Wireless Access

Hello, maybe someone here can help to resolve an actual issue we have with a standalone controller, we have the following scenario:

1 x Aruba Controller 7005  (Aruba OS 8.3.0.3)

4 x  AP-315   (we have more AP's but in others buildings)

This 4 APs are in the same AP-Group and in the same physical location, floor 14th of an office building, so there is a lot of others wireless network in the area.

The issue is some users are experience troubles using the wireless. In the controller side they appear with 1 to 5% of good health. When I check the aps and radios I can see that all APs are using only the channels "1" and "11" , they are not using channel 6.

But in the configuration we have set channel 1,6,11.

Can anyone help me how to force an AP to also use channel 6.

Here is an actual survey:

thanks

You should SSH into any of the access points that are not on channel 6 (any of them at this point) and type "show ap arm rf-summary" :  https://www.arubanetworks.com/techdocs/Instant_42_WebHelp/InstantWebHelp.htm?_ga=1.43038629.1615771646.1440445030#CLI_commands/show_ap_arm_%20bandwidth_management.htm?Highlight=show%20ap%20arm

That will tell you how each access point sees channel 6.  It could be that channel 6 is so bad, that they are all staying away from it.  A standalone controller uses ARM and not clientmatch on 8.x, FYI.

What band do your clients use when they connect to the wifi?

almost 40% of the clients are using 2.4Ghz band

Thanks cjoseph,

Only with Mobility Master is possible to use clientMatch?

heres is the output:

(SWLC_ARUBA-EPM_253) [mynode] #show ap arm rf-summary ap-name AP_EUROPLAZAN14_238

Channel Summary
---------------
channel  retry  phy-err  mac-err  noise  util(Qual)     cov-idx(Total)  intf_idx(Total)
-------  -----  -------  -------  -----  ----------     --------------  ---------------
36       0      0        0        92     5/2/2/0/99     0/0(0)          11/0//13/0(24)
40       0      0        0        92     4/1/2/0/99     0/0(0)          5/3//0/4(12)
44       0      0        0        92     4/1/2/0/99     0/0(0)          5/0//0/0(5)
48       0      0        0        92     2/0/2/0/100    0/0(0)          2/5//0/0(7)
52       0      0        0        92     4/1/2/0/99     0/0(0)          11/0//0/0(11)
56       0      0        0        94     3/0/3/0/100    0/0(0)          6/4//0/0(10)
60       0      0        0        92     3/0/2/0/99     0/0(0)          6/1//0/0(7)
64       0      0        0        92     4/1/2/0/99     0/0(0)          6/0//0/0(6)
100      0      0        0        92     2/0/2/0/100    5/0(5)          28/0//0/0(28)
104      0      0        0        92     2/0/2/0/100    0/0(0)          0/9//0/0(9)
108      0      0        0        92     2/0/2/0/100    0/0(0)          0/0//0/0(0)
112      0      0        0        92     2/0/2/0/100    0/0(0)          0/0//0/0(0)
116      6      0        0        92     1/0/1/0/100    6/0(6)          0/0//0/0(0)
120      0      0        0        92     2/0/2/0/100    0/0(0)          0/0//0/0(0)
124      0      0        0        92     2/0/2/0/100    0/0(0)          0/0//0/0(0)
128      0      0        0        92     2/0/2/0/100    0/0(0)          0/10//0/0(10)
132      0      0        0        92     2/0/2/0/100    6/0(6)          31/0//0/0(31)
136      0      0        0        92     2/0/2/0/100    0/0(0)          15/10//0/0(25)
140      0      0        0        92     27/25/2/0/100  0/0(0)          9/0//0/0(9)
144      0      0        0        92     2/0/2/0/100    0/0(0)          7/0//0/2(9)
149      0      0        0        92     3/0/2/0/99     0/0(0)          3/1//10/0(14)
153      0      0        0        92     3/0/2/0/99     0/0(0)          4/1//0/3(8)
157      0      0        0        92     2/0/2/0/100    0/0(0)          0/1//0/0(1)
161      0      0        0        92     2/0/2/0/100    0/0(0)          0/0//0/0(0)
165      0      0        0        96     3/0/3/0/100    0/0(0)          0/0//0/0(0)
1        0      0        0        88     90/84/3/0/97   3/0(3)          31/15//41/8(95)
6        0      0        0        93     63/54/3/0/94   0/0(0)          47/38//0/0(85)
11       82     0        2        91     18/10/6/0/55   4/0(4)          58/17//8/4(87)

Columns:util(Qual): ch-util/rx/tx/ext-ch-util/quality
Noise followed by "*" indicates that the last scan on this channel was a split-scan, which was
triggered by high channel noise. Check show ap arm split-scan-history.
                                                   
HT/VHT Channel Summary
----------------------
Bandwidth  Channel range  Total interference index
---------  -------------  ------------------------
40MHz      116-120        0         
40MHz      140-144        18        
40MHz       52-56         21        
40MHz      100-104        37        
40MHz      124-128        10        
40MHz      149-153        22        
40MHz       36-40         36        
40MHz       60-64         13        
40MHz      108-112        0         
40MHz      132-136        56        
40MHz      157-161        1         
40MHz       44-48         12        
80MHz      116-128        10        
80MHz       52-64         34        
80MHz      100-112        37        
80MHz      149-161        23        
80MHz       36-48         48        
80MHz      132-144        74        
                                                   
Interface Name           :wifi0
Current ARM Assignment   :116E/18.0
Covered channels a/g     :24/0
Free channels a/g        :0/0
ARM Edge State           :enable
Last check channel/pwr   :4m:51s/5m:8s
Last change channel/pwr  :1h:41m:54s/1h:41m:54s
Next Check channel/pwr   :15s/2m:0s
Assignment Mode          :Single Band

Interface Name           :wifi1
Current ARM Assignment   :11/12.0
Covered channels a/g     :0/3
Free channels a/g        :0/0
ARM Edge State           :enable
Last check channel/pwr   :2m:46s/2m:14s
Last change channel/pwr  :1h:41m:54s/1h:41m:54s
Next Check channel/pwr   :1m:42s/2m:22s
Assignment Mode          :Single Band

Im not sure if the reason no using channel 6 is the "noise" column?

ClientMatch is the technology to optimize roaming and prevent sticky clients. That is available both on ArubaOS 6.x and 8.x, but hasn't anything to do with ARM.

AirMatch is the new radio planning on ArubaOS 8.x; which creates better automatic channel planning and allows automatic feedback to get better and better. That is not on ArubaOS 8.x only. Airmatch assists/steers ARM.

From what I read in your table is that you have 63% channel utilization on channel 6. That is probably why the APs will not select that channel as it is better to reuse 1 or 11 in that case. Do you have an idea what can be on that channel 6? 

util(Qual): ch-util/rx/tx/ext-ch-util/quality = 63/54/3/0/94 

Thanks Herman Robers for the detailed explanation about ClientMatch and AirMatch. It is very useful por me.

I installed an AP as a Spectrum Monitor and I can't find anything different in channel 6 and the others two channels.  As you can see in the following screenshots the channel utilization are maybe the same in the three channels.

I have to add that this is a office building so there is a lot of wifi networks around. But this others wifi networks and in differents floors.