topic Re: Missing "11n only Mode" option and other Unleashed configuration questions in Unleashed

Missing "11n only Mode" option and other Unleashed configuration questions

eddyg — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 16:42:40 GMT

I'm evaluating a switch to Ruckus (mostly for the 802.11ax support, but also to see how Ruckus compares to UniFi; currently running UniFI UAP‑AC‑SHD, which is their 802.11ac Wave 2 4x4 MU‑MIMO AP).

I have an R650 (Unleashed) configured and working, but can't find the "11n Only" option shown in the docs. I'm running 200.9.10.4.212.

Is that option dependent on some other configuration setting?

Re: Missing "11n only Mode" option and other Unleashed configuration questions

DarrelRhodes — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 16:48:33 GMT

Hi Eddy,

This configuration option was temporarily removed from 200.9 and should return in 200.10.

Apologies for any inconvenience and please let me know if you require any further assistance.

Best,
Darrel.

Re: Missing "11n only Mode" option and other Unleashed configuration questions

eddyg — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 14:24:30 GMT

Thanks for the info, Darrel.

I'm trying to optimize the performance of the R650 as part of this eval. After the initial setup and clients started using the new AP, multiple devices started having issues with things like Webex and AnyConnect randomly having issues with dropped calls, pop-ups about re-establishing a connection to the VPN, etc. Per the "Self Healing" section of the 200.9 docs:

If you have 2.4 GHz clients that do not support 802.11h, Ruckus recommends disabling ChannelFly for 2.4 GHz but leaving it enabled for the 5 GHz band.

So I disabled ChannelFly on 2.4. But then a lot of clients started preferring the 2.4 GHz band:

Even with ChannelFly disabled on 2.4GHz, I noticed on my own machine (a 2019 MacBook Pro, FWIW) that even when I was connected to 5GHz (I regularly option-click on the WiFi icon in the menu bar to check my WiFi status), I would experience network connectivity drops for several seconds at a time. I eventually correlated this to ChannelFly switching to a new 5GHz channel. Pulling data out of the remote syslog from the R650, I generated this chart that shows how often ChannelFly was moving to a new 5GHz channel. (The bigger the circle, the longer the R650 stayed on that channel):

For now, I've also disabled ChannelFly on the 5GHz band and the network has gotten a lot more stable (almost all the clients are on the 5GHz band, and the devices that are on the 2.4GHz band don't have 5GHz radios).

Any suggestions? The ChannelFly feature seemed like a benefit for a move to Ruckus, but now that's I've had to disable it, wondering if I missed some other settings during the initial configuration that prevented it from working properly?

Re: Missing "11n only Mode" option and other Unleashed configuration questions

DarrelRhodes — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 15:31:00 GMT

Hi Eddy,

Many thanks for the hugely detailed response.

I understand the issue you've described and I've experienced it myself on 5GHz on Unleashed. I'll try and follow this up separately.

As you say; ChannelFly is indeed a powerful mechanism, epecially in congested and higher-density environments. I have it enabled on my 2.4GHz Unleashed network with no isues and I'm sure clients without 802.11h were connected fine (basic credit card terminals, barcode scanners, etc.)

Unleashed 200.10 is slated to be available in the coming few weeks*, so the 11n-only feature will be available for you then.

* Not a guarantee but the release is imminent

In the meantime it is possible to configure OFDM-ONLY and set a higher-rate BSS minimum data-rate, which you may find useful. Currently this is only available in the CLI (WLAN-123 - being an example name):

ruckus> enable

ruckus# config

ruckus(config)# wlan wlan-123

ruckus(config-wlan)# ofdm-only

ruckus(config-wlan)# bss-minrate 24

ruckus(config-wlan)# end

I hope the above helps. If you are evaluating Ruckus for a larger-scale roll-out, I would encourage you to reach out to your local Ruckus partner who can support you and if necessary engage your local Ruckus Systems Engineer to ensure you have an optimal configuration.

https://extapps.commscope.com/howtobuy/RuckusChannelPartner

I hope that helps.

All the best,

Darrel.

Re: Missing "11n only Mode" option and other Unleashed configuration questions

jozsef_fejes — Thu, 27 Jan 2022 21:27:42 GMT

200.12 is now out and 11n only is still missing. Will it ever come back?

If I set ofdm-only, is that an approximation to the 11n only setting, or is it exactly the same value that the web interface would set as well?

Re: Missing "11n only Mode" option and other Unleashed configuration questions

eizens_putnins — Tue, 01 Feb 2022 19:34:30 GMT

Ruckus APs have a lot of benefits. I can't say that ChannelFly is one of the important once -- it is an interesting (and potentially useful) feature, but usually you don't want it enabled, because unfortunately many clients are offended by it, and have issues. It isn't actually Ruckus problem, it is just the way how many client software developers think, but result is the same - most clients can't properly manage AP switching to different channel (even so they should), but result is the same -- you don't want enable it, if you don't need it explicitly...

Apple devices are well known to have rather interesting opinion about how WiFi should work, and often are the worst to support -- because of bugs in software and the high expectations of they users. Apple had multiple versions of OS updates with really had broken WiFi support, but latest Macbook versions are finally working fine. I myself use MacBook Pro 16 2021 (M1), it works just fine with all networks and even has decent sensitivity.

OFDM-only setting disables 802.11b clients connections, so only 802.11n and up clients will be able to connect.

You almost always want to have set OFDM-only and bss-minrate 24, as this 2 settings force devices to connect to nearest AP and use higher speeds -- as nobody creates now coverage to have speeds in range 1-2 Mb/s, it avoids 2 problems: 1) Prevents clients connecting to wrong AP (located far away), which is still an often problem, as clients can connect only to APs with at least 12 Mbps connection rate 2) Prevents airtime waste because of management information transmission on lowest rates, as 24 Mb/s is used instead.