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How to Test and Improve your Wireless Network

  • Updated

Symptoms of under-performing wireless communication

  • Airtame streaming is “choppy” - stops and continues constantly.

  • Over 1 second of delay between the device & screen during an Airtame stream session.

  • Disconnections during an ongoing stream session.

  • Stream sessions may take over 3 seconds to start once the Share Screen button is pressed.

Initial steps to try

Please try these steps first before diving into more technical diagnostics and improvements.

  • Make sure that the Airtame device is properly powered.

    • Airtame Hub can be powered by PoE+ or a DC power adapter.

    • Airtame 2 can be powered by a USB source or a PoE adapter.

  • Reboot the access point.

  • Check that your access point doesn't have any power-saving settings enabled. This may potentially increase network latency.

  • Check the positioning of an Airtame device. Make sure that it is positioned on the edge of the TV/display or on the side of the TV/display to avoid the no WiFi zone.

  • Make sure the Airtame device is close to an access point (within 15m/50ft).

Common reasons for underperforming WiFi

  • The Airtame device and access point are too far apart. For optimal streaming experience, we recommend a WiFi signal strength of a minimum of -50 dBm.

  • There’s no clear line of sight between the Airtame device and the access point, i.e. there are physical signal blockers like walls, furniture, people, or electronic appliances:

 

  • Interference from other access points in the vicinity transmitting over the same WiFi channel:

  • Interference from other radio wave-based products like handheld transceivers, cordless telephones, microwaves, or Bluetooth. This is very common when using a 2.4 GHz frequency band.

  • The access point is overloaded with too many devices connected to it at the same time. This can be checked in the management interface of your access point or network controller.

  • The access point's firmware may be outdated or Tx power is low.

Network tests

  • Perform an extensive ping test toward the Airtame device IP address:

  • Windows network ping test

  1. Search for "CMD" and open.

  2. Type "ping + Your device IP address -n 20".

  • Mac network ping test 

  1. Open "Terminal" (Search or find in your application/utility folder).

  2. Type "ping" followed by the IP of your device with a spacing between.

  • Matrix to evaluate your results

  1. <10 ms | Perfect latency and quality.

  2. 10-50 ms | A bit of latency and fine quality.

  3. 50 - 200 ms | Noticeable latency and quality reduction.

  4. >200 ms | Dropouts, bad quality, and definite latency.

  5. ≤ 1.0% | Healthy packet loss.

  • Use a WiFi Scanning App to find and set your access point WiFi to use a less saturated band and channel:

A wireless network console will provide tools to assess channel interference, but this tool can only provide data on the WiFi performance in the location of the access point - it may be just that the Airtame device is installed in a problematic location. A way to test the WiFi performance, at the location of the Airtame device, is with a WiFi scanner application running on a computer, so you would run a WiFi scan with the computer near or next to the location of the Airtame device.

Here you can see the results of a WiFi scan. The 5GHz band has fewer SSIDs on it and some channels only have one other SSID, meaning less interference if your access point is using this channel.

 

Many WiFi Scanning Apps also include a graph to show signal strength and interference (noise) of a specific WiFi, a high SNR value is desired:

 

Improvement Steps

  • Check that Airtame is placed as close as possible to the side of the screen pointing towards the access point. TVs block WiFi. The best way to avoid this would be to mount the device onto the wall around the TV rather than behind the display, or even place the Hub on top of a table/credenza.

    An Airtame device signal strength can be easily verified in Airtame Cloud:

  • Check your wireless system's deployment guide to ensure you’re benefiting from the best possible physical installation of the access points, i.e.: placement above head level, enough distance between each access point, position for best radio wave propagation, etc.

  • Configure Quality of Service to prioritize streaming traffic.

     

  • If the WiFi system is already operating at its limit, a new screen-sharing solution will be impacted by this network saturation. If that is the case then take advantage of Airtame’s flexible network integration options, and consider deploying your new Airtames with a PoE adapter or ethernet adapter.

Expected performance of Airtame over WiFi:

 

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