RF Spectrum Trace
Continuously scans and samples the signal strength (dBm) of RF transmissions within the specified frequency range. By default 3 traces are displayed — Current (green), Maxima (red) and Active (gray). The Current trace displays the signal strength data from the most recent scan, the Maxima trace displays the maximum signal strength for each frequency since the scan session began (similar to a ‘Peak and Hold’ function), and the Active trace displays real-time data as the RF Explorer device is actively scanning.





Waterfall History
A 3-dimensional representation of the RF energy data (i.e. signal transmissions), where the X-axis is the frequency scale, the Y-axis is a time scale, and the “Z-axis” is the color scale.  Each horizontal line in the Waterfall chart displays the signal strength (as a color) as a function of frequency as measured over the time period of one scan.  That is, with each scan (or sweep) a new row is added at the bottom of the Waterfall chart. The color legend to the right shows that stronger signals will appear red and weaker signals will appear blue.





Topographic Chart
A three-dimensional representation of RF signal transmissions that displays accumulated RF energy as a function of frequency. The power of the signal strength in dBm is shown across the frequency span. A signal strength that appears with a relatively low occurrence is ‘blueish’ in color, whereas increasingly brighter colors are used for signal strengths that occur more frequently. Signal strengths that occur most often are ‘reddish’ in color. Another way of stating this would be to say the Topographic Map uses color to mark the rate of occurrence (i.e. how often) a particular signal strength occurs.

Over time, the Topographic Map will approximate the steady-state RF energy signature of the current environment, giving the user a better, more general idea of the environment. This is because the Topographic Map deemphasizes outliers such as intermittent or random signals while at the same time emphasizing signal transmissions that occur more frequently.





Delta Trace
Used to view small (or large) changes in the RF spectrum over time. When scanning begins, the first trace is saved as a snapshot. For all subsequent scans, the snapshot trace is subtracted from the current trace and the difference, i.e. ‘delta’, is displayed. Plotting the data in this way makes it easy to detect RF changes in transmitted signals that occurred since the initial snapshot and is most useful in environments where RF transmissions change over time.






Threshold Trace
Similar to the Spectrum Trace view — used to monitor and display RF signal transmissions as a function of frequency. However, in addition, this chart highlights with a yellow box those frequencies whose signal strength exceeds a user-defined threshold. This feature is especially useful for visually emphasizing strong signals (and deemphasizing weak ones), where the user gets to define ‘strong’ and ‘weak’ according to where they set the threshold.





Channel Heatmap
A “channel-centric” chart — similar to the Waterfall History chart above — the difference being that here we plot channels rather than frequencies. That is, along the X-axis we have channels, the Y-axis is a time scale, and the “Z-axis” is the color scale.  Each horizontal line in this chart displays the accumulated signal strength (as a color) of all the frequencies that are included within the channel band as measured over the time period of one scan.  That is, with each scan (or sweep) a new row is added at the bottom of the chart for each channel. The color legend to the right shows that stronger signals will appear red and weaker signals will appear blue. For “channel-centric” charts, the signal strengths of all frequencies used by a particular channel are summed, normalized and reported as one value.





Channel Spectrogram
A “channel-centric” chart — displays a three-dimensional plot of channels as a function of time. Each channel is represented by its own set of bar graphs — the Z-axis is time and the Y-axis is signal strength. As with the Channel Timecourse chart (below), this view makes it easy to visualize how RF interference affects different channels over time. For “channel-centric” charts, the signal strengths of all frequencies used by a particular channel are summed, normalized and reported as one value.





Channel Density
A “channel-centric” chart — similar to the Topographic chart above — the difference being that here we plot channels rather than frequencies. A signal strength that appears with a relatively low occurrence is ‘blueish’ in color, whereas increasingly brighter colors are used for signal strengths that occur more frequently. Signal strengths that occur most often are ‘reddish’ in color. Another way of stating this would be to say this chart uses color to mark the rate of occurrence (i.e. how often) a particular signal strength occurs. For “channel-centric” charts, the signal strengths of all frequencies used by a particular channel are summed, normalized and reported as one value.





Channel Timecourse
A “channel-centric” chart — useful for monitoring channels as a function of time. Each channel is represented by a different line — the X-axis is time and the Y-axis is signal strength. In this way one can clearly follow how RF interference affects different Wi-Fi channels over time. For “channel-centric” charts, the signal strengths of all frequencies used by a particular channel are summed, normalized and reported as one value.