I am new to Cambium ePMP and cannot seem to find where on the SM you could see the uplink or AP side RSSI and SNR. Also where can you see the link Quality and Capacity on the SM? Is it really only visible on the AP?
I am used to Ubiquiti where I can see link quality, capacity, RSSI, Mod rates, and SNR of both sides of the link from either the SM or the AP.
I donāt think thereās a way to see the SMās uplink RSSI to the AP on the SM sideā¦ just the uplink modulation.
Cambium doesnāt provide a link quality metric on the ePMP line. Probably the best way to see the SMās performance over time is to watch the % of packets being transmitted at each MCS rate at the bottom of the Monitor ā Performance page.
Youāll find that the ePMP UI is somewhat spartan compared to Ubiquitiās. Cambium is making progress on the UI side, but I think they focus most of their development efforts on whatās under the hood.
Thanks. That is unfortunate as it makes troubleshooting a link harder. I would not say that Cambium needs to make their GUI as flashy as UI, but they could stand to provide a little more data in more convenient locations.
Having to navigate to multiple areas to get an idea on how a link is performing is obtuse to me as well as not providing simple information about the link on the main Status screen.
Honestly all they need to do to make things better in my opinion is adding a few things to the SM/AP Status page that are already elsewhere in the GUI. They can keep the rest the same.
Small throughput chart
RSSI for Downlink and Uplink - would be even better if it could be in this format the format of Signal (ch1/ch2) or -58 (-58/-61)
SNR for downlink/uplink
Link Quaility/Capacity
Show what channel and channel width the SM is currently scanning for an AP on.
For the AP provide the Station list or have the Registered Subscriber Modules number be a link directly to the Monitor->Wireless page.
OK, now youāve done itā¦ youāve triggered another rant by me.
(RANT) In a nutshell, I must say first that I LOVE CAMBIUM, because the āunder the hoodā magic they can accomplish is just spectacular. The ePMP devices work better than anything else in the class that weāve used for the last 20 years. They work when itās -40c and they have a 3 year warranty, and they just work and keep working.
But Cambiumās virtual insistence on NOT providing information in a convenient and intuitive way is baffling. It amounts to a bleak desolate lack of essential information in my opinionā¦ and when people like me bring it up, weāre usually told āOh, Iād rather have the driver work, rather than a bunch of pretty graphsā which totally minimizes the value of essential data presented in a efficient manner. Why are those two things considered mutually exclusive? We should be able to have BOTH the best hardware & driver, and also the best GUI. (/RANT)
Anyway, Cambium is awesome in so many ways - hardware is reliable and performance is great and interference rejection and the list of things they do very well goes on and on too.
AND, I DO NOT WANT TO SCARE YOU OFF - stick it out, Cambiumās benefits are well worth the effort anyway, but I just wanted to jump on board and let Cambium know (again) that the GUI is an issue. It DOES and WILL scape customers off. @terintamel has been here 2 days, and is already is wondering why and where the info is laid out so inconveniently.
This is EXACTLY what Iāve been saying for years! There are things that are already in the GUI, but not organized onto the same page, at the same timeā¦ there are literally times when I have to copy info down with paper and pen, so that I can switch to a different screen to see the other related data that really should be all on the same āpane of glass at a glanceā somewhere.
Hereās an exampleā¦the Spectrum Analyzer tool on the 3000/300 series has had a history of negatively affecting performance if itās left running, especially if you have the mode set to Detailed mode. In 'Detailed Mode" it does a deeper inspection, and it can potentially cause problems (which is fair enough) so that mode is used for diagnostics, and itās probably best not to leave it running it all the time. Fair enough / no problem with that.
SO ā my suggestion to help with this problemā¦ is that that info is already available in the GUIā¦ (the info whether the SA is ON or OFF is already a known variable)ā¦ so lets just put an icon on the title bar of the GUI, maybe right up near were GPS & Connectivity Globe & User # icons in the GUIās already are. Just put either a SA type icon there which is either Greyed or Colored and problem solved. None of us would accidently forget that the SA had been left on ā or at the least, it would be very apparent and obvious āat a glanceā if it was on or off. And/Or hey, letās even make the SA state a condition we can read via SNMP or see in a column in cnMaestro or something - something we can poll and see if any devices accidently have their SA on right now?
And if feels to me that in a web based GUI, a small change like an ICON on displaying already known info on another screen, that seems like it should take an intern a day to add that in. Perhaps it is way more complicated than I think it is, but I canāt see why that should be difficult. That info is already known to the GUI, just duplicate it on another location.
Anyway (/RANT MODE)
Thanks for your time.
PS ā I do want to say yet again, I love Cambiumās products. Most of the time, the benefits of a better underlying hardware/firmware does outweigh the bleak GUI. But it just shouldnāt be mutually exclusiveā¦ it should be possible to have the best driver performance AND ALSO have the information laid out better.