Ruckus Unleashed R710: Should clients move from 5Ghz to 2.4Ghz if signal is weak?

[kevin_vasko]

Just got a R710 Unleashed AP. Everything seems to work fine but...

Typically with other APs I have had multiple SSIDs one for 2.4Ghz and one for 5Ghz clients, but that doesn't look like it is possible to set up the R710 that way with Unleashed. I was experimenting with moving out of range of the 5Ghz and letting it pick up the 2.4Ghz connection, however it doesn't ever seem to want to transition the client to the 2.4Ghz network. I have moved right to the edge of where 5Ghz is dropping out, but my client (iPhone) never gets pushed to the 2.4Ghz to get slightly better range. 

Is there something I'm missing? Is there an option I need to turn on for this? 

[michael_grant_6]

You are correct in that you cannot, unfortunately, separate the 2.4 and 5G bands on the Unleashed platform. I would suggest to turn down the power output on the 5GHz band as a possible solution.

Click the "Edit" button in the Access Points section, choose 2.4 or 5G radio, and adjust TX power. 

[kevin_vasko]

Thanks. So, I am correct that the clients should hop over to the 2.4Ghz when the 5Ghz becomes to weak?

In the same environment how much further should the 2.4Ghz go than the 5Ghz? I figure that it highly depends on the noise, obstacles, etc. but is there a general number be it be 20% more? 30%? 5%?

I guess where this is coming from is that if the 2.4 Ghz doesn't go any further than the 5Ghz, there is no point in keeping it on. But if I get a little extra range out of it, it might be worth it to me to keep it on.

I just got it last night and set it up and it seems that the 5Ghz goes to about the same distance as the 2.4 (i turned off the 5Ghz to test).

[michael_grant_6]

The answer is "it depends". This is mostly a client decision which band it connects to. There are many factors such as walls, construction materials, other obstacles etc. In the same room as an AP I get somewhere between 10-15% greater signal strength on 2.4 vs 5 with 5G degrading much more rapidly than 2.4 the further distance/obstacles you add. Rarely have I ever recommended to reduce Tx power on the 5G, instead I would recommend adding another access point to fill in dead spots. By far and large 2.4G offers greater range

[john_d]

It's a client decision whether it wants to use 2.4GHz or 5GHz.

While 2.4GHz offers more range, on the flip side it's also more prone to neighboring interference due to interference sources having more range too. And 5GHz is now up to 1733mbit or so, while 2.4GHz has stayed near 300/450mbit. So even when the 2.4GHz signal is stronger than 5GHz, it's still very much possible that the 5GHz signal will deliver better performance. And at a distance where that's no longer possible, 2.4GHz may deliver such poor performance (particularly in areas with a lot of nearby wifi devices) that phones will prefer cellular over wifi.