topic Does band steering work for open wlans? in ZoneDirector

Does band steering work for open wlans?

salvatore_busce — Fri, 04 Oct 2013 17:42:24 GMT

We have sites with 70% apple devices but see very little on the 5GHz radios. Does band steering work for open wlans?

Re: Does band steering work for open wlans?

keith_redfield — Mon, 07 Oct 2013 20:28:52 GMT

It shouldn't make any difference in relation to the encryption setting. What might be making a difference is

a) Older Apple devices that don't support 5Ghz
b) 2.4Ghz has better signal propagation. If you are not deployed for "saturation" in the 5Ghz range, devices might see 2.4 more often (including outdoors, etc where you might not intend/expect coverage..)
c) You have mesh enabled (this might be the culprit...)

-K

Re: Does band steering work for open wlans?

salvatore_busce — Tue, 08 Oct 2013 14:06:26 GMT

I'm sure there are some older apple devices, but these sites are 70% apple, and we only see maybe 25% connected to 5GHz. APs are quite dense, and avg. signal according to the zonedirector is >60%
Looking at one AP, I'll see 10 client devices, 9 of them are ipads and iphones, and maybe on will be connected at 5GHz. All are reporting good signal strength.

I know I asked about mesh in another thread, but these two are unrelated. We do have many sites with similar ruckus deployments. Oddly enough, I saw no increase in the percentage of clients on 5GHz at the site where I removed the mesh settings.

I just dont see any evidence that band steering is working at all. How can we adjust the rssi thresholds to make it more aggressive?

Re: Does band steering work for open wlans?

keith_redfield — Tue, 08 Oct 2013 20:51:18 GMT

Try this from the ZD CLI:

remote_ap_cli -A get band-steering

If you disabled mesh by factory reset, then it should be enabled. If you disabled mesh via any other method, it's still "on" and band-steering on the APs will be disabled.

Re: Does band steering work for open wlans?

salvatore_busce — Tue, 08 Oct 2013 23:01:14 GMT

Mesh was disabled by a factory reset. Do the outputs below mean band steering is off?
ruckus# show mesh info
Mesh Settings:
Mesh Status= Disabled
---- Command 'rkscli -c "get band-steering "' executed at 54:3d:37:14:5a:a0
Band Steering:
Under Mesh AP : Off
OK
---- Command 'rkscli -c "get band-steering "' executed at 8c:0c:90:17:da:d0
Band Steering:
Under Mesh AP : Off
OK
---- Command 'rkscli -c "get band-steering "' executed at 8c:0c:90:14:e1:20
Band Steering:
Under Mesh AP : Off

Re: Does band steering work for open wlans?

michael_brado — Wed, 09 Oct 2013 00:05:16 GMT

Yes,the APs are reporting that band-steering is currently OFF. They had
to be configured this way. Notice that a 7025 with only one radio,
reports “command is not recognized”.

- Michael

ruckus(debug)# remote_ap_cli -A "get band-steering"
---- Command 'rkscli -c "get band-steering "' executed at c4:10:8a:10:e2:60
Command is not recognized: get band-steering
---- Command 'rkscli -c "get band-steering "' executed at 50:a7:33:11:40:70
Band Steering:
Under Mesh AP : On
OK
---- Command 'rkscli -c "get band-steering "' executed at 58:93:96:0d:b9:d0
Band Steering:
Under Mesh AP : On
OK
---- Command 'rkscli -c "get band-steering "' executed at c4:10:8a:1f:d4:a0
Band Steering:
Under Mesh AP : On
OK
---- Command Execution Summary:
success: 4
failure: 0
total: 4
ruckus(debug)#

ruckus(debug)#
ruckus(debug)# remote_ap_cli -A "get version"
---- Command 'rkscli -c "get version "' executed at c4:10:8a:10:e2:60
Ruckus 7025 Multimedia Wall Pluggable Wireless AP
Version: 9.6.1.0.15
OK
---- Command 'rkscli -c "get version "' executed at 50:a7:33:11:40:70
Ruckus 7962 Multimedia Hotzone Wireless AP
Version: 9.6.1.0.13790099
OK
---- Command 'rkscli -c "get version "' executed at 58:93:96:0d:b9:d0
Ruckus 7363 Multimedia Hotzone Wireless AP
Version: 9.6.1.0.15
OK
---- Command 'rkscli -c "get version "' executed at c4:10:8a:1f:d4:a0
Ruckus 7982 Multimedia Hotzone Wireless AP
Version: 9.6.1.0.15
OK
---- Command Execution Summary:
success: 4
failure: 0
total: 4
ruckus(debug)#

Re: Does band steering work for open wlans?

salvatore_busce — Wed, 09 Oct 2013 00:14:52 GMT

Hmm. I've checked a few other sites where mesh has never been enabled, and they all show the same thing. The only site I've found that has band steering enabled is the site where we have 7055s

How would I turn it on. And how would it have been turned off in the first place.

Re: Does band steering work for open wlans?

keith_redfield — Wed, 09 Oct 2013 00:29:14 GMT

Yes, interesting questions. Let's start with what version of ZoneFlex are you running now, and if you did an upgrade recently, what was the prior version?

As to turning it on, why don't we try doing it on a single AP via the CLI first. Here's the syntax:

get band-steering  -- Get band steering RSSI threshold


set band-steering  mesh-ap {enable|disable} rssi --


Enable band steering, modify RSSI threshold


Example rkscli: get band-steering


Band Steering:


Under Mesh AP : Off


OK


rkscli: set band-steering mesh-ap enable 20


OK


rkscli: get band-steering wlan0


Band Steering:


Under Mesh AP : On


RSSI Threshold: 20


OK

Re: Does band steering work for open wlans?

salvatore_busce — Wed, 09 Oct 2013 00:44:02 GMT

Firmware version 9.6.1.0 build 15
recently upgraded from 9.5 something, but I've checked sites with 9.4, 9.5 9.6 and they're all the same.
Previously
rkscli: get band-steering wlan0
Band Steering:
Under Mesh AP : Off
RSSI Threshold: 20
OK
rkscli: get band-steering wlan1
Band Steering:
Under Mesh AP : Off
RSSI Threshold: 20
OK
rkscli: get band-steering wlan32
Band Steering:
Under Mesh AP : Off
RSSI Threshold: 20
OK
rkscli: get band-steering wlan33
Band Steering:
Under Mesh AP : Off
RSSI Threshold: 20
OK

I set one ap "set band-steering mesh-ap enable 20"
and get
rkscli: set band-steering mesh-ap enable 20
OK
rkscli: get band-steering
Band Steering:
Under Mesh AP : On
OK
rkscli: get band-steering wlan0
Band Steering:
Under Mesh AP : On
RSSI Threshold: 20
OK
rkscli: get band-steering wlan1
Band Steering:
Under Mesh AP : On
RSSI Threshold: 20
OK
rkscli: get band-steering wlan32
Band Steering:
Under Mesh AP : On
RSSI Threshold: 20
OK
rkscli: get band-steering wlan33
Band Steering:
Under Mesh AP : On
RSSI Threshold: 20
OK

Re: Does band steering work for open wlans?

keith_redfield — Wed, 09 Oct 2013 00:48:33 GMT

So...I think the test would be for devices on that AP, turn their wlan off/on (or re-boot) and see if the band-steering ratio looks better. Meanwhile I will go chase engineering to see what's going on...

Oh...and just to cover all bases...you have the same SSID configured on both radios, right?

Re: Does band steering work for open wlans?

salvatore_busce — Wed, 09 Oct 2013 00:51:28 GMT

Yes, same SSIDs on both radios

Re: Does band steering work for open wlans?

salvatore_busce — Wed, 09 Oct 2013 02:11:41 GMT

Are we sure we're all reading that output correctly? From a site with mesh enabled:

ruckus# show mesh info
Mesh Settings:
Mesh Status= Enabled
Mesh Name(ESSID)= Mesh-361208000373
Mesh Passphrase= LYbntyRkYRNumH0D0MhXqhNN6HpYcvYLK8df5Z6C52 cvQ1o0ielnAGywHOJKOC
Mesh Hop Detection:
Status= Disabled
Mesh Downlinks Detection:
Status= Disabled
Tx. Rate of Management Frame= 2Mbps
Beacon Interval= 200ms
ruckus# debug
ruckus(debug)# remote_ap_cli -A get band-steering
---- Command 'rkscli -c "get band-steering "' executed at 8c:0c:90:17:70:00
Band Steering:
Under Mesh AP : On
OK
---- Command 'rkscli -c "get band-steering "' executed at 8c:0c:90:3c:6f:00
Band Steering:
Under Mesh AP : On
OK
---- Command 'rkscli -c "get band-steering "' executed at 8c:0c:90:3b:b2:00
Band Steering:
Under Mesh AP : On

ruckus(debug)# remote_ap_cli -A get band-steering wlan0
---- Command 'rkscli -c "get band-steering wlan0 "' executed at 8c:0c:90:17:70:00
Band Steering:
Under Mesh AP : On
RSSI Threshold: 20
OK
---- Command 'rkscli -c "get band-steering wlan0 "' executed at 8c:0c:90:3c:6f:00
Band Steering:
Under Mesh AP : On
RSSI Threshold: 20
OK
---- Command 'rkscli -c "get band-steering wlan0 "' executed at 8c:0c:90:3b:b2:00
Band Steering:
Under Mesh AP : On
RSSI Threshold: 20
OK
---- Command 'rkscli -c "get band-steering wlan0 "' executed at 8c:0c:90:16:1e:00
Band Steering:
Under Mesh AP : On
RSSI Threshold: 20

Re: Does band steering work for open wlans?

keith_redfield — Wed, 09 Oct 2013 18:19:36 GMT

OK, a couple of corrections - first you can use band-steering AND have mesh as of 9.3.

Second - proper syntax for the relevant AP CLI commands:




rkscli: set band-steering mesh-ap enable


OK


rkscli: get band-steering


Band Steering:


	Under Mesh AP : On


OK


rkscli: get band-steering wlan0


Band Steering:


	Under Mesh AP : On


	RSSI Threshold: 20


OK


rkscli: set band-steering wlan0 1


OK


rkscli: get band-steering wlan0


Band Steering:


	Under Mesh AP : On


	RSSI Threshold: 1

Note that you basically run the command twice with different arguments - first to enable and second to set the RSSI threshold.

Re: Does band steering work for open wlans?

salvatore_busce — Wed, 09 Oct 2013 18:48:39 GMT

Any clues as to why or how it was turned off?

Also, when you change something via the remote ap cli, does it auto save?
will later AP installations need to have that same command run? I'm lost as to why we need to turn on an "on by default" feature.

Re: Does band steering work for open wlans?

keith_redfield — Wed, 09 Oct 2013 19:05:19 GMT

I just did a simple test with a Samsung S4 client and a 7055 (9.6.1) with an open SSID of "Band-steering" on wlan0 and wlan8.

First I set wlan0(2.4G) to an RSSI of 1 and left wlan8(5G) at 20. I could not connect to the 5Ghz.

Then I set wlan8 to 1 and wlan0 to default of 20. I could not connect to the 2.4.

So..yes it works. I think the only remaining question is why it seems to be defaulting to "off".

I ran another simple test - I factory defaulted the same unit - band-steering was "off" - so I think we (accidentally?) changed the default somewhere in recent code.

Re: Does band steering work for open wlans?

keith_redfield — Fri, 11 Oct 2013 00:14:35 GMT

Mystery solved - it's not "off" - only if the RSSI value is 0 is it off. (all agree the CLI needs improvement..coming in 9.8). The [Under Mesh AP] status changes to "On under mesh AP" if mesh is actually configured.

@Salvatore - we're back to other explanations for why you're not seeing it be more aggressive. Have you had a chance to play with different RSSI values?

Re: Does band steering work for open wlans?

salvatore_busce — Fri, 11 Oct 2013 02:21:22 GMT

so what is happening with the "set band-steering mesh-ap enable" command.

rkscli: get band-steering
Band Steering:
Under Mesh AP : On
OK
rkscli: get mesh
Mesh is not enabled
OK

To answer your question, no I haven't adjusted the thresholds.

would leaving the default 20 on 2.4, but lowering 5GHz to say 17 cause more band steering?

Re: Does band steering work for open wlans?

keith_redfield — Fri, 11 Oct 2013 23:22:21 GMT

If you set it to 1 all 5Ghz capable clients will go to the 5Ghz radio - maybe try that value first, and then if it causes any issues with areas of lower RSSI, raise it up perhaps 5 at a time.

Re: Does band steering work for open wlans?

salvatore_busce — Tue, 15 Oct 2013 03:19:02 GMT

I don't want to beat a dead horse, but according to the 9.3 release notes, that's not correct.

Ruckus Wireless ZoneFlex 9.3
(FlexMaster, ZoneDirector and ZoneFlex Access Points)
Release Notes

Band Steering
5.2.59 Band steering is disabled on mesh-enabled APs

I haven't found in subsequent releases where that's been corrected.

Re: Does band steering work for open wlans?

keith_redfield — Tue, 15 Oct 2013 03:51:56 GMT

If you actually turn mesh on you see a different (and redundant) message - see below. It's then active. The writer of the release notes was confused for the same reason I was - the CLI output is horribly confusing. Scheduled to be corrected in 9.8