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AP-655 6GHz / 6E incompatibility with Intel AX210

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  • 1.  AP-655 6GHz / 6E incompatibility with Intel AX210

    Posted Apr 08, 2025 04:28 PM

    I've been trying to get AP-655 working with AX210 clients on the 6GHz band. Both Windows and Linux clients on Intel chipsets seem to just refuse to connect.

    Linux clients seem to complain about some kind of mode change:

    wlp4s0: bad HE/EHT 6 GHz operation
    wlp4s0: AP appears to change mode (expected HE, found legacy), disconnect

    These 6GHz SSID do however work with MacOS and they're legal to use (have been allowed for a while now). Though at a subpar performance, I have a few 802.11ac access points that achieve better latency and jitter on 5GHz, and speeds at the same bandwidth/stream count. But this performance is probably a separate issue and there are a few other threads about this. (Disappointing nevertheless.)

    I can't seem to find any configuration option for disabling legacy operations (I guess anything below 802.11n?) for ArubaOS 8.12.0.4. I did try to change a/g mininum and allowed rates, but those seem to have had no effect. (I still see those legacy rates listed in iw scan output.)

    Is this a known issue? Can I somehow disable a/b/g operations to try and see if this improves things?



  • 2.  RE: AP-655 6GHz / 6E incompatibility with Intel AX210

    Posted Apr 08, 2025 04:33 PM

    Management frames still use OFDM rates so disabling those will not help. Have you tried different firmware and Linux kernel versions for the AX210?  What ucode and kernel are you currently using?




  • 3.  RE: AP-655 6GHz / 6E incompatibility with Intel AX210

    Posted Apr 09, 2025 09:23 AM
    Edited by Avamander Apr 09, 2025 09:24 AM

    The kernel is currently 6.11.0, but trying slightly older kernels changed nothing. I haven't tried replacing Intel firmware because it doesn't seem to be a firmware crash or error.

    Looking around there's one other mention of this message on kernel's BugZilla (https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=219159). The summary of that seems to be that the AP is picking an invalid channel? If I'm reading it correctly the failure condition is `!he_6ghz_oper->ccfs1`, which would mean that it fails because CCFS1 is not set properly. In any case it sounds like the very least, the kernel is stricter about non-conformant behaviour (and there are commit messages about that). 

    > Management frames still use OFDM rates so disabling those will not help. 

    I'd still like to try and disable all the 802.11b rates, if it's possible.




  • 4.  RE: AP-655 6GHz / 6E incompatibility with Intel AX210

    Posted Apr 09, 2025 09:42 AM

    Okay, I've also made a packet capture and the HE CCFS0 is 72, CFFS1 is 79 in the beacon frame. Primary channel is 69.

    CCFS0 does look odd, shouldn't that be 71? Then 79 would be okay?




  • 5.  RE: AP-655 6GHz / 6E incompatibility with Intel AX210

    Posted Apr 09, 2025 09:52 AM

    What channel width are you using in 6 GHz?




  • 6.  RE: AP-655 6GHz / 6E incompatibility with Intel AX210

    Posted Apr 09, 2025 09:54 AM

    It should be 160MHz




  • 7.  RE: AP-655 6GHz / 6E incompatibility with Intel AX210

    Posted Apr 09, 2025 10:59 AM
    Edited by schmelzle Apr 09, 2025 10:59 AM

    I just booted up an AP-655 on 8.12.0.4 and see CCFS0 as 71 and CCFS1 as 79 which is correct based on the specification for 160 MHz at 69 in 6 GHz. What is the source showing CCFS0 as 72? Some Linux utility or is this in an OTA capture? Please verify this in OTA capture and if you see 72, please open a case and attach the pcap/tech support.




  • 8.  RE: AP-655 6GHz / 6E incompatibility with Intel AX210

    Posted Apr 09, 2025 11:23 AM

    I don't know what happened when I replied to your comment, it's indeed 71/79 and 69. I probably wanted to ask if it shouldn't be 72, but as you say that's correct then that must not be it. (The source (that actually displays the actually correct number) is a capture made by a Mac using the built-in Wireless Diagnostics capture functionality. Displayed by Wireshark.)

    I'll keep digging, this does now sound like an Intel FW + Linux bug. As I understand the BugZilla report, the code that throws that warning was added to avoid a firmware problem. So this indeed now sounds like an Intel bug. I'll see if I can try other firmware versions.

    Thanks again for your expertise.




  • 9.  RE: AP-655 6GHz / 6E incompatibility with Intel AX210

    Posted Apr 09, 2025 09:52 AM
    Edited by schmelzle Apr 09, 2025 09:52 AM

    802.11b (1, 2, 5.5, 11) rates only apply to 2.4 GHz which doesn't sound like what you're troubleshooting here.




  • 10.  RE: AP-655 6GHz / 6E incompatibility with Intel AX210

    Posted Apr 09, 2025 09:57 AM

    > 802.11b (1, 2, 5.5, 11) rates only apply to 2.4 GHz which doesn't sound like what you're troubleshooting here.

    Sorry, yeah, I meant legacy (b)asic rates. Or like a way to eliminate any confusion in that aspect for clients.

    But indeed, it's likely not the reason things are acting odd. The CCFS0 seems weirder.




  • 11.  RE: AP-655 6GHz / 6E incompatibility with Intel AX210

    Posted Apr 10, 2025 05:10 AM
    Edited by Avamander Apr 10, 2025 05:15 AM

    Okay, looking into this further. It does seem like Aruba AP-s are broadcasting an invalid CCFS1. It was confirmed by an Intel engineer on kernel's bugzilla. 

    In my case if CCFS0 is 71, CCFS1 should be the next valid channel so probably 87 (71 + 80MHz). Not 79, as 79 does not seem to even be in the valid channel list.

    However I don't know if I have the access to actually report this to tech support (I would appreciate if someone else tried as well). As it stands it seems like Intel cards and Linux both refuse the 6GHz operation offered by Aruba APs on 6GHz.




  • 12.  RE: AP-655 6GHz / 6E incompatibility with Intel AX210

    Posted Apr 10, 2025 08:29 AM
    Edited by schmelzle Apr 10, 2025 08:58 AM

    No, that's not correct.

    The APs are broadcasting the correct CCFS0 (71) and CCFS1 (79) for 160 MHz at 69 in 6 GHz.

    The Intel engineer needs to re-review the specification if they are actually claiming these channel indexes for CCFS0/1 are wrong.




  • 13.  RE: AP-655 6GHz / 6E incompatibility with Intel AX210

    Posted Apr 10, 2025 10:34 AM

    > The Intel engineer needs to re-review the specification if they are actually claiming these channel indexes for CCFS0/1 are wrong.

    Well, they said "Your AP seems to be sending broken information." and "You can refer to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_WLAN_channels to see what's valid and what is not."




  • 14.  RE: AP-655 6GHz / 6E incompatibility with Intel AX210

    Posted Apr 10, 2025 10:38 AM

    You should be referring the IEEE 802.11 specification instead.




  • 15.  RE: AP-655 6GHz / 6E incompatibility with Intel AX210

    Posted Apr 10, 2025 10:59 AM

    > You should be referring the IEEE 802.11 specification instead.

    Indeed. I decided to get access to the 802.11ax-2023 specification myself, and it does indeed say that for 160MHz operation, CCFS1 must be larger than 0 and the absolute difference between CCFS0 and CCFS1 must be exactly 8. Which does indeed mean that at least this part is correct.

    Thank you for saying that they were incorrect about this part.




  • 16.  RE: AP-655 6GHz / 6E incompatibility with Intel AX210

    Posted Apr 10, 2025 08:43 AM
    Edited by schmelzle Apr 10, 2025 08:43 AM

    I also just checked an Intel BE200 on Linux and the Intel client connects just fine to 160 MHz at channel 69 in 6 GHz.




  • 17.  RE: AP-655 6GHz / 6E incompatibility with Intel AX210

    Posted Apr 10, 2025 08:57 AM

    Intel AX210 also works fine...