Controllerless Networks

I'd like to get a sanity check on my IAP configuration.. It seems to run "ok" but every so often I get really poor performance when testing from an iPhone 5S and I need to reboot. My only other experience with enterprise AP networks is with Meraki MR34's, which I seem to see much better/more consistent throughput with my iPhone on.

 

Generally I can hit 30ish Mb/s DL, 10Mb/s UL from the iPhone, using Speedtest from a short distance location. For reference, wired is consistently 110Mb DL / 11Mb UL. Occasionally performance will drop drastically on the DL (7-12Mb/s), causing me to toggle the wifi adapter in the iPhone or reboot the whole IAP network to restore throughput.

 

Some backgroud:

 

1 x IAP 225

1 x IAP 115

 

This cluster is setup in a multi-family home with AP's on the 1st (225) and 3rd (115) floors. At any given time, we can have up to 20 devices on the network. So throughput matters more than density. Most of the time network load is extremely light. I just want to make sure it's optmized for high throughput if one client attemps to perform massive downloads.

 

4 VLANs correspond to SSIDs. IAP225 (SSID1, SSID2, SSID4). IAP115 (SSID3, SSID2, SSID4).

 

The SSIDs are all configured the same:

 

Broadcast filtering -> Disabled

Multicast transmission optimization -> Disabled

Dynamic multicast optimization -> Disabled

DMO channel utilization threshold -> 90%

 

ARM:

 

Band steering -> Prefer 5Ghz

Airtime fairness -> Preferred Access

Client match -> Disabled

Min transmit power -> 21

Max transmit power -> Max

Client aware -> Enabled

Scanning -> Enabled

Wide channel bands -> 5Ghz

80Mhz Support -> Enabled

Background spectrum monitoring -> Disabled

 

System:

 

Preferred band -> 5Ghz

AppRF visibility -> Disabled (though I would like to enable this if it won't cause a performance hit)

 

As a side note, I only use the iPhone 5S only on SSID1 on the IAP-225. I've seen it pull at most 42Mb/s DL with extremely light usage on my Aruba system. By contrast I've consistently seen it get 90-100Mb/s with the MR34's, so I know the phone's chipset isn't the issue.

 

Any thoughts, comments, suggestions or other insights on this setup would be appreciated.

#AP225

At first glance:

Broadcast filtering -> ENABLE

Multicast transmission optimization -> ENABLE

80Mhz Support -> DISABLE


Why do you have your min TX power so high? You should add APs if coverage is an issue.

Enabling arp broadcasting breaks Chromecast / Roku. :-(

 

 

80Ghz is to take advantge of the few 802.11ac computers we have in the house.

You should enable AirGroup to allow those devices to continue to work.

On such a small network, would broadcasts really be an issue?

If there are Apple devices, yes.

Is it also possible to configure an airgroup server per VLAN? We have lots of Apple devices on all the VLAN/SSIDs but I would like to keep them all seperate. Ie. 1st Floor can only communicate with 1st Floor devices, 2nd Floor and so on.

No, not without ClearPass.

You can block mDNS and SSDP services per VLAN, but not restrict which is visible where.

I reduced the Min transmit power to 18 and enabled multicast transmission optimization.

I would also consider cutting down on SSIDs. 4 is quite a few and the extra management frames will hurt your performance as well.

Unfortuantely, this won't be possible. That said, each IAP only broadcasts 3 SSIDs at any given time.