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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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ARM and Channel utilization

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  • 1.  ARM and Channel utilization

    Posted Dec 21, 2013 10:32 AM

    Hello i was wondering if ARM in his algorithm does not take in count the channel utilization to see if he has to change the channel???

     

    Today i was on the office, and there are some devices here that are not capable of 5ghz.. they are a few... the thing is that they were reporting me that they were really really going slow... when i checked the Controller i saw a really high utilization on channel 11.. over 80% of channel utilization... It didnt change it automatically, i had forbid channel 11 and reboot the AP so he changed the channel, to channel 1 or 6...

     

    If the arm does not take the channel utlization in his algorithm, it would be a good idea that it take it.

     

    Cheers

    Carlos



  • 2.  RE: ARM and Channel utilization

    EMPLOYEE
    Posted Dec 21, 2013 12:11 PM
    @NightShade1 wrote:

    Hello i was wondering if ARM in his algorithm does not take in count the channel utilization to see if he has to change the channel???

     

    Today i was on the office, and there are some devices here that are not capable of 5ghz.. they are a few... the thing is that they were reporting me that they were really really going slow... when i checked the Controller i saw a really high utilization on channel 11.. over 80% of channel utilization... It didnt change it automatically, i had forbid channel 11 and reboot the AP so he changed the channel, to channel 1 or 6...

     

    If the arm does not take the channel utlization in his algorithm, it would be a good idea that it take it.

     

    Cheers

    Carlos

    The ARM supplement, which states what ARM takes into account when choosing a channel is here:  http://support.arubanetworks.com/DOCUMENTATION/tabid/77/DMXModule/512/Command/Core_Download/Default....

     

    There are quite a few other things that are looked at as well, like interference, retries, noise levels, clients on other channels, as well as coverage.  In addition, the possible new channel has to be better than the previous channel.  Lastly, the new channel would have to be scanned a certain number of times to determine if the interference/noise is a one-time occurrence, or if it is sustained.  The ARM supplement is the best thing to explain what is going on.

     

    High Channel Utilization does not mean that a channel is unusable; we need to need to look into the interference, retries..the bad things about those channels to get the full picture of what is going on.  There is no one single target number but multiple factors compared against multiple factors.

     

    In a perfect world an access point would automatically figure out what channel would likely be the best to be on for now and in the future and change to that channel.  In actuality we only have data at that time to figure out what to do...  If your utilization is because you have too many BSSIDs, for example, there is nothing that ARM can do..

     



  • 3.  RE: ARM and Channel utilization
    Best Answer

    EMPLOYEE
    Posted Dec 22, 2013 04:21 PM

    Also, in 6.3, we added the ability to look at Channel quality:

     

    This release of ArubaOS provides support for Channel Quality Aware in Adaptive Radio Management (ARM). The channel quality is measured based on the channel utilization. Channel Quality Aware enables ARM to select channels for the APs based on the channel quality. When the channel quality of an AP goes down and remains below the threshold value for a specified wait time, the ARM moves the AP to a better channel. For more information on configuring Channel Quality Aware, see ArubaOS 6.3 User Guide. 



  • 4.  RE: ARM and Channel utilization

    Posted Dec 22, 2013 07:36 PM

    Thanks!!! for the asnwers!

     

    Cheers

    Carlos



  • 5.  RE: ARM and Channel utilization

    Posted Feb 04, 2014 02:14 PM
      |   view attached

    hi cjoseph,

     

    I know the topic is closed, but I do experience kind of the same issues as NightShade1.

     

    My client has hard time connecting to wifi and/or experience intermittent connection, you know it's always difficult to get more details from non-technical person. So, I jumped onto the controller to check the status and this is basically what I see:

    status.JPG

     

    On 2.4Ghz the channel is very busy, nonetheless the floor noise is fine, and so the interference. I see high number of Frame Retries(not particularly on this snapshot) and a lot of broadcast and multicast frames to client, although the broadcast filter is enabled to convert these frames in unicast.

     

    My setup is two APs in a office in a big shopping mall, and there is tones of wlans, and I understand that there is nothing I can do about external interference(although it seems to be fine), but why the AP is not changing the channel which is less congested ?

     

    Appreciate any suggestions. Thanks.



  • 6.  RE: ARM and Channel utilization

    Posted Feb 04, 2014 02:59 PM
    Which firmware version does your controller has? Remember the channel quality was introduced on 6.3blike someone said on a previews post..
    you will need to manually force it to change channel though if it does not do it by itseft... But it should change itselft on 6.3 code


  • 7.  RE: ARM and Channel utilization

    Posted Feb 04, 2014 03:08 PM
      |   view attached

    I'm on 6.1.3.9, so no channel quality for me. Anyways, I though the ARM actually is supposed to take care of this, I mean autochannel and power adjustment.

     

    I took a look at the config and I think I can tweak a bit the items in red(please see attachment). I have two AP105s, so maybe the "Assignement" to "multi-band" is causing arm not to function properly for dual-radio APs.