Hello!
Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI) is an optional part of the wireless transmit layer and is used to determine the link quality, the unit of the RSSI value in dBm (dBm), indicating the relative relationship between power and 1 mW. The formula for calculating the value x (dBm) and power P (MW) is as follows:

It can be seen that the RSSI is not the power but an indicator value of the signal strength. The RSSI value is monitored after the baseband receives filtering on the reverse channel. The instantaneous value of the RSSI is obtained by integrating the baseband I/Q branch power within 104 μs, and the instantaneous value is averaged within 1s to obtain the average value of the RSSI.
The average RSSI value is an important method for determining interference. In no-load scenarios, the RSSI value is about –110 dBm. In normal cases, the average RSSI value is less than –95 dBm. If the RSSI value increases obviously, reverse link interference exists.
In an actual wireless communication application, a burst interference signal inevitably exists in an environment. For example, device A performs a radio frequency sending operation on channel C at a time point T, and device B wants to start radiofrequency sending on channel C at the same time point. It can be imagined that a sending process of A and B interferes with each other, the receiving end may fail to receive data correctly. Therefore, during the communication, it is necessary to avoid simultaneous transmission of signals at the same frequency.
To avoid co-channel interference and improve wireless communication quality, you can check the RSSI in the environment before transmitting RF signals. If the RSSI is within a certain range, the current channel is clean and does not suffer interference. Otherwise, avoid interference.
In addition, in an actual application, a wireless communication node is usually a battery-powered device and has a high requirement on power consumption, and most radiofrequency sending processes are accompanied by high current consumption. How to reduce the RF transmit power while ensuring communication stability becomes the key to low-power devices.
Therefore, before starting transmission, the low-power equipment dynamically obtains the interference signal strength in the environment through RSSI detection. If the RSSI is within the range and the communication quality is good, the equipment can use a low transmit power. Otherwise, the equipment can use a high power amplifier when the environment heavily interferes.
It should be noted that most RF chip vendors define RSSI values in a proprietary manner. The RSSI range can be selected by the vendor from 0 to the maximum value (less than or equal to 255). Many vendors publish the RSSI execution value in the product documentation and website, while some vendors do not. Therefore, the RSSI obtained directly from the chip reflects the ambient signal strength.
Hope this helps!