Wireless Access

Hi,

We are installing hundreds of AP 225's and 224's and there are places where we install them close to one another. For example is in a room where usually filled with hundreds of people.  So we installed them close together not because of signal issue but for capacity wise. ( Multiply the number of people  to 3(People now have a phone, a tablet and a laptop.. lol))

Now, we want to test them by connecting to each of the AP's we installed. We want to make sure there is traffic. So what we do is, we connect to a particular AP using our phones or etc and try Speedtest.net or watch  YouTube. The problem is, if they are all close to one another (~30 feet apart), our phones stick to one AP. We tried ARUBA Android App and even if we 'unstick', it will still connect us to the first AP we connected. Our phones sees them all at full speed (433Mbps max speed for SGS4 using AC) and healthy signal and it doesn't really vary that much anywhere in the room.  I think that's the reason why the controller stick us to one AP because there is no need to move to another AP.

Anyway, is there a friendly way to test each AP's installed close to one another?

Thank you.

What code are you running? If you are on 6.3, there’s a new command “arm move-sta”.

The syntax is:
arm move-sta <device-mac> <new-bssid>

If you use a standard naming convention on your APs, you can get a list of the BSSIDs for those APs. For example, if your APs are named RoomA-AP1, RoomA-AP2, etc, run

 show ap bss-table | include RoomA-

Or to filter on both SSID and AP name:

show ap bss-table essid <ssid> | include RoomA-

we are running  6.3.1.2

I will try this tomorrow.

Thank you.

If you have an Intel wireless card, and use the Intel Proset software, you can manually set the bssid for the laptop to connect to.

Edit the profile, then Advanced Settings and Mandatory Access Point.

Personally I prefer Windows to manage the wireless, but this tool is very useful for exactly the sort of testing you are trying to do.

It is really up to the client on which AP it connects to.  

Why are you concerened about each AP?  Are you thinking of moving APs based on the result?  Do you have Airwave?  It would be very easy to set up a trigger or alert if there are no clients on an AP for an extended period of time.

I would do some of the show AP arm commands to make sure that not too many APs are sitting at the lowest Tx level but asside from that you should be good.

Yes we do have Airwave 7.7.6 but I still have to add those AP's.

Is there a way in Airwave where we can monitor for each AP's traffic (for example: 303MB sent, 273MB received)? In this way, we are confident that there is traffic going on.

EDIT:

In Airwave: I see a "usage" metric. Is "usage" a  total of sent and received? Is this enough to make sure that the AP's are 100% working. We don't trust AP association, we want to see traffic flowing.

Sorry, for being paranoid.  We just want to make sure that the devices worth a grand each on the ceilings are working. I hope you guys understand.

Anyway, I really appreciate the help. Kudos to all!