Wireless Access

We look after the network for a large oil & gas firm and support several sites spread across the UK.  Over the past 6 weeks or so we have started to get issues with AP's stopping broadcasting and showing the 'r' for power restricted in the controller.  Users can't access the AP but we can still see it online and talking to the controller, it just refuses to broadcast.

We've had several on our main campus site go into this mode and nothing we do to play with the power settings makes any difference.  Sometimes they will just start working again for no obvious reason and others are still down right now.  The switches power them show no issues and the units have been in place for 18 months without a problem.  Cabling them directly into the switch doesn't help so it's not bad cabling in the buildings.

It has now spread to 2 other sites many miles away and we are still at a loss to explain it.  If it is genuinely power then why do the switches show plenty in reserve and are running PoE phones and other systems without a problem?  Why are they all going within a week or two of each other after many months of service?  I have 2 Mobility Masters and 2 WLC's which were last updated in July to 8.7.x.x so in January I'm going to update them to 8.9.0.1 to see if that helps, but I doubt it.  Anyone else seen this?

------------------------------
Kenny Mitchell
------------------------------

Hi Kenny,

What model of Access points are you using?
What type of Power standard are you sending to the Access points? (802.3at, 802.3af, ...etc.)
Can you check Power Budget of the switch? Maybe there has been additional VoIP Phones connected to the switch and power consumption might have increased, or maybe IP Cameras have been added?


------------------------------
Shpat | MVP 2021 | ACEP | ACMP | ACCP | ACDP |
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Dec 20, 2021 09:16 AM
From: Kenny Mitchell
Subject: Aruba AP 315's going 'power restricted'

We look after the network for a large oil & gas firm and support several sites spread across the UK.  Over the past 6 weeks or so we have started to get issues with AP's stopping broadcasting and showing the 'r' for power restricted in the controller.  Users can't access the AP but we can still see it online and talking to the controller, it just refuses to broadcast.

We've had several on our main campus site go into this mode and nothing we do to play with the power settings makes any difference.  Sometimes they will just start working again for no obvious reason and others are still down right now.  The switches power them show no issues and the units have been in place for 18 months without a problem.  Cabling them directly into the switch doesn't help so it's not bad cabling in the buildings.

It has now spread to 2 other sites many miles away and we are still at a loss to explain it.  If it is genuinely power then why do the switches show plenty in reserve and are running PoE phones and other systems without a problem?  Why are they all going within a week or two of each other after many months of service?  I have 2 Mobility Masters and 2 WLC's which were last updated in July to 8.7.x.x so in January I'm going to update them to 8.9.0.1 to see if that helps, but I doubt it.  Anyone else seen this?

------------------------------
Kenny Mitchell
------------------------------

You could try turning on IPM, but an AP-315 will not have any relevant restrictions even when it's on 802.3af with IPM off (USB is off and max power on 2.4GHz is reduced by 3dB; that should not affect connectivity).
Have you opened a support ticket?

------------------------------
Onno Harms
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Dec 20, 2021 10:34 AM
From: Shpat Berzati
Subject: Aruba AP 315's going 'power restricted'

Hi Kenny,

What model of Access points are you using?
What type of Power standard are you sending to the Access points? (802.3at, 802.3af, ...etc.)
Can you check Power Budget of the switch? Maybe there has been additional VoIP Phones connected to the switch and power consumption might have increased, or maybe IP Cameras have been added?


------------------------------
Shpat | MVP 2021 | ACEP | ACMP | ACCP | ACDP |

Original Message:
Sent: Dec 20, 2021 09:16 AM
From: Kenny Mitchell
Subject: Aruba AP 315's going 'power restricted'

We look after the network for a large oil & gas firm and support several sites spread across the UK.  Over the past 6 weeks or so we have started to get issues with AP's stopping broadcasting and showing the 'r' for power restricted in the controller.  Users can't access the AP but we can still see it online and talking to the controller, it just refuses to broadcast.

We've had several on our main campus site go into this mode and nothing we do to play with the power settings makes any difference.  Sometimes they will just start working again for no obvious reason and others are still down right now.  The switches power them show no issues and the units have been in place for 18 months without a problem.  Cabling them directly into the switch doesn't help so it's not bad cabling in the buildings.

It has now spread to 2 other sites many miles away and we are still at a loss to explain it.  If it is genuinely power then why do the switches show plenty in reserve and are running PoE phones and other systems without a problem?  Why are they all going within a week or two of each other after many months of service?  I have 2 Mobility Masters and 2 WLC's which were last updated in July to 8.7.x.x so in January I'm going to update them to 8.9.0.1 to see if that helps, but I doubt it.  Anyone else seen this?

------------------------------
Kenny Mitchell
------------------------------

We are looking at the IPM option but will need to figure out how to apply it.  We haven't opened a support ticket yet but are going to now we've pretty much exhausted our options.  We got a hold of an external DC power supply yesterday and tried it on one of the affected units and it made no difference at all to the problem, so we know it's not actually power loss that's causing the issue.

------------------------------
Kenny Mitchell
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Dec 20, 2021 01:29 PM
From: Onno Harms
Subject: Aruba AP 315's going 'power restricted'

You could try turning on IPM, but an AP-315 will not have any relevant restrictions even when it's on 802.3af with IPM off (USB is off and max power on 2.4GHz is reduced by 3dB; that should not affect connectivity).
Have you opened a support ticket?

------------------------------
Onno Harms

Original Message:
Sent: Dec 20, 2021 10:34 AM
From: Shpat Berzati
Subject: Aruba AP 315's going 'power restricted'

Hi Kenny,

What model of Access points are you using?
What type of Power standard are you sending to the Access points? (802.3at, 802.3af, ...etc.)
Can you check Power Budget of the switch? Maybe there has been additional VoIP Phones connected to the switch and power consumption might have increased, or maybe IP Cameras have been added?


------------------------------
Shpat | MVP 2021 | ACEP | ACMP | ACCP | ACDP |

Original Message:
Sent: Dec 20, 2021 09:16 AM
From: Kenny Mitchell
Subject: Aruba AP 315's going 'power restricted'

We look after the network for a large oil & gas firm and support several sites spread across the UK.  Over the past 6 weeks or so we have started to get issues with AP's stopping broadcasting and showing the 'r' for power restricted in the controller.  Users can't access the AP but we can still see it online and talking to the controller, it just refuses to broadcast.

We've had several on our main campus site go into this mode and nothing we do to play with the power settings makes any difference.  Sometimes they will just start working again for no obvious reason and others are still down right now.  The switches power them show no issues and the units have been in place for 18 months without a problem.  Cabling them directly into the switch doesn't help so it's not bad cabling in the buildings.

It has now spread to 2 other sites many miles away and we are still at a loss to explain it.  If it is genuinely power then why do the switches show plenty in reserve and are running PoE phones and other systems without a problem?  Why are they all going within a week or two of each other after many months of service?  I have 2 Mobility Masters and 2 WLC's which were last updated in July to 8.7.x.x so in January I'm going to update them to 8.9.0.1 to see if that helps, but I doubt it.  Anyone else seen this?

------------------------------
Kenny Mitchell
------------------------------

Hi there.  The problem is manifesting on AP 315 models and we're using Aruba 2930M switches which have more than enough power to run the AP's and phones.  Even where there's only 1 AP and nothing else plugged in we've seen the problem show up, then mysteriously disappear after about a week.  We tried manually setting the power options (budget, criticality) and nothing worked.

------------------------------
Kenny Mitchell
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Dec 20, 2021 10:34 AM
From: Shpat Berzati
Subject: Aruba AP 315's going 'power restricted'

Hi Kenny,

What model of Access points are you using?
What type of Power standard are you sending to the Access points? (802.3at, 802.3af, ...etc.)
Can you check Power Budget of the switch? Maybe there has been additional VoIP Phones connected to the switch and power consumption might have increased, or maybe IP Cameras have been added?


------------------------------
Shpat | MVP 2021 | ACEP | ACMP | ACCP | ACDP |

Original Message:
Sent: Dec 20, 2021 09:16 AM
From: Kenny Mitchell
Subject: Aruba AP 315's going 'power restricted'

We look after the network for a large oil & gas firm and support several sites spread across the UK.  Over the past 6 weeks or so we have started to get issues with AP's stopping broadcasting and showing the 'r' for power restricted in the controller.  Users can't access the AP but we can still see it online and talking to the controller, it just refuses to broadcast.

We've had several on our main campus site go into this mode and nothing we do to play with the power settings makes any difference.  Sometimes they will just start working again for no obvious reason and others are still down right now.  The switches power them show no issues and the units have been in place for 18 months without a problem.  Cabling them directly into the switch doesn't help so it's not bad cabling in the buildings.

It has now spread to 2 other sites many miles away and we are still at a loss to explain it.  If it is genuinely power then why do the switches show plenty in reserve and are running PoE phones and other systems without a problem?  Why are they all going within a week or two of each other after many months of service?  I have 2 Mobility Masters and 2 WLC's which were last updated in July to 8.7.x.x so in January I'm going to update them to 8.9.0.1 to see if that helps, but I doubt it.  Anyone else seen this?

------------------------------
Kenny Mitchell
------------------------------

Have you enabled LLDP? If not, do try to enable LLDP on the switch port.
I have seen this before and it was related to LLDP being turned off resulting POE not able to be negotiated properly.

------------------------------
Thanks!
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Dec 20, 2021 09:16 AM
From: Kenny Mitchell
Subject: Aruba AP 315's going 'power restricted'

We look after the network for a large oil & gas firm and support several sites spread across the UK.  Over the past 6 weeks or so we have started to get issues with AP's stopping broadcasting and showing the 'r' for power restricted in the controller.  Users can't access the AP but we can still see it online and talking to the controller, it just refuses to broadcast.

We've had several on our main campus site go into this mode and nothing we do to play with the power settings makes any difference.  Sometimes they will just start working again for no obvious reason and others are still down right now.  The switches power them show no issues and the units have been in place for 18 months without a problem.  Cabling them directly into the switch doesn't help so it's not bad cabling in the buildings.

It has now spread to 2 other sites many miles away and we are still at a loss to explain it.  If it is genuinely power then why do the switches show plenty in reserve and are running PoE phones and other systems without a problem?  Why are they all going within a week or two of each other after many months of service?  I have 2 Mobility Masters and 2 WLC's which were last updated in July to 8.7.x.x so in January I'm going to update them to 8.9.0.1 to see if that helps, but I doubt it.  Anyone else seen this?

------------------------------
Kenny Mitchell
------------------------------

OK, so a combination of both IPM settings and enabling LLDP notifications seems to cure the issue.  Changing to a new profile with IPM set seems to remove the 'r' error from the controller but does not seem to resolve the actual outage.  Enabling LLDP notifications on the port used by the wireless unit does actually seem to get the radios working again and the users connected.  We were rather shocked to find LLDP notifications are disabled by default on the 2930 series.

We have several more new 500 series AP's in a new office that are showing the 'r' power restriction error but are still working just fine.  We're going to apply the same IPM and LLDP fixes to see if it cures that as well.

Thanks for the help guys.

------------------------------
Kenny Mitchell
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Dec 21, 2021 01:21 AM
From: Chee Siang Boon
Subject: Aruba AP 315's going 'power restricted'

Have you enabled LLDP? If not, do try to enable LLDP on the switch port.
I have seen this before and it was related to LLDP being turned off resulting POE not able to be negotiated properly.

------------------------------
Thanks!

Original Message:
Sent: Dec 20, 2021 09:16 AM
From: Kenny Mitchell
Subject: Aruba AP 315's going 'power restricted'

We look after the network for a large oil & gas firm and support several sites spread across the UK.  Over the past 6 weeks or so we have started to get issues with AP's stopping broadcasting and showing the 'r' for power restricted in the controller.  Users can't access the AP but we can still see it online and talking to the controller, it just refuses to broadcast.

We've had several on our main campus site go into this mode and nothing we do to play with the power settings makes any difference.  Sometimes they will just start working again for no obvious reason and others are still down right now.  The switches power them show no issues and the units have been in place for 18 months without a problem.  Cabling them directly into the switch doesn't help so it's not bad cabling in the buildings.

It has now spread to 2 other sites many miles away and we are still at a loss to explain it.  If it is genuinely power then why do the switches show plenty in reserve and are running PoE phones and other systems without a problem?  Why are they all going within a week or two of each other after many months of service?  I have 2 Mobility Masters and 2 WLC's which were last updated in July to 8.7.x.x so in January I'm going to update them to 8.9.0.1 to see if that helps, but I doubt it.  Anyone else seen this?

------------------------------
Kenny Mitchell
------------------------------