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Access network design for branch, remote, outdoor, and campus locations with HPE Aruba Networking access points and mobility controllers.
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Client connecting to AP on different floor.

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  • 1.  Client connecting to AP on different floor.

    Posted Oct 01, 2012 08:59 AM

    Hi,

     

    Hoping someone can point me in a direction to solve either a design/configuration problem.

     

    Running into an issue in which a client/host is connecting to an AP either 1 floor up, or down in a dormitory.  Building has 4 floors, concrete floors, block walls with plaster.  Each floor is approximately 120 feet long, and we have 2 AP's placed on each floor with 50 feet of space between them.  With ARM turned on, the 3rd floor AP's are de-powering to 12dBm, while the AP's on the 4th and 2nd floor are at 22.5dBm.  This is causing the client in the middle of the 3rd floor to connect to the 2nd or 4th floor because it sees a better signal.  The second floor AP's are using channel 6, while the 3rd and 4th are alternating between 1 and 11.  We do have client aware turned on in the ARM profile and the Min Tx EIRP set at 12.

     

    The client machine is actually connecting to the network, but it is slow, speed tests come back at .94mbs, whereas in other buildings like our library we get regular speeds of up to 20mbs.

     

    Wondering if increasing the min tx eirp to 18, or placing another AP on the 3rd floor would alleviate the issues or perhaps something else I'm not thinking of.  If anyone can provide some advice I'd be most grateful.

     

     



  • 2.  RE: Client connecting to AP on different floor.

    EMPLOYEE
    Posted Oct 01, 2012 09:27 AM

    Do you have your access points "staggered" or are they right above each other?  If it is not costly, please consider staggering them, so that they are not right above each other.

     

    "Client Aware" will only keep access points from changing channels when clients are associated to them.  It is meant for bandwidth and delay-sensitve applications like voice.  You should consider turning this off so that the access points can settle.  In a busy environment, if you have this on, access points will NEVER change channel to what you need them to be.  If after 24 hours, turning off Client aware and/or staggering access points does not change things, we can the consider modifying the max or min tx power.

     

    Are you using band steering and dropping broadcasts on your Virtual APs, to move 5ghz clients to the cleaner band, as well as prevent congestion from broadcasts?

     

    Please see the Mobile Device Fundamentals presentation from this year's Airheads here:  http://community.arubanetworks.com/t5/Community-Knowledge-Base/Mobile-Device-Fundamentals/ta-p/21610

     

     



  • 3.  RE: Client connecting to AP on different floor.

    Posted Oct 01, 2012 09:36 AM

    We currently have them in the same positions on each floor.  Will turning off client-aware cause the AP's to change channel if they see a rogue?  I was concerned we would drop clients due to this.

     

    We are using band-steering in the prefer5ghz mode.  Our Vap's have the convert BroadcastArp requests to unicast on.  However Drop Broadcast and multicast is not on under the profile.  We are on 6.1.3 code currently.

     

    Thanks for the link, reviewing it now!



  • 4.  RE: Client connecting to AP on different floor.

    EMPLOYEE
    Posted Oct 01, 2012 09:41 AM
    @jkellerm wrote:

    We currently have them in the same positions on each floor.  Will turning off client-aware cause the AP's to change channel if they see a rogue?  I was concerned we would drop clients due to this.

     

    We are using band-steering in the prefer5ghz mode.  Our Vap's have the convert BroadcastArp requests to unicast on.  However Drop Broadcast and multicast is not on under the profile.  We are on 6.1.3 code currently.

     

    Thanks for the link, reviewing it now!

    I know it would be costly to relocate access points so that they are staggered, so I will not advocate that.

     

    Client-Aware does not have anything to do with rogues.  Rogues will still be detected.  Unchecking this will allow the APs to choose an optimum channel even if clients are still associated.

     

    You should consider Drop Broadcast and Multicast, because Broadcasts (besides ARP) are non-essential and cause alot of degradation and can cause a night-and-day difference in your WLAN if they are suppressed.

     



  • 5.  RE: Client connecting to AP on different floor.

    Posted Oct 01, 2012 10:01 AM

    I appreaciate the advice.  In future installations we will make use of staggering the AP's. 

     

    I have a maintenance window soon and will implement these changes.

     

    Thank you for the info!



  • 6.  RE: Client connecting to AP on different floor.

    Posted Oct 18, 2012 05:51 PM

    [quote]"Client Aware" will only keep access points from changing channels when clients are associated to them.  It is meant for bandwidth and delay-sensitve applications like voice.  You should consider turning this off so that the access points can settle.  In a busy environment, if you have this on, access points will NEVER change channel to what you need them to be.  If after 24 hours, turning off Client aware and/or staggering access points does not change things, we can the consider modifying the max or min tx power.[/quote]

     

    Question about this....how aggressive is this?  I have a few locations within office buildings, so the wireless is crowded.  Seems like most are SOHO routers (Linksys, Dlink, etc) and using channels 1 and 11.  I've had issues where Aruba wouldn't switch to a different channel and just checked and Client Aware was checked. 

     

    I created a new ARM profile, but just curious if I should be on the look out for any potential issues with changing this?



  • 7.  RE: Client connecting to AP on different floor.

    EMPLOYEE
    Posted Oct 19, 2012 01:02 AM
    @COLE1 wrote:

    [quote]"Client Aware" will only keep access points from changing channels when clients are associated to them.  It is meant for bandwidth and delay-sensitve applications like voice.  You should consider turning this off so that the access points can settle.  In a busy environment, if you have this on, access points will NEVER change channel to what you need them to be.  If after 24 hours, turning off Client aware and/or staggering access points does not change things, we can the consider modifying the max or min tx power.[/quote]

     

    Question about this....how aggressive is this?  I have a few locations within office buildings, so the wireless is crowded.  Seems like most are SOHO routers (Linksys, Dlink, etc) and using channels 1 and 11.  I've had issues where Aruba wouldn't switch to a different channel and just checked and Client Aware was checked. 

     

    I created a new ARM profile, but just curious if I should be on the look out for any potential issues with changing this?

    No.

     

    9 out of 10 times, just leaving ARM to the default works just fine.  An Aruba Access Point does not just change to a different channel because another access point that it can see many yards away is on the same channel.  It observes things like bandwidth, number of clients, number of errors, etc on a channel before it even considers changing.  The channel it would consider also has to be an order of magnitude before changing to that channel.  Two access points on the same channel, especially on a band where you only have 3 channels and quite a few access points, is very likely and not necessarily bad.