Obtaining periodic AP receive signal strength measurements
I need to periodically obtain signal strength readings for a group (probably up to four) AP. The obvious solution is to use the wireless extensions interface for scanning viz:
# iwlist wlan0 scanning However this method is quite slow, since channels are scanned where I know there isn't any AP. Are there any native Linux wireless drivers/hardware combinations that support a directed scanning, i.e. where I can specify the channel on which to perform the AP scan? Has anybody got any alternative ideas for cycling through four AP in less than a second? Any ideas will be greatly appreciated. |
I think this functionality is solely dependant on the capabilities of the "wireless tools" package. Check "man iwlist", look under "scan[ning]", then the answer is in the last line (at least my version): "Also, this command is supposed to take extra arguments to control the scanning behaviour, but this is currently not implemented".
With an Atheros cards and (currently) 3 AP's in range I get: Code:
time iwlist ath0 scan >/dev/null |
On my laptop I get the following for a scan:
Code:
# time iwlist wlan2 scan >/dev/null The Wireless Extension documentation appears quite pessimistic about many driver/hardware combinations supporting the option "essid" to the "iwlist wlan0 scanning" command. |
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