Troubleshooting Wi-Fi – part 1

Your CTO called in yesterday to report a connectivity issue. The problem occurred while she was walking to the coffee machine during a Teams call.

The Question now is:
“How well can your current Wi-Fi system help you troubleshoot this issue without requiring an on-site visit?“

One of the main challenges with on-site troubleshooting is that the problem is often difficult or even impossible, to reproduce. Deploying a packet sniffer, a monitoring AP, or a dedicated troubleshooting AP may seem like a good approach, but when it comes to roaming-related issues, a single AP isn’t enough. You typically need multiple capture points to gather all the relevant data, making the process complex and time-consuming.

However, if you have a Wi-Fi system that saves valuable historical data for a few weeks, you can analyze past events to troubleshoot the issue. By looking at the timeline, you can discover, in this case, that the 5GHz coverage was insufficient and that the user experienced a hard roam (full authentication) between the 5GHz and 2.4GHz bands.

While this might not be a significant issue under normal circumstances, it becomes critical during real-time traffic such as voice calls, where timing is crucial. A robust Wi-Fi system that shows how long it takes during Association and Authentication, whether it was a Layer 3 (L3) roam requiring a new IP address, and the time taken to obtain the new IP is essential information.

Lets compare Wi-Fi systems

I’m currently comparing two Enterprise Wi-Fi systems (the once that use their marketing strategy from top down) and evaluating their client performance using event logs and timing details.

With the first system, from Vendor X, I can view the client events and identify which AP the client (STA) is associated with. However, it doesn’t provide the timing between events and as we know, voice delay exceeding 150 ms can already become noticeable to the human ear.

In contrast, Vendor Y’s system shows both the events and the precise timing between them. Additionally, it offers a separate view that displays roaming activity between APs, with clear visual indicators “such as color-coded status” to highlight connection failures or degraded coverage (e.g., orange for issues).

Visualization of roaming between access-points in one pane:

Now lets look at vendor X. Which also provides a separate pane above the event logs dedicated to client connectivity, and it looks like this:

The green underlined section indicates a roam event. However, I had to hover over the line to confirm it was a roam and to identify which band the client was on. While the events are shown with timestamps (in hours/minutes/seconds), I still need to manually calculate the time between events.

Additionally, determining which AP or radio the client was connected to at a specific moment requires taking multiple screenshots, making the process quite impractical.

At vendor Y we also can see everything in one overview so we don’t need to make screenshots or remember things.

Conclusion

If meaningful insights into Wi-Fi performance are a priority, I would choose Vendor Y in this case. When selecting a Wi-Fi system, it’s important not only to assess how well it performs under ideal conditions, but also to evaluate the level of visibility it offers when issues arise.

Both vendors provide detailed analytics and comprehensive event logs to support troubleshooting. However, Vendor Y stands out by delivering a clear, intuitive overview that surfaces roaming issue at a glance, without the need for manual digging and writings roaming events down. This makes it easier to identify and resolve problems quickly, ensuring reliable Wi-Fi performance even in the most challenging environments.