (range 1 to 5 minutes, default 5 minutes) between the AP evaluating the average noise and average congestion numbers to determine whether an action should be taken based upon the thresholds that have been defined.

Test result

With low level of channel occupancy threshold, could see channel changed if interference is over the threshold. ( channel 9 to channel 1 )

With the low level of noise threshold setting, radio change it’s channel ( from Channel 5 to Channel 9 )