Wireless Access

We have two rooms where the clients that sit in near the middle of the room will always attach to the AP directly below them, but in doing so they have horrible performance issues lots of (my guess) reflection issues due to HVAC, and concrete / metal mesh in the floor.  There is a perfectly good AP in the room they are in, yet most of the time they will grab the one below them.

 

Is there anything hardware wise we can do to stop this from happening that would not have a negative effect for the room below?  Our APs are all drop ceiling mounted.

 

Thanks,

Dan

Are you able to adjust the "roaming agressiveness" setting in the end users device software?

---

@msales wrote:

Are you able to adjust the "roaming agressiveness" setting in the end users device software?

---

 

Not for our BYOD users - well atleast not very well :) - even then we are a school so we have so many users that use this area throughout the day...

 

Sometimes I wish these clients/APs had some eyes so they can see how stupid their association is :)

Are your APs vertically aligned?

---

@samuel.perez wrote:

Are your APs vertically aligned?

---

We have them off-set from floor to floor so they are "off-center" then staggered.  It is just so weird because we only see this issue in these two rooms (the joy of wifi…).   

Hi

 

I don't like that kind of deployment precisely for this reason. At times, devices connect to APs on different floors and you that causes trouble. I'd recommend you to align your APs vertically. However, as I understand that it might not be that easy, I would suggest you disable the lower data rates so that you can guarantee that all the clients connected to your WLAN do so with an acceptable service.

 

Regards

 

 

---

@samuel.perez wrote:

Hi

 

I don't like that kind of deployment precisely for this reason. At times, devices connect to APs on different floors and you that causes trouble. I'd recommend you to align your APs vertically. However, as I understand that it might not be that easy, I would suggest you disable the lower data rates so that you can guarantee that all the clients connected to your WLAN do so with an acceptable service.

 

Regards

 

 

---

What would this look like in a 3 level building?  do you have a diagram?  I know every building is different (especially when you are in a 110 year old building, as we are...)  

 

If that's the case (110 yr old building) I guess movin APs won't be an easy task, so try first elimitanting the slower data rates. If that weren't enough, just try to make sure that APs from floors 1, 2 and 3 are in as similar locations as possible. In this way, you more or less ensure that your clients will associate to the APs in their floors.

 

Regards

---

@samuel.perez wrote:

If that's the case (110 yr old building) I guess movin APs won't be an easy task, so try first elimitanting the slower data rates. If that weren't enough, just try to make sure that APs from floors 1, 2 and 3 are in as similar locations as possible. In this way, you more or less ensure that your clients will associate to the APs in their floors.

 

Regards

---

I have a bit of wiggle room with the APs :)  I guess the issue we have is the 3rd floor has 25ft peaked ceilings, and the floor below is 15ft drop ceiling :) ugh... well I guess I will play with the data rates, and test... then attempt to move them a bit and test...  Old buildings really suck...

 

I was really hoping for some magic paint or wire mesh!!! :)

Aligning APs vertically will get you into trouble with ARM. I don't recommend that. If you want to control RF propagation, use antennas that have the radiation pattern you want or leverage attenuation materials that will absorb a large amount of signal as it penetrates the ceiling.

---

@Ryan wrote:
Aligning APs vertically will get you into trouble with ARM. I don't recommend that. If you want to control RF propagation, use antennas that have the radiation pattern you want or leverage attenuation materials that will absorb a large amount of signal as it penetrates the ceiling.

---

To add to that, there is no feature on any controller or modification that will get you more out of Wifi than a good Rf design.  Some people use a number of access points every say 60  feet to cover an area with a certain building material; that principle also would follow vertically.  Do not have access points vertically 60 feet above each other.  If you cannot move that access point, make it an air monitor so that clients will attach to a closer access point on the existing floor.

 

Adaptive Radio Management is mainly to simplify channel planning in a good RF design; it can only do so much being that clients ultimately decide where they will attach....

 

With that being said, there is nothing wrong with a client attaching to an access point on the floor above or below unless it is causing performance issues.  Wifi is so bursty that the number of clients on an access point is a mere indicator of the potential of the loading of that access point.  We need to look at something more concrete like utilization to determine which access points are truly loaded.  Utilization is provided on the Dashboard in ArubaOS 6.1.x and above or in the radio tab in Airwave for that access point if Amon is enabled...