Changing the bss-minrate for my access points

[tim_franklin_68]

Hello,
I've recently had a visit from a corporate IT representative. He suggests we change the bss-minrate so that the signal distance is less but stronger. Apparently 45Mbps down is not good enough. We have an AP in every room so coverage is great. I understand this is all done via CLI, I can log in but cannot find the option. I have read the bss-minrate vs smart-roam article but it doesn't tell me how to do it.

Could someone advise the basic commands I need to know and also the options I have for changing the signal distance? Also should I be aware of any possible outage when making this change? Can I apply this to a single WLAN-Group for testing only?

Many thanks,
Tim

[monnat_systems]

Hi Tim,

In reference to the NOTE from Kristijan, if I set it to 12, does that mean it will only allow 12Mbps rate and above? Yes, any device capable of transmitting only under 11MBPS wont connect at all.

is there any way to check what speeds devices are running at so I can make a decision what to set my minrate at? if device population is controlled one then just check their datasheet and if they support only 802.11 and 802,11 b then these device would be out once you apply above changes..

if you want to see this real time on ZD GUI then answer is NO as it shows connection with client on signal strenght % basis which will not help however there are ways to find out however i am out of pocket at the moment to check and post here.

I will be back.

[michael_brado]

If you have devices older than 2005 and *have* to support 802.11b/g only clients,
try setting the WLAN "bss-minrate to 5.5", which will allow 5.5mb and 11mb for
management frames between clients and the APs.

If you have devices that *all* can do WPA2, use "ofdm-only", which will set the
management frame min-rate to 6mb and refuse all CCK (802.11b/g only) clients.

These configurations can be used to tighten the AP coverage area with higher
data rate connectivity, assuming you have good overlap on your 2.4 band
to start with.

[primoz_marinsek]

Does setting bss-minrate to 5.5 enable short preamble or is preamble still modulated at 1?

[darren_shipley]

I know this is an old thread, but isn't 802.11r/k a better solution nowadays?

[vijaykuniyal]

Hi @darren_shipley,

Yes, it is a better solution for the devices which supports 802.11r/k.

However there are sticky clients/devices which do not want to roam generally (older models devices) support lower data rate will stuck to these data rates without roaming and will have slowness issues in case BSS min rate is not set to a upper limit.