Sessions

The Sessions page shows information on WLAN clients that are associated with the WAP devices in the Single Point Setup cluster. Each WLAN client is identified by its MAC address, along with the device location where it is currently connected.

NOTE     The Sessions page shows a maximum of 20 clients per radio on the clustered WAP devices. To see all WLAN clients associated with a particular WAP device, view the Status > Associated Clients page directly on that device.

To view a particular statistic for a WLAN client session, select an item from the Display list and click Go. You can view information about idle time, data rate, and signal strength.

A session in this context is the period of time in which a user on a client device (station) with a unique MAC address maintains a connection with the wireless network. The session begins when the WLAN client logs on to the network, and the session ends when the WLAN client either logs off intentionally or loses the connection for some other reason.

NOTE     A session is not the same as an association, which describes a WLAN client connection to a particular access point. A WLAN client association can shift from one clustered access point to another within the same session.

To view sessions associated with the cluster, select Single Point Setup > Sessions in the navigation pane.

The following data shows for each WLAN client session with a Single Point Setup.

• AP Location—The location of the access point.

The location is derived from the location specified on the Administration > System Settings page.

• User MAC—The MAC address of the wireless client.

A MAC address is a hardware address that uniquely identifies each node of a network.

• Idle—The amount of time this WLAN client has remained inactive.

A WLAN client is considered to be inactive when it is not receiving or transmitting data.

• Rate—The negotiated data rate. Actual transfer rates can vary depending on overhead.

The data transmission rate is measured in megabits per second (Mbps). The value should fall within the range of the advertised rate set for the mode in use on the access point. For example, 6 to 54 Mbps for 802.11a.

The reported rate is the speed of the last packet transmitted from the AP to the client. This value can vary within the advertised rate set based on the signal quality between the AP and client and the rate at which broadcast or multicast frames are sent. When the AP sends a broadcast frame to a STA using the default rates, then the field will report 1 Mbit/sec for 2.4-Ghz radios and 6 Mbit/sec for 5-Ghz radios. Clients that are idle are most likely to report the low default rates.

• Signal—The strength of the radio frequency (RF) signal the WLAN client receives from the access point. The measure is known as Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI), and is a value between 0 and 100.
• Receive Total—The number of total packets received by the WLAN client during the current session.
• Transmit Total—The number of total packets transmitted to the WLAN client during this session.
• Error Rate—The percentage of time frames are dropped during transmission on this access point.

To sort the information shown in the tables by a particular indicator, click the column label you want to sort by. For example, if you want to see the table rows ordered by signal strength, click the Signal column label.