Channel utilization – Not important for EMC-Netsight?

[Thomas_Hucke]

Looking for software for monitoring our university wireless network based on Extreme Network wireless controller V2110 and mostly APs 3805i, I am testing EMC Netsight 8.0.3.53. Entering the menu Wireless/Access Points I get a nice table of all APs with IP and MAC Address, Channels, Peak Wired and Wireless Bandwidth and Peak Clients. But where are the statistics for Channel Utilization? For me as a network administrator Channel Utilization is an important metric to evaluate the health of my wireless network. I was told that in order to get data about Channel Utilization one has to get the most advanced (and expensive) version of EMC, NMS-ADV-XX . Really?

Inside of NMS-ADV-XX you can create custom reports about channel utilization but have to do it for each radio of each AP. If your network has 500 APs with two radios, you have to create 1000 components, which can then be combined in the Report Designer to a custom report. There is no way (at least I couldn’t find one) to have a simple table of all APs and their actual Channel Utilization or a list of APs with the highest Channel Utilization.

So, why is Channel Utilization not important for EMC Netsight? Why do they have to hide this feature in the NMS-ADV-XX version? Why can’t I have a list of all APs with wired/wireless bandwidth and Channel utilization at the same time without creating a complicate custom report? I am also testing LibreNMS, a wonderful open source network monitoring solution. Entering the wireless menu, I can choose the display of APs, Clients, Utilization, SNR, RSSI, Noise Floor, Errors and Frequency. So, if LibreNMS can do this, why not EMC Netsight?

[Thomas_Hucke]

Exactly, and I don't see any need to purchase the most expensive version of XMC (NMS-ADV) just to get historical information about channel utilization. LibreNMS provides historical data about channel just using SNMP, and for free.
Regards,

[Ronald_Dvorak]

I'd prefer a full integration of the channel util counters because the main reason to use XMC instead of the controller GUI for reports is the ability to look into the stored historical data in XMC.

[Thomas_Hucke]

Hi Bastion,
I got it. I think, that for an admin, who wants to have a quick overview about the health of his wireless network - and I consider Channel Utilization as an very important metric for this purpose - EMC is pretty cumbersome and should be improved. IMHO software should help the life of an admin and not make it more complicate.
BTW, what exactly does "Speed" of the wireless interface exactly mean? Our 802.11a/n/ac radios show a speed of 54 Mbps and 802.11g/n only 11 Mps.

Regards,
Thomas.

[Thomas_Hucke]

Ronald,
I appreciate your response.
Thanks.

Thomas.