• SonicOS 7.1 Access Points
• About SonicOS
  • About SonicOS
  • SonicOS Workflow
  • How to Use the SonicOS Administration Guides
  • Guide Conventions
• About Access Points
• Settings
  • Synchronize Access Points
  • Provisioning Overview
  • Creating/Modifying Provisioning Profiles
    • Adding/Editing a Provisioning Profile - Getting Started
    • General Settings for Provisioning Profiles
    • 5GHz/2.4GHz Radio Basic Settings for Provisioning Profiles
      • Radio Settings
      • Wireless Security
      • Protected Management Frames (PMF Option)
      • About Local Radius Servers and EAP Authentication Balancing
      • Configuring Radius Server Settings
      • ACL Enforcement
      • Remote MAC Address Access Control Settings
    • 5GHz/2.4GHz Radio Advanced Settings for Provisioning Profiles
      • Configuring the RSSI Threshold
      • Configuring IEEE802.11r Settings for Secure Fast Roaming
      • Configuring IEEE802.11k Settings for Dynamic Radio Management
      • Configuring IEEE802.11v Settings for Dynamic Environment Management
    • Sensor Settings for WIDP in Provisioning Profiles
    • Mesh Network Settings for Provisioning Profiles
      • Setting Up a Mesh Network
      • Enabling a Multi-hop Mesh Network
      • Active/Active Clustering Full Mesh
    • 3G/4G/LTE WWAN Settings for Provisioning Profiles
      • Manually Configuring the 3G/4G/LTE WWAN Profile
      • Configuring Load Balancing among Multiple USB Modems
    • Bluetooth LE Settings for Provisioning Profiles
    • Deleting Access Point Profiles
    • Product Specific Configuration Notes
  • Managing Access Point Objects
    • Deleting Access Point Objects
    • Rebooting Access Point Objects
    • Modifying Access Point Objects
• Firmware Management
  • About Firmware Management
  • Obtaining the Latest SonicWall Firmware
  • Downloading Firmware from a Specific URL
  • Uploading Firmware to an Access Point
• Floor Plan View
  • Managing the Floor Plans
    • Selecting a Floor Plan
    • Creating a Floor Plan
    • Editing a Floor Plan
  • Managing Access Points
    • Available Devices
    • Added Access Points
    • Removing Access Points
    • Export Image
    • Context Menu
• Station Status
• Intrusion Detection Services
  • Scanning Access Points
  • Authorizing Access Points
• Advanced IDP
  • Enabling Wireless IDP on a Profile
  • Configuring Wireless IDP Settings
  • Viewing KRACK Sniffer Packets
• Packet Capture
• Virtual Access Points
  • Before Configuring VAPs
    • Determining Your VAP Needs
    • Determining Security Configurations
    • Sample Network Definitions
    • Prerequisites
    • VAP Configuration Worksheet
  • Access Point VAP Configuration Task List
  • Virtual Access Point Groups
  • Virtual Access Point Objects
    • General Tab
    • Advanced Tab
  • Virtual Access Point Profiles
    • Virtual Access Point Schedule Settings
    • Virtual Access Point Profile Settings
    • Remote MAC Address Access Control Settings
    • ACL Enforcement
    • IEEE802.11R Settings
    • IEEE802.11K Settings
    • IEEE802.11V Settings
    • Agile Multiband Settings
• RF Monitoring
  • Prerequisites
  • RF Monitoring Summary
  • 802.11 General Frame Setting
  • 802.11 Management Frame Setting
  • 802.11 Data Frame Setting
  • Discovered RF Threat Stations
  • Adding a Threat Station to the Watch List
  • Practical RF Monitoring Field Applications
    • Using Sensor ID to Determine RF Threat Location
    • Using RSSI to Determine RF Threat Proximity
• RF Analysis
  • Using RF Analysis on SonicWall Access Points
    • Understanding the RF Score
    • Channel Utilization Graphs and Information
    • Viewing Overloaded Channels
    • RFA Highly Interfered Channels
• RF Spectrum
• FairNet
  • Supported Platforms
  • FairNet Features
  • Management Interface Overview
  • Configuring FairNet
• Wi-Fi Multimedia
  • WMM Access Categories
  • Assigning Traffic to Access Categories
  • Configuring Wi-Fi Multimedia Parameters
    • Configuring WMM
    • Creating a WMM Profile for an Access Point
• 3G/4G/LTE WWAN
• Bluetooth LE Devices
  • Viewing BLE Scanned Data
• Radio Management
  • Configuring Radio Management
  • Configuring Dynamic Channel Selection Settings
• SonicWall Support
  • About This Document

RF Analysis

RF Analysis (RFA) is a feature that helps you understand how wireless channels are utilized by the managed SonicWall access points and all other neighboring wireless access points. This section describes how to use the RF Analysis feature in SonicWall SonicOS to help best utilize the wireless bandwidth with wireless access point appliances.

SonicWall RF Analysis can analyze third-party access points and include these statistics in the RF data as long as at least one SonicWall access point is present and managed through the SonicWall firewall.

Choosing RF Analysis

Deploying and maintaining wireless infrastructure can be a daunting task for the network administrator. Wireless issues, such as low performance and poor connectivity are issues that wireless network administrators often face, but ironically, these issues can usually be resolved simply analyzing and properly tuning radio settings.

RFA is a tool that brings awareness to these potential wireless issues. The two main issues that RFA deals with are overloaded channels and SonicWall access point interference with adjacent channels. RF Analysis calculates an RF score for each operational access point and displays the data in a way that allows you to identify access points operating in poor RF environment.

The RF Environment

The IEEE 802.11 specified that devices use ISM 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands, and most of the currently deployed wireless devices use the 2.4 GHz band. Because each channel occupies 20 MHz wide spectrum, only three channels out of the 11 available are not overlapping. In the United States, channels 1, 6, and 11 do not overlap. In most cases, these are the three channels used when deploying a large number of SonicWall access points.

SonicPoint Manual Channel Selection

The whole 2.4GHz band is segmented into three separate channels 1, 6, and 11. To achieve this ideal scenario, two factors are necessary: channel allocation and power adjustment. In most scenarios, it is best to assign neighboring SonicPoints to different channels. SonicPoint transmit power should also be watched carefully, as it needs to be strong enough for nearby clients to connect, but not so powerful that causes interference to otherSonicPoints operating within the same channel.