AI PCAP Analyzer
Overview
After the introduction of Intelligent Capture, collecting packet evidence at the exact time and place of a wireless issue has never been easier. Intelligent Capture helped us move from "no evidence" to inline evidence—automatically, and in context. However, even with the right PCAP in hand, identifying the true source of a problem (and preventing it from happening again) still requires deep protocol expertise and time-consuming manual analysis. Tools like Wireshark or Omnipeek have long been available, but extracting real-world, actionable conclusions from packet captures has historically been limited to a small set of specialists due to complexity and required domain knowledge.
With AI PCAP Analyzer, we're tackling this next step in the troubleshooting journey: turning raw packet evidence into understanding and action.
By leveraging our data engineering pipeline, our data lake, and the knowledge of wireless experts to decode and explain failures, we apply multiple purpose-built models to help determine what happened, why it happened. The result is a guided, plain-language analysis that reduces the mental burden of packet troubleshooting and makes advanced wireless diagnostics accessible to more teams—so issues can be triaged and resolved faster, with greater consistency.
AI Notice
At Cisco, we appreciate that Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be leveraged to power an inclusive future for all. We also recognize that by applying this technology, we have a responsibility to mitigate potential harm. That is why Cisco adheres to our Responsible AI Framework (the “Framework”), which is based on six principles of Transparency, Fairness, Accountability, Privacy, Security and Reliability. Cisco translates these principles into product development requirements which ultimately form part of the product development lifecycle alongside our Security by Design, Privacy by Design, and Human Rights by Design processes.
Please note that any information generated by our trained AI model will be marked with “AI-Generated”.
In the US region, Proactive PCAP files may be used to train the AI/ML
Cloud Monitoring for Wireless Access Points does not support the Proactive PCAP feature.
The summary is AI generated and therefore will continue to learn and improve
Pre-Requisites
- MR Advanced license
- Proactive PCAP must be enabled as the AI PCAP analysis only applies to proactive pcaps
- Firmware - Latest MR 32.1 or later
- Supported AP – Cisco Cloud Managed Wi-Fi 6 AP or newer
How to Access AI PCAP
Stored Capture
- Navigate to Assurance > Tools > Packet Capture/Intelligent Capture (Make sure you have selected “For Access Points”)
- Then navigate to Stored Captures
- Select a Proactive Capture to review
Client 360
- Select the client to review, when the client 360 view opens, if there is an issue that the AI Analyzer has information on, you will see “sparkles” on the icon
- While viewing the error select AI PCAP analysis to open a side drawer.
- From here, you can download the PCAP, view suggested actions to resolve the issue, and have the option to view the packet capture in the embedded analyzer
PCAP and AI Highlighter
- Select a stored capture to view
- From the webpage, you have the ability to do analysis of the capture manually, or you can enable the AI Highlighter.
When you enable the AI Highlighter toggle, instead of seeing the color scheme based on the profile, we will highlight the packets that are exhibiting the issue and provide a summary of what the AI has determined to be the issue.
Packet Flow
While looking the AI summary, you have the ability open up Packet Flow, to get a visible representation of what step the client is failing at.
