bss-minrate vs. smart-roam

[jeff_roback]

Looking for some clarification of the impact of bss-minrate vs. smart-roam (as well as some best practices on setting them). Is it an issue of one controlling the minimum rate to join the network, and the other controlling the minimum rate before getting kicked off?

One issue we've started to see is that iphones will 'hang on' to the ruckus signal for too long. So at one client location, for example, the café across the street from their office still gets a very weak ruckus signal... strong enough for laptop usage, but not strong enough for iphones to reliably pass data, but strong enough that the iphone won't let go... so when people walk across the street for lunch, their iphone doesn't switch to 4G, it just hangs on to the barely connected wifi and the users get no data. Would smart-roam+bss-minrate be the appropriate fix for this?

Also, any suggestions on rates to use for these two commands?

Thanks!
Jeff

[sid_sok]

Hi Bill,

We almost had a posting collision. I started the answer a few hours before I posted, but was interrupted along the way and did not see your post until later. Glad everything lined up. Reading from the top my response it does look like I was responding to your post, but it was originally meant as a response to Jeff, but it dove tail perfectly to your post.

[jeff_roback]

Thanks guys, this is tremendously helpful! A question: the SNR/RSSI values your're referring to, are these directly comparable to the ones that we see in the "Active Clients" list, or do they need to be cpnverted?

Looking at one client install now, I've got about 100 users an average signal (db) in the currently active clients window listed as 30 db, and about 11 under 20 db. So if I set the smartroam to 5, would I expect those 5 clients to disconnect and hopefully look for a closer AP?

Jeff

[bill_burns_6069]

re: "Active Clients"
Right. If you see a column called "signal%" and click on it, it will change to "Signal (dB)" Those are the RSSI/SNR values.

re: would I expect those clients to disconnect:
Yes.
Especially... if those clients have an RSSI/SNR (as seen by the AP/controller) of *over* 20db and *then* "walked" to an area where the RSSI/SNR was less than 20db, the AP should stop responding to the client and the client should disconnect. (and hopefully find a closer AP)
If the client does not find a closer AP, it may reconnect to the same AP.
At that point, the AP "should not" try to disconnect the client any more.

It would make sense to test this in your environment.
(if you have enough cooperating users/devices)
One thing I might be concerned about is natural fluctuation in the RSSI/SNR values.
If those values are "riding the edge" and there isn't a better AP to connect to...
I wonder if the client *could* be repeatedly disconnected.

The AP is supposed to be smarter than that.
It'd be good to know for sure.

[jeff_roback]

got it. Will do more testing.

Is there any way to know from the AP or ZD logs when the bss-minrate or smart-roam functionality is engaging? I've started seeing these in the logs:

User[xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx ] fails to join WLAN[xxxx] from AP[DMB-AP-2]

And we also continue to see log entries for a client roaming from and AP and then roaming out to the same AP. Is that a case of the AP not responding and the client re-connecting?

And here's a really odd one (may need a new thread for this): Take alook at this roaming:

2014/01/17 16:50:03 Low AP[CORP-AP-1] radio [11g/n] detects User[xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx] in WLAN[MyWLAN] roams out to AP[CORP-AP-2]
2014/01/17 16:50:03 Low AP[CORP-AP-2] radio [11g/n] detects User[xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx] in WLAN[MyWLAN] roams from AP[CORP-AP-1]
2014/01/17 16:50:16 Low AP[HB-AP3] radio [11a/n] detects User[xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx] in WLAN[MyWLAN] roams out to AP[HB-AP1]
2014/01/17 16:50:16 Low AP[HB-AP1] radio [11a/n] detects User[xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx] in WLAN[MyWLAN] roams from AP[HB-AP3]
2014/01/17 16:50:19 Low AP[CORP-AP-2] radio [11g/n] detects User[xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx] in WLAN[MyWLAN] roams out to AP[CORP-AP-1]
2014/01/17 16:50:19 Low AP[CORP-AP-1] radio [11g/n] detects User[xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx] in WLAN[MyWLAN] roams from AP[CORP-AP-2]
2014/01/17 16:50:57 Low AP[HB-AP1] radio [11a/n] detects User[xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx] in WLAN[MyWLAN] roams out to AP[HB-AP3]
2014/01/17 16:50:57 Low AP[HB-AP3] radio [11a/n] detects User[xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx] in WLAN[MyWLAN] roams from AP[HB-AP1]
2014/01/17 16:52:55 Low AP[CORP-AP-1] radio [11g/n] detects User[xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx] in WLAN[MyWLAN] roams out to AP[CORP-AP-2]

Doesn't look to bad at first... until you realize that the "HB-AP's are in one location, and the CORP-AP's are in another location a mile away.....

What could be doing on here?

Jeff

[keith_redfield]

This is a great conversation that's separate from the main topic, so I created a new topic to continue the discussion. Please reference the new topic here: Is there any way to know from the AP or ZD logs when the bss-minrate or smart-roa...