Network Matrix help (please)

  • 11 April 2022
  • 8 replies
  • 564 views
T
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  • twuk
  • Enthusiast I
  • 98 replies

We’ve been having some trouble lately with streamed sources occasionally stalling, and in the process of troubleshooting I’ve been looking at the network matrix to see if interference might be an issue.  We introduced a Boost some years ago to deal with such issues, however I still find as we live in a block of flats that changes in surrounding wireless networks will occasionally again start to interfere.

Looking at the matrix, I’m struggling to understand and wondering if someone might be willing to take a look.  My interpretation would be that several of the players are complaining about the level of ‘noise’, presumably from surrounding wireless equipment.  However, I’ve used Wifi Explorer to scan surrounding networks and channel 11 (currently set) is by far the least used.  My home network is already on channel 1 and at lowest power/narrowest channel width.

Possibly a complete aside, but also can’t work out why the Beam (‘Master’) is not showing any colour at all and very little information.  None of the players is wired, so they should all be running from the Boost.

Can anyone spot anything useful?

Network Matrix @ 2022-Apr-11

 

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8 replies

ratty

Your 2.4GHz wireless is being hammered by interference, quite possibly nothing to do with WiFi at all. Do you have lots of Bluetooth kit? Zigbee (e.g. Philips Hue)? Wireless cameras? Baby monitors?

FWIW channel 11 for SonosNet can be the worst, as it tends to be hit by microwave ovens more than the others.

Also, make sure that the conclusion that ch 11 is the ‘least used’ takes into account potential overlaps from adjacent channels.

 

To complete the story:

  • signal strengths look fine
  • the green cells in the left column are the HT satellites, which are on 5GHz
  • the Beam, like all the later models, doesn’t return ambient noise data in a form the matrix can display, hence the white cell

 

One question: what does your main network look like? The Boost is showing as a tertiary, which means it’s 2+ STP hops out from the root bridge.

T
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Thanks so much - that’s all really useful information.

To the first question (bluetooth) - unfortunately, yes, and probably all of the above.  There are tons of Hue bulbs in here (using a hub, so I assume Zigbee not bluetooth).  MOST of the kit in here we’ve wired as the property is wired for ethernet throughout, but some things don’t have an option.  I can of course try channel 6 and see what impact that has.

The above may also address your last question.  It’s a Ubiquiti network, where the Boost is sitting on a switch (media cabinet), which in turn connects to a central switch where all of the fibre comes in.  Does that explain it?  (Fwiw, I did yesterday try moving the Boost into the same cabinet as the first switch, but that puts it behind a wall and the matrix looked worse!)

ratty

Try alternative SonosNet channels, even channel 1 since it will cooperatively share bandwidth with the WiFi.

I don’t know Wifi Explorer but I have little confidence in what such scanners recommend as the ‘best’ channel, since many overlook the fact that standard channels are 20MHz -- i.e. 4 channel numbers -- in width and can therefore overlap nastily, never mind the effect of 40MHz channels…

You may not have any control over the Zigbee channel selection (I don’t with Ikea Tradfri) but it may have automatically settled on a channel that you could avoid by moving SonosNet.

Bluetooth is simply noisy for everything/everyone. Sonos will increase the noise rejection (the ANI level) but it should typically cope okay.

Baby monitors can be an unavoidable curse.

Try moving the Boost at least 50cm away from any other piece of electronics, ideally 1m in the case of wireless kit.

Ken_Griffiths

If it helps, in the Hue App under ‘Settings/Hue Bridge Settings’ there is an option to change the Zigbee channel, if that becomes a factor.

T
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I’ve just been googling… so the Hue is currently at Zigbee channel 25 (2475MHz) which looks pretty far from my 2.4GHz network on channel 1 (2412MHz) though I’m no expert in dealing with frequencies.  I understand Zigbee is narrow, where the wireless is a 20MHz width.  

Moving the Sonos to channel 6 improved things somewhat as follows:

 

Wifi Explorer doesn’t really offer recommendations, just scans and shows what it finds.  What I’ve done is to filter the results to only the 2.4Ghz networks, then sort with the strongest Signal to identify which channels are most prevalent around me.  That yields the following, which suggests ch1 being one to avoid!

Wifi Explorer 2.4Ghz networks

 

ratty

Zigbee channel 25 might just be clipping the edge of the SonosNet on ch 11. Zigbee channels are 2MHz.

See https://www.metageek.com/training/resources/zigbee-wifi-coexistence/

 

On the SonosNet channel choice, those WiFis are well behaved -- opting for 1/6/11 with 20MHz width. It’s the channel utilisation which matters so if I were you I’d experiment with SonosNet on both 6 and 1. If it works better on ch 1 you could consider moving the WiFi to 11 if you wished.

FWIW I limit any 2.4GHz use to channels 1 (WiFi) and 6 (SonosNet) to leave space for Zigbee. That said, not much here uses 2.4GHz WiFi these days as I pushed just about everything up to 5GHz.

Ken_Griffiths

This chart may assist too (perhaps?) it shows the Zigbee/WiFi channels coexistence:

edit: Ah @ratty beat me to it .. 👍

T
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Thanks for the help/advice all.  I’m still working on it and will report back when there’s some progress.  Thus far changing things around seems to have only made it worse.  Probably going to need to do some further digging/experimentation over the long weekend.  :)

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