I have a pair of PTP 670s, and I am not sure how to check the signal strength. I’m new to Cambium, and I’m used to viewing signal strength in dBm and SNR and I haven’t been able to find that information. The link is connected and working well, but I want to make sure the signal is neither to weak nor too strong. How do I check received signal strength and signal quality on these units?
Hi Jason,
I’m glad your link is working well. You’re definitely right to want to check the receive signal level.
The information you need is in the System Status page of the web management interface, here:
Receive power (along with other attributes) is displayed as a set of four values representing the maximum, mean, minimum and current measurements. This example is a cabled link used for development, and we have a healthy -51.1 dBm signal level.
It’s also useful to look at Link Loss. This should correlate with the Path Loss estimated in LINKPlanner. If your link loss is higher then this suggests that antennas are not exactly aligned, or there is an obstruction that was not included in the link plan.
We don’t measure SNR directly, but the Vector Error measurement is a useful alternative. For SNR < 30 dB, you can simply take VE and ignore the negative sign. VE has a floor at about -30 dB caused by residual distortion in the transmitter and receiver.
I hope your PTP 670 link gives good service for many years to come.
Mark
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