Ethernet Bridge Radios: How to use the EBR Diagnostic Utility.

Note: Changing the channel mode, changing IPs, and updating firmware should all be done through the web interface and not through the EBR Diagnostic Utility.

Determining Where Communication is Dropping Out

Below are four scenarios that illustrate EBR Diagnostic results and how to interpret them. There are more tools available by clicking on advanced diagnostics.

1. No communication between controlling computer and the server radio.
   
   • Note 1: The utility uses UDP Broadcast packets to find and communicate with the radios.  UDP broadcast does not typically go across router links, etc. unless this equipment is setup to allow UDP traffic to pass.
   • Note 2: This utility can handle multiple radio sets and will list them separately.
2. No communication between the server and client radios, but good communication between the controlling computer and server radio.
   
3. No communication between the client radio and the display.
   
4. Full connection out to the display.
   

Link Quality LEDs in EBRD

• Block error rate is a ratio of the number of erroneous blocks (check sum failure) to the total number of blocks successfully received.
• Packet success rate shows that packets are successful and that the signal is greater than the noise by enough to allow successful transmission to occur. The success rate is averaged over the past 100 blocks, thus, when the link is not doing much the LEDs are less responsive than when there is a lot of traffic, therefore sending a large message  file is a good test.
• Packets are broken into smaller fragments called blocks. The blocks are sent in a burst and are retransmitted individually if their checksum fails. A packet will be successful as long as all blocks get across the RF in less than 4 retransmission attempts. This is basically a signal to noise meter.
• Link quality may be observed by either using the Radio Diagnostics tool, or by observing the LED's on the radio cards inside the cases.  Below is a screen shot from the diagnostics tool.
  
• The correlation is approximately:

  LEDs Lit	Block Success	Notes
  6/6	100%	No dropped packets
  5/6	85%	Optimum levels: 5/6 (85%) or better
  4/6	70%	Minimum levels: 4/6 (70%) or better.  Although 4/6 is capable of communication, dependable radio communication (especially larger files like animations) may require higher block success as the RF spectrum may change from day to day.
  3/6	55%	Unacceptable levels: 3/6 and less than 70%
  2/6	40%
  1/6	Dead/No comm.

• In EBR diagnostics - right click either radio and select "Reset Radios"
  • A password will need to be entered