Sniffer® Portable Professional User's Guide - NetScout

Control Frame Type Counters in the 802.11 Tab
Monitoring Your Network
Once stations and access points on the wireless networks have
established communications with one another (through the Association
and Authentication packet types described in the previous section),
Control frames are used in the transmission of data frames. Table 5-4
lists and describes the Control frame counters in the Dashboard’s
802.11 tab (example shown in Figure 5-4 on page 77).
Table 5-4. Control Frame Counters in the Dashboard’s 802.11 Tab
Counter Description
PS Polls The number of Power Save (PS) Poll packets
observed on the wireless network. PS Poll
packets are sent by stations to inform other
stations of time windows during which they
will not be transmitting.
RTS The number of Request to Send (RTS)
packets observed on the wireless network.
RTS packets are sent by stations to
negotiate how a data frame will be sent.
CTS The number of Clear to Send (CTS) packets
observed on the wireless network. Stations
send CTS packets to acknowledge the
receipt of an RTS packet and to indicate that
they are ready to receive data.
Acknowledge The number of Acknowledge packets
observed on the wireless network. Stations
send acknowledge packets to indicate that
they have received an error-free packet.
CF End The number of Contention-Free (CF) End
packets observed on the wireless network.
CF End packets are sent to indicate the end
of a contention period.
CF End/CF ACK CF End/CF ACK packets are sent to
acknowledge CF End packets.
BSSID The Basic Service Set Identification (BSSID)
for the access point on the channel being
monitored.
ESSID The Extended Service Set Identification
(ESSID) for the channel being monitored.
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