Home/ Questions/Q 6973329
In Process

The Archive Base Latest Questions

Editorial Team
  • 0
Asked: 2026-05-27T17:05:39+00:00

I use Google for hours but I do not find a satisfying answer how

  • 0

I use Google for hours but I do not find a satisfying answer how to interpret the captured signal strength, given by the radiotap header. For instance Wireshark shows me a SSI Signal of -52 dBm and I want to convert it to a linear representation/unit. For me, a sensible unit would be the signal power at the antenna in Watt over mW. Is it possible to convert this -52 dBm to mW?

Some background information: I implement a WLAN-based localisation and want to estimate the position of APs by combining some reference points and the measured signal strength. With the help of triangulation, this should produce a rough map of the environment.

Share

Leave an answer

You must login to add an answer.

Need An Account,

1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    As explained quite well on the Wikipedia page, you can convert from x dBm to P Watts by applying:

    P = 10**((x-30)/10)

    So in your case, -52 dBm = 6.3 nW, which seems about right.

    • 0