The WiFi Service analytics dashboard offers valuable insights into WiFi service consumption, which are derived from actual network connections tracked through RADIUS accounting logs.
The dashboard provides four primary levels of filtering, collectively referred to as the "analysis scope":
- Time Period: This defines the analysis period to which the metrics and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in the dashboard are associated. WiFi analytics can be examined for a maximum of 18 months in retrospect.
- Location/s: These define the locations or groups of locations to which the metrics and KPIs in the dashboard pertain. You can manually select one or more locations, or you can conveniently choose a group of locations by selecting one or more tags. Using location tags simplifies the analysis of WiFi analytics for specific network scenarios (e.g., by brand, by country, region, etc.).
- User Source: This parameter defines the source channel through which users generate connections.
The primary metrics monitored in the dashboard include:
- Connection: Whenever the term "connection" is used, it refers to a single RADIUS accounting session processed by the RADIUS server. It's important to note that, in many cases, a device connecting to the network can result in several accounting sessions.
- Active Users: This metric represents the number of users who have generated at least one connection log within the defined analysis scope. When a user produces multiple connections within the same analysis scope (time, location, source), it counts as a single active user.
- Connection Time: This metric tracks the duration of connections. Typically, the metric is expressed in statistical terms, such as an average over a specified analysis scope. To address potential fragmentation of RADIUS accounting sessions, this metric is usually measured per active user.
- Exchanged Traffic: This metric measures the amount of data exchanged on the network (both download and upload) across the connections processed in the analysis scope. Similar to Connection Time, this metric is generally measured per active user to mitigate the fragmentation of RADIUS accounting sessions.
Dashboard widgets details
- Active Users: total number of Active Users over the analysis scope
- Exchanged Traffic: the total amount of data (downlink + uplink) exchanged in the analysis scope
- Connections: total number of Connections over the analysis scope
The primary widget monitors the distribution of the four key metrics over time (timeline view) and across different locations (histogram view):
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Active Users: Indicates the count of active users.
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Daily Connection Time: Represents the average Connection Time per Active User in a given day.
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Daily Exchanged Traffic: Illustrates the average Exchanged Traffic per Active User in a day.
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Connections: Signifies the total count of connections.
Moreover, the widget furnishes the average value of the selected metrics over the analysis period in the timeline view or across the designated locations in the location view.
The two widgets above offer a comprehensive breakdown of the statistical distribution of the Connection Time and Exchanged Data metrics, providing a more refined understanding of their distribution patterns.
The charts present the average daily count of Active Users who remain connected for a specific duration or exchange a particular volume of data. These charts are presented in a normalized format, reported as percentages.
The two widgets above detail the distribution of Active Users per day of the week and per hour of the day. The charts track the average daily count of Active Users for each chart unit (day of week or hour of day) further averaged across the analysis scope and normalized in percentage.
The User Source widget details the distribution of the Active Users in the analysis scope across the different sources.
The Network Authentication Methods widget shows the distribution of Active Users based on the underlying authentication method:
- Captive Portal
- WPA2-Enterprise / Passpoitn based on 802.1X