wifi: Testing or Monitoring RSSI w/logging

[jlpoole]

I'm constructing a project where I have a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W ("pi") inside a $23 TICONN Waterproof Electrical Junction Box IP67 ABS Plastic Enclosure with Hinged Cover with Mounting Plate box. It appears having the pi inside the case causes the in-board pi's wifi to have signal problems, so I'm going to experiment with an external antenna, a $9 AC600 Mbps Dual Band 2.4/5Ghz Wireless USB WiFi Network Adapter w/Antenna 802.11. I have two choices for the cable: 1) $3.50 (requires purchase of 2) Bingfu WiFi Antenna Extension Cable (2-Pack) RP-SMA Male to RP-SMA Female Bulkhead Mount RG316 Cale 30cm 12 inch for WiFi Router Security IP Camera Wireless Mini PCI Express PCIE Network Card Adapter or 2) $16 WIZACE 3 ft RP-SMA Male to RP-SMA Female S-LMR240 Extension Cable (50 Ohm), Pure Copper Low-Loss Coax Jumper for WiFi Router Wireless Network Card Security IP Camera Hotspot Miner to Antenna.

What I would like to do is run some tests for each cable to see if there is a difference in signal strength. That requires my logging the RSSI [Received Signal Strength Indicator] over a period of time, e.g. 4 or 24 hours, and then comparing. The assumption is, of course, that the signal variance over such a period of time would not vary such that the average comes out to be the same. Perhaps a better-made cable will cause less attenuation of signal strength?

I'm posting here to ask if anyone knows of any open source software that monitors RSSI for an interface and logs same? Before I build such, I thought I'd check here and post an issue which others may encounter as they configure small board computers.

[pingtoo]

May be you can consider net-analyzer/rrdtool for data store and use net-analyzer/cacti for presentation.

[jlpoole]