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ZHA integration with Skyconnect/Zigbee seems to show RSSI and LQI as equivalent (relative values, not absolute values) #129556

Open Extrapilot1 opened 2 hours ago

Extrapilot1 commented 2 hours ago

The problem

I enabled RSSI and LQI for my zigbee network, which runs 5 repeaters/routers and a Skyconnect USB link on an RPI4. Where there is variance on RSSI/LQI per pair through the day, and where these values do not parallel other pairs, they parallel each other exactly, on all 5 links. That is, it appears LQI is just an offset of RSSI, or vice versa. That is not supposed to be how these work- where RSSI is RF flux, and LQI can vary due to different message paths, or message corruption etc. I dont see any variance, on any of the links between the SkyConnect and the 5 routers placed throughout my residence.

The routers are not identical. 1 is a wall switch made by Ewelink, 2 are Sengled wall power switches, and 2 are Sonoff S31 Lite ZB wall power switches. Unlikely they all use the same chip, or the same stack, so this seems to be more a ZHA thing.

It may be fair to say- these values arent all that precise anyway- and Id have less a problem with the data IF there were significant variation between RSSI and LQI for a given link through the day. There isnt.

My concern is that if there is a fault in how LQI is calculated (it is just the inverse of RSSI etc), then it may be that the Skyconnect isnt sending messages to given endpoints via the highest LQI router for that device. That is, best I can understand, how the mesh functions, where the assumption is that the Skyconnect is center, not the end of a long line of routers, where load averaging is mostly a function of location/azimuth and not of some complex route planning as would be seen with OSPF or something like that in the Ethernet world.

Or, this may just be a bug, where externally this is presented to HA with RSSI as just some inverse of LQI? My assumption is that if RSSI isnt supported, it simply wouldnt be reported for a given link...

What version of Home Assistant Core has the issue?

2020.10.4

What was the last working version of Home Assistant Core?

2020.10.4

What type of installation are you running?

Home Assistant OS

Integration causing the issue

ZHA

Link to integration documentation on our website

https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/zha/

Diagnostics information

NA

Example YAML snippet

NA

Anything in the logs that might be useful for us?

This was seen as chart data. The error is inferred from the expected behavior vs graphed data.

Additional information

NA

home-assistant[bot] commented 2 hours ago

Hey there @dmulcahey, @adminiuga, @puddly, @thejulianjes, mind taking a look at this issue as it has been labeled with an integration (zha) you are listed as a code owner for? Thanks!

Code owner commands Code owners of `zha` can trigger bot actions by commenting: - `@home-assistant close` Closes the issue. - `@home-assistant rename Awesome new title` Renames the issue. - `@home-assistant reopen` Reopen the issue. - `@home-assistant unassign zha` Removes the current integration label and assignees on the issue, add the integration domain after the command. - `@home-assistant add-label needs-more-information` Add a label (needs-more-information, problem in dependency, problem in custom component) to the issue. - `@home-assistant remove-label needs-more-information` Remove a label (needs-more-information, problem in dependency, problem in custom component) on the issue.

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puddly commented 2 hours ago

All values are straight from the firmware, unmodified. You can read about how they're computed in an article by Silicon Labs: https://community.silabs.com/s/article/lqi-in-silicon-labs-em3xx-and-efr32-parts?language=en_US

Extrapilot1 commented 1 hour ago

Well, thats unfortunate. Per the doc, the Skyconnect chip doesnt actually use bit error rate for LQI, it simply estimates LQI (RSSI of -100 to -36 maps to LQI of 0-255). It is no wonder people see all kinds of craziness where they see bad LQI and have good link performance, or vice versa. Given how this chip is now sort of linked with Home Assistant as the whole Skyconnect/ZBT thing, do you think it might make sense to not report LQI for it since it isnt real? Or at the least, it seems a note should be made on the Skyconnect sales page that the chip doesnt support proper LQI, and emulates it via RSSI if this isnt something that can/should be done in the interface?