topic Re: Auto or manual channels in Wireless Questions and Best Practices

Auto or manual channels

bob_williamson — Tue, 22 Oct 2013 01:45:21 GMT

I am a big fan of the automatic settings in the Ruckus and Ruckus gear as a whole.

Our campus is quite complex( www.aw.org) as you can see from above. Internally it is a mixture of 18 inch concrete firewalls, brick, metal and cement all added on over the last 100+ years. It is quite a labyrinth and no two rooms are the same.

As we are pushing more and more of our devices into the 5 GHz range and inserting weaker devices (idevices, apple TVs, etc), I am finding that 5 GHz is a lot more difficult to deal with than 2.4 GHz and that the Apple devices have a strong tendency to attach to a weaker 5 GHz connection than a strong 2.4 GHz connection.

I am starting to think that making manual adjustments to strength, channels, channelization etc. is becoming a necessity in order to control some of the 5 GHz vs. structure issues.

How are others dealing with complex environments? Inserting more APs or manually adjusting the APs?

Thanks,
Bob

Re: Auto or manual channels

harish_kumar_56 — Tue, 22 Oct 2013 05:46:36 GMT

Hi Bob,

As you said, Yes Apple devices have a strong tendency to connect to 5 Ghz .

If you want to force idevices, apple TVs, etc to connect to 2.4 Ghz which has better signal strength compared to 5 Ghz.,then the better option would be to create an SSID only in 2.4 Ghz.

You can do lot of manual adjustments to strength, channels, channelization Tx Power etc. But it still lag in the coverage compared to 2.4 Ghz.

Thanks,
Harish

Re: Auto or manual channels

primoz_marinsek — Tue, 22 Oct 2013 06:08:16 GMT

Also consider using channels in the UNII2e and UNII3. It wont solve it completely, but it will help. Those usually have much higher power, but it depends on your regulatory.