7signal Sapphire Loupe User Guide Release 3.1 7signal Ltd, Panuntie 6, FI-00620 HELSINKI, FINLAND, +358 40 777 7611, info@7signal.com, www.7signal.
Preface Document scope This document is aimed for people familiarizing themselves with 7signal Sapphire measurements and the use of 7signal Sapphire Loupe. Case studies are included to introduce typical analysis paths of wlan network quality shortcomings. This document does not describe how the software operates or how to configure testing. The actual use of various 7signal Sapphire applications is explained in detail in 7signal Sapphire Carat User Guide.
Preface ii Contact us at 7signal by mail: Panuntie 6, FI-00620 Helsinki, Finland by email: info@7signal.com by phone: +358 40 777 7611 (exchange) For handling of software defects, send email to: defect-report@7signal.com In case of other requests, send email to: support@7signal.com 7signal Ltd, Panuntie 6, FI-00620 HELSINKI, FINLAND, +358 40 777 7611, info@7signal.com, www.7signal.com 7signal Sapphire Loupe User Guide Release 3.
Table of Contents iii 1 Loupe ...............................................................................................................................1 1.1 Loupe login ...................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Loupe at a first-glance..................................................................................................... 1 2 Using Loupe .....................................................................
Table of Contents iv 14 Info............................................................................................................................... 22 15 Report .......................................................................................................................... 23 16 How To Troubleshoot Using Loupe ................................................................................ 24 16.1 Typical pattern ...........................................................................
1 Loupe 1 Sapphire Loupe is a browser application for viewing test results and saving the test results. Open Loupe in a browser. Type the Loupe server address into the Address field. An encrypted connection (HTTPS) is used for data communication. 1.1 Loupe login Login and authentication is similar to the management GUI, 7signal Sapphire Carat. On top of typical username/password combination the user may have to select a group (access context) as well.
2 Using Loupe Sapphire Carat gathers and stores data obtained from automated test to the database. Loupe enables you to view the results and make comparisons between different devices, tests, and time spans. Building a Result View: 1. Decide which group of indicators (KPI) you want to view, for example Network 2. From the list, select the indicators from which you want to generate charts 3. From the top bar, select the time span to include in the results a.
2 Using Loupe 3 Area NW AP APEye APEyeAnt Eye EyeAnt Dest DestAP ChEye ChEyeAnt QoSAP Link All Description Network level Access point level One single managed access point of a single monitoring station One single managed access point of a single monitoring station in particular antenna direction Single Eye An individual antenna in a chosen Eye The Sonar to be tested The access point to be tested with relation to Sonars An individual channel in a chosen Eye An individual antenna and channel in a chosen
2 Using Loupe 4 For the convenience of the user, the channels are separated by the IEEE 802.11 standards. The support is for IEEE 802.11b/g, IEEE 802.11a and IEEE 802.11n. The channel list is dynamic is based on the monitoring station country code setting. For example, one monitoring station located in Finland would show channel 13 while a monitoring station in the same organization but located in USA would not show that channel. 2.
2 Using Loupe 5 3. Display method of charts a. Single KPI chart – Each KPI displayed as a separate chart b. Single Area chart – All chosen KPIs in a single chart Note! A “single area chart” should only contain measurements that have the same unit of measurement, such as millisecond. 4. Moving average a. Period count – the number of previous values to include into the calculation of a moving average. F.ex.
3 Tabs 6 Below the time selectors there are numerous tabs. The tabs divide KPIs by category and to some extent follow the principle that the more abstract, derived or calculated high-level indicators are on the left and the detailed, accurate and raw-level indicators are on the right. As the amount of information is enormous and the displays may be limited, many of the elements in the user interface may be expanded / collapsed. 3.
4 Summary 4.1 SLA Compliance KPI To summarize the health of the network element, Loupe analyses multiple KPIs and based on that computes one single value that is called the ‘SLA Compliance KPI’. The network element may be either an access point or a link. There has to be a SLA group defined and bound to the network element. The measurement value calculates a geometric average of all the selected KPIs in the SLA group.
4 Summary 8 Traffic-light SLA compliance table shows single values for each selected elements (access points or links). The color of the table shows if an element meets the performance target. 4.1.2 SLA Compliance over time In the picture below, there are three network elements, AP-14, AP-16 and AP-17. Based on the chart one can assume that AP-14 is operating as expected. On the other hand, the other elements seem to be occasionally below the SLA compliance target.
4 Summary The single element chart shows performance issues with VoIP MOS downlink (QUAP005) but also with radio attach success (AC001) and FTP test success (RE004). The SLA group defines the threshold values for all individual KPIs. However, the resultant KPI threshold values can be set in Carat. Export for the charts is available both for each chart and the global export on the top-menu buttons. 7signal Ltd, Panuntie 6, FI-00620 HELSINKI, FINLAND, +358 40 777 7611, info@7signal.com, www.7signal.
5 Service Level Agreement, SLA 10 The service level agreement (SLA) view contains KPIs that display network functionality and availability as traffic lights. The default limits are set by 7signal, and the values are based on real-life situations. You can modify the values to conform to the service level agreement currently being used. The values can be modified in the Sapphire Carat’s management interface.
5 Service Level Agreement, SLA 11 7signal Sapphire Loupe User Guide Release 3.1 5.1 Three-basket principle The color-coding indicates the SLA status, it may be either red, yellow or green. The wlan network may be operational and any test and any user-action may be successful yet the color in the SLA table is yellow or even red. This is because SLA view is highly derived data that is compared to expected level of the service. For example, one may get 100% VoIP calls through but the SLA shows red.
5 Service Level Agreement, SLA 12 To better understand the resulting color-code the cells in the table are active. By clicking a cell one gets immediate information on data that lead to the cell color. In case further analysis is needed, the link “Related KPIs” pop additional KPI charts up. The charts show a set of KPIs on time-interval that has shown on SLA table row expanded with one unit earlier and later.
6 TP/SNR 13 This view has a single chart, which displays the relationship between the measured throughput speed and the signal to noise ratio of a given access point. Measurements usually take into account only the theoretical maximum throughput speed. Since the measurements vary by network and hardware, the view instructs the user to modify the parameters. Modify the parameters directly in the view. The picture below is an example on how to interpret the TP /SNR chart.
7 Network Performance Indicators 14 The KPIs in the Network tab are divided into five groups: Accessibility, Availability, Quality, Traffic and Active test failures. Apply time intervals – You can limit the time of day, from which the measurements are included. F.ex. set time interval to 7:00 - 18:00 to ignore the results from night time. Scale Y-axis – You can set the minimum and maximum values of the y-axis to be the same in all of the charts.
8 Radio congestion 15 Radio congestion view shows the most recent channel usage information for the Eye coverage area. The channel information is presented for both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz frequencies. Graphs may be displayed separately for each antenna on as an average of all antennas. The radio graph presents average signal level results and theoretical signal bandwidth in order to see possible overlapping issues. The table below the graph presents line color, BSSID and radio MAC information.
9 Client performance Indicators 16 The Client tab contains charts that indicate network functionality and the network quality as experienced by the user. Client statistics are e.g. signal level, SNR, client retransmissions or frame sizes. You can view the results by user (i.e. by clientAP) by choosing the Client level from the Topology view. The clients will be shown only from selected access points and from selected time period.
10 Data rate Codec Indicators 17 This view displays the distribution of radio codecs used during the active tests. The codec used indicates the data transfer rate (Mbps). The use of small codecs is a sign of interference/functionality problems in the radio network. In a properly functioning network, the maximum data transfer rate is used almost continuously. When the Active test measurement type is used, the picture displays the codecs of each access point selected in the Topology view.
11 Spectrum 18 Loupe displays the spectrum analysis results from the chosen time span. In all of the spectrum charts, the swept frequency band lays on the x-axis. The band constitutes of the 256 WLAN subcarrier channels that are mapped to frequencies and WLAN channels, as described in below table: Subcarrier Frequency 36 2.412 51 2.417 66 2.422 81 2.427 96 2.432 111 2.437 126 2.442 141 2.447 156 2.452 171 2.457 186 2.462 201 2.467 216 2.
11 Spectrum 19 Time-axis chart plots the measurement time to the y-axis. Each antenna is represented by an individual time-axis chart. If you select several Eyes, the results will be displayed individually for each Eye. The show time-axis table – button will open more detailed spectrum results based on the selected time period and averaging time. The number of rows can be selected by adding value to the box above to table.
12 Top This view displays the best and/or worst performing BSSIDs based on the selected KPIs. The default TOP selections will display e.g. beacon availability and average throughput. 7signal Ltd, Panuntie 6, FI-00620 HELSINKI, FINLAND, +358 40 777 7611, info@7signal.com, www.7signal.com 7signal Sapphire Loupe User Guide Release 3.
13 Alarms This view lists the alarms activated by Sapphire. Alarms are handled in Sapphire Carat. Loupe offers an alternative view and reporting functionality. Alarms can be seen by access point and filter by status and severity. 7signal Ltd, Panuntie 6, FI-00620 HELSINKI, FINLAND, +358 40 777 7611, info@7signal.com, www.7signal.com 7signal Sapphire Loupe User Guide Release 3.
14 Info 22 Info view presents detailed information about the network elements. The info results can be generated automatically based on the topology tree selections or user can use topology selections from the settings pane. Info view shows e.g. access point authentication methods, supported bit rates, beacon intervals, 802.11n HT capabilities etc. It also gives changed history data of the changed access point settings. 7signal Ltd, Panuntie 6, FI-00620 HELSINKI, FINLAND, +358 40 777 7611, info@7signal.
15 Report 23 Report view is for generating pre-defined reports. In this version there is “Radio Environment” report. The purpose of radio environment report is to show environment statistics from the selected area. Radio Environment report includes basic element info, number of SSID-AP-pairs, signal levels, SNR, channel usage, channel noise and spectrum results. All the reports include also short explanation of the graph results. Report can be exported also to pdf or csv format.
16 How To Troubleshoot Using Loupe 24 16.1 Typical pattern A typical troubleshooting workflow is as follows: 1. When logging in, you discover that there is an unusually large amount of failed wireless connection availability tests (AC001). 2. Go to the SLA tab and choose the access point or network where the issue has occurred. From the pull-down menu, choose the last 7 days as the time span and set the averaging period to 1 hour. These settings bring out the times of the failed tests in more detail. 3.
16 How To Troubleshoot Using Loupe 25 KPI ID AV001 Name AP beacon availability QURS002 AP signal level at Eye QURS003 AP SNR at Eye AV010 AP Channel information QURS004 AP retransmission rate TR003 QURS001 Client count per AP Channel noise level at Eye and Spectrum-view Description The beacon availability presents if AP has been active and achievable The measured AP signal level and SNR presents the radio environment variations The measured AP signal level and SNR presents the radio environmen
16 How To Troubleshoot Using Loupe 26 7signal Sapphire Loupe User Guide Release 3.1 The SNR declines dramatically during the night-time Wireless problem; Location and source ? The signal levels of neighbor APs (QURS002) The measured AP signal level and SNR indicate variations in the radio environment Channel noise level / Antenna (QURS001) The channel noise level together with Spectrum-view indicates possible interference issues and locations.
16 How To Troubleshoot Using Loupe 27 7signal Sapphire Loupe User Guide Release 3.1 Channel noise level / Antenna 6, channels 1-6 (QURS001) The channel noise level together with Spectrum-view indicates possible interference issues and locations. Spectrum-view / Antenna 6 (QURS001) The channel noise level together with Spectrum-view indicates possible interference issues and locations. 7signal Ltd, Panuntie 6, FI-00620 HELSINKI, FINLAND, +358 40 777 7611, info@7signal.com, www.7signal.
16 How To Troubleshoot Using Loupe 28 7signal Sapphire Loupe User Guide Release 3.1 Case 1 summary The attach success rate declination is also visible in other test results. Attach times increase, the IP retrieval success rate declines, the FTP and VoIP test success rate declines etc. The strong SNR declination and noise level increase indicates wireless problems. The problem is caused by strong interference which is active during the night-times.
16 How To Troubleshoot Using Loupe 29 The network SLA table shows the performance situation of the selected APs. The table presents downlink performance problems during the working days.
16 How To Troubleshoot Using Loupe Data rates Client detailed statistics DL codec distribution TR003 Client count per AP E.g. Client retransmission rate and client packet size presents also the end-user performance The data rates codec distribution KPI presents the downlink codec usage in the active tests The AP Client count presents radio load issues FTP DL throughput / SNR (TP/SNR) The TP/SNR KPI can be used to determine if wireless and/or wired side conditions change repeatedly.
16 How To Troubleshoot Using Loupe 31 7signal Sapphire Loupe User Guide Release 3.
16 How To Troubleshoot Using Loupe 32 The network SLA table shows the performance situation of the selected APs. The table presents downlink & uplink performance problems during the measurement period.
16 How To Troubleshoot Using Loupe VoIP MOS downlink (listen) & VoIP MOS uplink (talk) QUAP015 VoIP MOS packet loss QUAP001 & QUAP002 FTP DL throughput & FTP UL throughput QUIP005 & QUIP006 FTP DL packet size & FTP UL packet size QURS002 & QURS003 Client AP signal level at Eye & AP SNR at Eye Client detailed statistics Data rates DL & UL codec distribution TR003 Client count per AP The VoIP MOS KPI presents detailed information about VoIP MOS variation in the network.
16 How To Troubleshoot Using Loupe The TP/SNR KPI can be used to determine if wireless and/or wired side conditions change repeatedly. AP Channel information (AV010) 7signal Ltd, Panuntie 6, FI-00620 HELSINKI, FINLAND, +358 40 777 7611, info@7signal.com, www.7signal.com 7signal Sapphire Loupe User Guide Release 3.
16 How To Troubleshoot Using Loupe QUIP005 - FTP DL packet size The FTP DL packet size is changing between 100 and1500 bytes. FTP UL packet size (QUIP006) The FTP DL packet size is changing between 80 and 1500 bytes. 7signal Ltd, Panuntie 6, FI-00620 HELSINKI, FINLAND, +358 40 777 7611, info@7signal.com, www.7signal.com 7signal Sapphire Loupe User Guide Release 3.
16 How To Troubleshoot Using Loupe 36 7signal Sapphire Loupe User Guide Release 3.1 Client detailed statistics (Client) E.g. Client retransmission rate and client packet size presents also the end-user performance. Summary The end-user downlink performance problems are caused by other Wi-Fi APs. All the APs are changing radio channel automatically, trying to avoid interference caused by using the same channels. The uplink performance problems are caused by high AP interference.
17 KPI Glossary 37 KPI ID Name Availability Description Unit Access point beacon availability Measures beacon signal transmission from each monitored AP. The KPI is the relative amount of received and expected beacons. % AV002 Internet connection availability Measures internet connection availability between a predefined server (Sonar) and an Eye. The Eye pings (32B) the target server three times. If all pings are successful, internet is available. Otherwise internet service is not available.
17 KPI Glossary 38 % AC004 Radio attach time Time between Eye starts radio attach to an AP, and attach complete. Time between Eye starts radio attach to an AP, and attach complete. Ms AC005 IP address retrieval time AC006 Authentication success rate AC007 Radio authentication time AC008 Association success rate AC009 Radio association time RE001 FTP download success rate Measures FTP download completion rate. % RE002 FTP upload success rate Measures FTP upload completion rate.
17 KPI Glossary 39 7signal Sapphire Loupe User Guide Release 3.1 Measures downlink throughput in an HTTP document transfer. The test measures both the time of the transfer and the size of the document, from which the throughput in Mbit/s is calculated.Measures downlink throughput in an HTTP document transfer. The test measures both the time of the transfer and the size of the document, from which the throughput in Mbit/s is calculated.
17 KPI Glossary 40 7signal Sapphire Loupe User Guide Release 3.1 RF frame size distribution in FTP uplink transfer test. If possible, WLAN devices try to use the maximum transmission unit. Due to radio interference, WLAN devices might reduce the frame size, which leads to relatively larger frame overhead, and eventually to lower data throughput. Note that this value is the size of the data link layer frame, which is defined by IEEE 802.11, thus, this indicator doesn't indicate the size of TCP/IP packets.
17 KPI Glossary 41 Eye-AP signal level in FTP UL QURS028 Eye-AP SNR in FTP DL dBm dB QURS029 Eye-AP SNR in FTP UL Signal to noise ratio between AP and Eye, during an FTP upload test. Signal to noise ratio between AP and Eye, during an FTP upload test. QURS030 Channel noise during FTP DL Measures the average channel noise on the channel where the FTP download test is done. Calculated as Signal level minus SNR.
17 KPI Glossary 42 TR002 AP downlink throughput Kbit/s TR003 Number of clients per AP TR015 AP packet size Measures the IEEE802.11 frame sizes during a monitoring per AP. byte TR0018 Average QoS category in AP traffic monitor The average of all the used QoS-categories during AP traffic monitoring. # QURS005 Client signal level at Eye Measures the signal power level of clients from the Eye point of view. Measures the signal power level of clients from the Eye point of view.
17 KPI Glossary 43 Client data uplink rate TRO12 Client uplink data Measures the amount of uplink data transmitted by a client. Kbit/s TRO13 Client-downlind data Measures the amount of downlink data transmitted to a client. Kbit/s TR014 Client frame size Measures the IEEE802.11 frame sizes during a monitoring per client. byte TR0019 Average QoS category in client traffic monitor The average of all the used QoS-categories during client monitoring.