I think what's been asked many times in these forums, but never answered is, "How does one convert a dBm value into a Cisco Aironet % value?". We *know* how to configure the ACU to display dBm or % values, but how do the two values correlate to each other?? We are looking for a formula of the form:
% = f(dBm), where f() is a function
Or, provide a table. My *unscientific* conversion table (done by switching between dBm and % readings on a fluctuating signal) is:
dBm %
---------
-80 30
-70 50
-60 66
-50 88
>-45 100
Again, the values were obtained by my reading the ACU Site Survey values on an Aironet AIR-PCM352 card; these values have not been calibrated nor were they obtained in a controlled scientific manner. What we would like is to know the *official* Cisco conversion formula or be provided with a conversion table. The Cisco percentage value is some proprietary thing Cisco created for signal strength readings on the Aironet, as RF Engineers ALWAYS work in dB. Unfortunately, non RF guys seem to like % values
To qualitatively assess the signal strength, here's my DBm assessment compared with Cisco's % assessment
Description % dBm
-------------------------------
Excellent > 80 > -55
Good 40 to 80 -72 to -55
Fair 20 to 40 -84 to -72
Poor < 20 < -84
So, will a Cisco Aironet Engineer please provide us with a proper conversion table to replace mine above, or else MY tables could become the de facto standard!! That would truly be scary.
Thanks
