How often to poll Wi-Fi signal strength?

Question

Ideally, I would like to monitor the signal level in a wireless network almost in real time, say, every 100 ms, but such a high frequency is likely to be excessive.

I use the Managed Wifi library to poll RSSI. I create an instance of WlanClient client = new WlanClient(); once and reuse client to measure the signal level every second or so (but I would like to do it more often):

 foreach (WlanClient.WlanInterface wlanInterface in _client.Interfaces) { Wlan.WlanBssEntry[] wlanBssEntries = wlanInterface.GetNetworkBssList(); foreach (Wlan.WlanBssEntry wlanBssEntry in wlanBssEntries) { int sigStr = wlanBssEntry.rssi; // signal strength in dBm // ... } } 

What is the fastest practical polling delay and what is the best way to measure signal strength?

Answer 1

I'm afraid the smallest polling delay will be different with your driver stack, but I also suspect the number of access points around. WiFi is a time slot protocol.

From my (limited) experience, the 1-second interval is approximately to the right, you will already see that the list of stations is not always complete (i.e. stations are not in 1 scanner, back on the next).

Is the best way to measure signal strength?

Depends, but how quickly do you expect it to change? When walking, the signal will not change for a second.

Answer 2

In most cases, when you want to track something that is sensible, you need to develop what you can do as little as possible to achieve your goal, and then increase the frequency slightly above it to delay delays and unexpected surges.

If, for example, you are going to display this for the user, then more than once every half a second will mean too quick changes for the user to meaningfully comprehend, so about a quarter of a second should be more than enough to be sure that you catch everything that you necessary.

If you register, it depends on how long the log period will work. Every few minutes, they’ll probably catch some serious problems, so once a minute everything should be fine.

In general, although there is often a practical maximum frequency, it should not be considered if the maximum useful frequency is higher, and it depends on your goals.