Should Hotspot Helper give up to date RSSI values for unmanaged networks

Question

I am using the Hotspot Helper to connect to certain networks which I have control over.

In my app I display the current connected network information and show an indication of the signal strength.

I can call supportedNetworkInterfaces() to get the NEHotspotNetwork object representing the Wi-Fi interface.

When the currently connected Wi-Fi is one that I am managing then I get live updates of the signal strength.

When I am not managing the current network I get an RSSI upon connection but any call after that seems to always report a stale RSSI from connection time. i.e. RSSI is not updating but it is being reported.

Should I be able to receive up to date RSSI for the current connected WiFi whether it is managed or not? It seems strange that a value is returned but it is not current?

I cannot find any obvious bugs so want to check what the Hotspot helper should do in this case before going any further.

Any tips for why this might happen would be appreciated.

Network

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Answer 1

This doesn’t surprise me. During the association process the hotspot helper might want to use the signal strength to guide its choice as to which network to prefer. Once associated, the hotspot helper might want to display the signal strength of the current network to the user (which is why

+supportedNetworkInterfaces

and

-isChosenHelper

exist). However, there’s no way for the hotspot helper to switch to some other network, so there’s no point in the system updating the signal strength for those networks.

Notwithstanding the above, if you have a use case where it makes sense to update the RSSI for all networks, feel free to file an enhancement request for that. Please post your bug number, just for the record.

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Quinn “The Eskimo!”
Apple Developer Relations, Developer Technical Support, Core OS/Hardware

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Answer 2

Thanks Eskimo,

The bug number is 27347568 and the use cases are described in the bug report.

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Answer 3

Hi Eskimo,

In my use case it makes sense to update the RSSI for all networks (Wifi) around me. Is it possible to get List of Wifi and SSID, BSSID and RSSI of them? Please suggest if there is any best approach? NEHotspotHelper or MFI program or WAC ?

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ShraddhaIng

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Answer 4

Is it possible to get List of Wi-Fi and SSID, BSSID and RSSI of them?

No. iOS has no general-purpose Wi-Fi scanning API.

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Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"

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Should Hotspot Helper give up to date RSSI values for unmanaged networks

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