Access Point Plugin (ap)

The ap collector visualizes data related to access points.

The source code is here.

Example netdata charts

How it works

It does the following:

1. Runs iw dev searching for interfaces that have type AP.

   From the same output it collects the SSIDs each AP supports by looking for lines ssid NAME.

   Example:

iw dev

phy#0 Interface wlan0 ifindex 3 wdev 0x1 addr 7c:dd:90:77:34:2a ssid TSAOUSIS type AP channel 7 (2442 MHz), width: 20 MHz, center1: 2442 MHz

2. For each interface found, it runs `iw INTERFACE station dump`.

From the output is collects:

- rx/tx bytes
- rx/tx packets
- tx retries
- tx failed
- signal strength
- rx/tx bitrate
- expected throughput

Example:

```sh
# iw wlan0 station dump
Station 40:b8:37:5a:ed:5e (on wlan0)
     inactive time:  910 ms
     rx bytes:       15588897
     rx packets:     127772
     tx bytes:       52257763
     tx packets:     95802
     tx retries:     2162
     tx failed:      28
     signal:         -43 dBm
     signal avg:     -43 dBm
     tx bitrate:     65.0 MBit/s MCS 7
     rx bitrate:     1.0 MBit/s
     expected throughput:    32.125Mbps
     authorized:     yes
     authenticated:  yes
     preamble:       long
     WMM/WME:        yes
     MFP:            no
     TDLS peer:      no

3. For each interface found, it creates 6 charts:

   • Number of Connected clients
   • Bandwidth for all clients
   • Packets for all clients
   • Transmit Issues for all clients
   • Average Signal among all clients
   • Average Bitrate (including average expected throughput) among all clients

Configuration

You can only set ap_update_every=NUMBER to /etc/netdata/charts.d/ap.conf, to give the data collection frequency. To edit this file on your system run /etc/netdata/edit-config charts.d/ap.conf.

Auto-detection

The plugin is able to auto-detect if you are running access points on your linux box.