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reverse band band steering ?

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  • 1.  reverse band band steering ?

    Posted Mar 08, 2021 10:09 AM

    I have a network where the AP locations are designed for 2.4G. Therefore there are quite a few areas with poor 5G coverage. 

    I try to make my clients guided back to the 2.4G channels in these locations.
    Would you advise me how to set up a rule / config telling the AP-s if the 5G probes with the client show very low quality (say the signal of the 5G channel at the client side is lower than -70dBm) THEN try to guide the client to the stronger 2.4G radio? 

    I have done quite a bit of testing (combination of Band steering, Client Match, RSSI levels, separate Radio Power Levels for 2.4 and 5G etc.)
    What I managed to achieve so far was the following: 
    * clients moving to the good reception areas are switching over to 5G nicely. (Making the 2.4 less crowded.)
    * clients moving to the low reception areas (of the same AP) sticking to the 5G radio even if they hardly able to get any packets (ping times in the range 1000-2500) so that they have poor reception 
    * if the user manually turns off-on the radio (or changes AP) the client is picking up the 2.4G wisely but not automatically

    The system is on Instant 8.6.xxxx level and I wish to use one single SSID.  

    Thank you in advance, 



    ------------------------------
    George
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  • 2.  RE: reverse band band steering ?

    EMPLOYEE
    Posted Mar 16, 2021 07:36 AM
    Hi George,

    It's possible that the client driver is working against you here. Many clients will now prefer 5 GHz radios over 2.4 GHz where available - this may be because it's an 802.11ac radio as opposed to an 802.11n radio, or some other configuration.

    Have you tried configuring the preferred band to 2.4 GHz or All instead of 5 GHz?
    Do you have ClientMatch enabled?
    Band Steering Mode could be set to Balance Bands or possibly disabled?

    Ultimately, it is likely you will eventually need to visit the design. 5 GHz has more bandwidth. If the network is Wi-Fi 5 then some clients will inherently prefer the 5 GHz radio because it is perceived as better than a 802.11n 2.4GHz radio even when it's not as strong. There may be just too many things outside of your control.

    If you solve it though, let us know what you did.
    Original Message