iPad Air (iOS 8.1 en newer) will only connect on 5GHz

[ward_van_ootegh]

For an event we have 280 iPads Air, running iOS 8.3 (latest version today). WiFi setup: ZD1100 running 9.8.2, 2x 7782-S. Security: WPA2/AES. We notice that all iPads are only connecting to the 5GHz, not even 1 to the 2.4Ghz. Resulting in to few capacity on the 2 AP's. Anyone seen this issue before? When we disable the 5GHz and manually connect to the (known) WiFi network, we see them connecting to the 2.4GHz... For the moment we've added 1 more AP (7372) and balance clients to adjacent AP's with a limit of 100 per AP.

[john_d]

It seems ironic that before, everyone complained that iOS devices preferred 2.4GHz, and now people are complaining that iOS devices prefer 5GHz 😄


I think the Load Balancing option is by default set to 25% on 2.4GHz, and that's supposed to implement a soft limit (by withholding probe responses?) that tries to steer 25% of clients on to 2.4GHz. I presume if a client desperately tries hard enough, the Ruckus AP's will consider the client in "distress" and allow it to disobey the load balancing anyway.

But 2.4GHz really doesn't have a lot of capacity to begin with in most environments like this. It seems like the ultimate solution will have to involve adding more AP's — 280 iPads on 2 AP's sounds like a lot, even for Ruckus AP's.

[rudolf_e]

Actually having the same problem currently with our R500s with latest firmware. iPhones are trying to connect only to 5GHz band which has considerably lower signal at this point in comparison to 2,4GHz. SSID is actually the same for both wlans.