Market adoption of wireless LAN (WLAN) technology has exploded, as users from a wide range of backgrounds and vertical industries have brought this technology into their homes, offices, and increasingly into the public air space. This inflection point has highlighted not only the limitations of earlier-generation systems, but also the changing role that WLAN technology now plays in people's work and lifestyles across the globe. Indeed, WLANs are rapidly changing from convenience networks to business-critical networks. Increasingly users are depending on WLANs to improve the timeliness and productivity of their communications and applications, and in doing so, require greater visibility, security, management, and performance from their network.
Many wireless networks utilize a contention-based media access scheme (such as the Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA), and Enhanced Distributed Controlled Access (EDCA)). Accordingly, radio interference may adversely affect throughput. Non-wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) interference affects the performance of a wireless network by degrading the ability of the wireless network to communicate reliably. Interference detection technology may provide some interference metrics such as received signal strength indicator (RSSI) and duty cycle values. Existing interference detection systems typically provide these metrics at a local level (e.g., point metrics at an access point). Some systems may also identify the type of non-Wi-Fi interference sources, such as microwave ovens, Bluetooth, cordless telephones, etc.