Anomalies report

Today, on the site, I received these message:
Anomaly report for FlightFeeder # - site - i:
23% of UDP multilateration traffic sent by piaware is not reaching the FlightAware servers. This may indicate a network problem.

What does this message mean?

I have: FlightFeeder with wi-fi dongle. The modem works 24/24. I have no problems with the internet.

It means there is a network problem or congestion somewhere between your FlightFeeder and the FlightAware servers.

Luke, there is a disturbance in the force.

A knowledge of the UDP (User Datagram Protocol) is helpful here.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_Datagram_Protocol

As stated in the article, this is a protocol without handshaking so lost packets are not recovered. They are accounted for in that the packet contains a count. If the receiving site does not have a matching count then packets were lost.

Wireless Ethernet is much more susceptible to packet loss than wired. RF interference between your Flightfeeder and your Wireless Access Point can cause packet loss.

Recently I experienced UDP packet loss and thought my network wasn’t the problem. I then discovered that the access point device that my RPI was connected to was dying a slow death. Once it bellied up, my connection to FlightAware improved when the RPI connected to a different access point.

Tuning 802.11 systems is an art…

One trick you can try (if your Wi-Fi access point supports it), is to restrict channel bandwidth to 20 MHz, not the full 40 MHz that 11n wants to use.

An AP using a 40 MHz channel (such as for 11n) is combining 2 adjacent 20MHz channels. And to transmit on a 40 MHz channel, you need to have BOTH of those channels clear. If you just use a single 20 MHz channel, you’ve decreased the chances of activity/noise on an adjacent channel keeping you from transmitting.

This can make a big difference in noisy/crowded Wi-Fi environments! Particularly with our little beasties, which aren’t big bandwidth hogs, that’s the good news.

The bad news is that when things get crowded, UDP is the first thing to get dropped on the floor.

So stack the deck in your favour – put your wireless Pi systems on a common 20 MHz wide channel. (If you can’t run wired Ethernet.)

bob k6rtm