R510, R610 and R710 Maximum Performance

[GregNI]

I am looking for any pointers to get the absolute maximum performance and smooth roaming on a small network in a setting with low ceilings and thick walls (which I cannot put wiring in to). I have read all the documentation I can find, but hearing from people with on the ground experience would be appreciated.

It is a small unleashed network 2x R710 APs (cabled at 1Gb) and 3xR510 & 1xR610 all meshed to one of the R710s. There are around 35 mobile client and IoT type devices which are reasonably up to date and support either 'n' and 'ac'. The network is static; I rarely add/move APs. I do not need to support old kit.

I am interested in anything to squeeze performance out. I am particularly curious in two main areas, AP placement/orientation and Unleashed settings.

With regard to APs placement the documentation seems a little contradictory. Broadly, there is one AP per room, which have low ceilings and brick walls.

My specific questions are:

1. Does AP orientation (horizontal/vertical) matter as long as the device isn't facing the back of the AP?

2. For meshing, should the fronts of the APs be facing each other or doesn't it matter? Is it just the distance apart that makes the difference assuming that the radiation patterns overlap?

3. Is there any performance difference between the different models of AP with the exception of volume of clients? I have cabled the R710s, assuming they have faster processors, to handle the meshing but I cannot find any information to support that theory. Does it matter? I have spare 510s and can get more 710s if that will make a significant difference.

4. Would getting one or more R750s with WiFi6 make any major difference?

Below are my Unleashed settings. Are they sensible? Optimal?

• Manually enabled channels 1, 6 & 11 on the 2.4GHz band and 36, 52, 100, 116 and 132 on the 5.0Ghz band.
• Channel: Auto
• Channelization is set to 40Mhz for both bands
• TX Power is set to Full
• 11n/ac/ax only Mode is set to N-only and N/AC- only for the 2.4 and 5.0 bands respectively.
• CAC: Off
• Firmware: 200.8
• Auto AP power adjust is turned on.
• 2.4GHz Background scanning timeout: 3600 seconds
• 5.0GHz ChannelFly
• No load balancing or Band balancing
• Application Recognition is turned on.
• Authentication is WPA2/WPA3 with a PSK and SAE password.

Are there any other points I should consider to increase performance and deliver smooth handover between APs?

If anyone has experience they can share I, and I am sure others, would be very grateful.

[syamantakomer]

Hi Greg,

Please find my response below.

1. Does AP orientation (horizontal/vertical) matter as long as the device isn't facing the back of the AP?

• Yes it does matters. All these APs uses omnidirectional antennas and creates a antenna pattern like a donut (not exact true donut). For your understanding, refer below 3d antenna pattern. This is when you place the AP horizontally (it is just for illustration and not a true radiation pattern in real life). Refer datasheet for more information about antenna pattern.

2. For meshing, should the fronts of the APs be facing each other or doesn't it matter? Is it just the distance apart that makes the difference assuming that the radiation patterns overlap?

• No, front facing the each other is not required and also not recommended until you are using directional APs. As long as both APs can see each other with good signal strength, they should work well over mesh.

3. Is there any performance difference between the different models of AP with the exception of volume of clients? I have cabled the R710s, assuming they have faster processors, to handle the meshing but I cannot find any information to support that theory. Does it matter? I have spare 510s and can get more 710s if that will make a significant difference.

• It is always good to use higher end APs as root and lower end APs as mesh because root AP acts as gateway for all the traffic. Of course, using all the same AP model does makes a lot of difference (higher end APs). An R710 (max data rate is 1,733Mbps) is much more powerful than R510 (max data rate is 867Mbps).

4. Would getting one or more R750s with WiFi6 make any major difference?

• Yes it will! But first find-out if that is your requirement or not. With existing setup, if it is not fulfilling your requirements, then you can always choose a better AP.

Below are my Unleashed settings. Are they sensible? Optimal?

• Yes, most of the settings looks good to me. I would like to add just one more point (assuming that you are powering all the APs using POE switch) for R710 and R610 APs. Make sure both APs are getting 802.3at power for full performance. If AP is negotiating the power over POE as 802.1af, it's performance will be reduced. Refer the data sheet for more information.

Regards,
Syamantak Omer

[GregNI]

Thanks that was really useful. I think I can improve performance by putting a couple of the wall mounted (vertical) APs on shelves or stands to extend the range horizontally. I had swapped elevation and azimuth in my mind and assumed they were sector radiation patterns rather than the cardioid pattern being round an omnidirectional antenna. It makes much more sense 🙂

[john_d]

Does R750 support mesh on Unleashed yet? That might be worth considering before going down that path.

[GregNI]

Yes. 200.8 documentation has it listed as Unleashed capable.

[john_d]

It’s Unleashed compatible but last I looked it was Mesh disabled until 200.9.