Dynamic measurement of network health

A media encoder system to enable an encoder device to communicate with an access point to a network, and to receive available Wi-Fi diagnostic information at the access point, the system comprising:

• an associated memory containing computer-executable instructions;
• and
• at least one processor of the encoder device coupled to the associated memory and the network wherein the at least one processor of the encoder device being programmed by the computer-executable instruction to determine for a plurality of clients within the network, a total air percentage for each of the plurality of clients, wherein the total air percentage is calculated as a sum of both a transmit air percentage and a receive air percentage between each of the clients and the access point wherein the access point is configured for communicating with a plurality of clients wherein if there are n clients connected to the access point, then n clients may either transmit and receive data, and the total air percentage at the access point is the sum of the total air percentage occupied by each of the n clients;
• the at least one processor programmed to determine a total air percentage for a first access point within the network;
• the at least one processor programmed to transmit opportunity corresponding to a percentage of time a channel medium is free and unused per second;
• the at least one processor programmed to determine a total air percentage used by a set of second access points, the total air percentage used by the second access points is a relationship between the transmit opportunity and the total air percentage at the access point, and is further used to find an air percentage used by other access points that are deemed available;
• the at least one processor programmed to determine an air margin for the network, the air margin is an amount of channel medium free compared to the air percentage occupied by the access point;
• and
• the at least one processor programmed to determine an overall health classification for the network based on the air margin wherein a high air margin is indicative of streaming condition occurring smoothly, while a low air margin is indicative of an under-performance streaming condition.

A communication system comprising:

• a plurality of clients;
• a first access point communicatively coupled to the plurality of clients;
• a media device comprising a Wi-Fi channel capacity measurement module implemented by a controller coupled with an encoder device, the media device communicatively coupled to the first access point to receive available Wi-Fi diagnostic information at the access point from the plurality of clients, and configured to perform one or more actions comprising:
• to determine, for the plurality of clients, a total air percentage, the total air percentage that is calculated as a sum of both a transmit air percentage and a receive air percentage between each of the clients and an access point wherein the access point is configured for communicating with the plurality of clients wherein if there are n clients connected to the access point, then n clients may either transmit and receive data, and the total air percentage at the access point determined by the media device is the sum of the total air percentage occupied by each of the n clients;
• to determine a total air percentage for a first access point within the network;
• to determine a transmit opportunity corresponding to a percentage of time a channel medium is free and unused per second;
• to determine a total air percentage that is used by a set of second access points, wherein the total air percentage used by the second access points is a relationship between the transmit opportunity and the total air percentage at the access point, and is used by the media device to find an air percentage used by other access points that are deemed available;
• to determine an air margin for the network, the air margin is an amount of channel medium free compared to the air percentage occupied by the access point;
• to determine an overall health classification for the network based on the air margin from the available Wi-Fi diagnostic information wherein a high air margin is indicative of streaming condition occurring smoothly, while a low air margin is indicative of an under-performance streaming condition.