Good morning community,
I am trying to adjust the power levels of a cluster of 8 IAPs (17 meters far each other approx.) to make the 5 GHz band more attractive to clients. Before making any change and with the default power levels settings which is Min "18" and Max "max" for both bands, Aruba Central showed some IAPs were 22 (2.4 GHz) and 23 (5GHz), and some 22 (2.4 GHz) and 20 (5GHz).
In addition to set the Band Steering Mode to "Prefer 5GHz" which is the default, now I have changed the power levels settings according to the RF and Roaming Optimization for Aruba 802.11ac Networks VRD, which says:
- A difference of not more than 6dbm should be maintained between minimum and maximum transmit power within each ARM profile.
- A difference of 6dbm should be maintained between 802.11a and 802.11g radios, so that both bands have equal coverage and clients do not switch to 802.11g radio due to stronger signal strength.
With this, I have configured for 2.4 GHz band Min "15" and Max "21" and for 5GHz band Min "21" and Max "27". After applying this change, Aruba Central shows some IAPs are 15 (2.4GHz) and 23 (5GHz), some 21 (2.4GHz) and 23 (5GHz), one 21 (2.4GHz) and 20 (5GHz) and one 18 (2.4GHz) and 20 (5GHz).
With this result, I see clients would not be steered to the 5GHz band, at least in terms of coverage since the 5GHz band is not 6 dB more than the 2.4GHz band and it would have less coverage.
What changes would you do?