Wireless Access

Hello

I notice that on the last firmware 6.4 i think its on 6.3 at some point that all the channels in any country is available  when it was not like that before

For example

In PA you could see that the valid channel on 802.11a are  36,40,44,48,149,153,157,161,165

Now its another history.

If i create a new  ap system profile and select PA again i can see ALL the channels available i mean from the channel 36 to channel 165 without unselecting any by default.

Is this because 802.11ac? or this is for another reason?

I noticed this becuase i was installing a controller and there was an client that didnt want to connect to 5ghz band.   I notice that the AP was on  channel 112, which i find odd.

I manually unselect those DFS channels and then the AP selected the channel 48 and then the device was able to connect to 5ghz.

Can anyone enlight me in this topic???

Cheers

Carlos

The most likely thing to have happened is that 6.4 has a new set of regulatory profiles that supports more channels on a model of AP that you are using.  Every device has to be certified by various agencies in the governments where they operate, and this takes more time for things like DFS channels which have to pass compatibility tests with radar.

If you do not want DFS channels appearing when this support is added, remove them from your configured rf regulatory-domain-profile.  After that, you can still view the supported channels with this command:

show ap allowed-channels country-code US ap-type AP-225

..for your country and any given model of AP.

Yeah i know i remove those channel, and thats what i did as you could read in the initial post.

Guess that the new set of regulatory profiles are because of the  new 802.11ac?

Anyways for now you seems have to be more careful went configuring as now you have to take in mind which channels you have to get rid of in the profile...

A good example is what happened to me.   For some reason the device i was using were not able to use channel 112.

Now i wonder if that will stay like that? 

Cheers

Carlos

You don't need 11ac to use DFS channels.  11n has them, except for 144-.

If you look at the config before the upgrade, did you already have a non-default "ap regulatory-domain-profile" in there, or were you using "default"?  These profiles say which channels to use, not which ones to exclude -- the GUI just makes it look that way.  It would surprise me if support for new channels causes alterations to profiles other than "default".  So if you configure with a non-default "ap regulatory-domain-profile" that only includes the non-DFS channels then no new channels should be used on upgrade.  It may perhaps not even alter "default" if you have modified it.

If i come from a 6.2 version for example it maintain what it has...

But if i create a new profile it select all the channels on 5ghz band.

A new controller  a 7010 that got out of the box  with 6.4.1.0 it has all the channels on 5ghz.  If you create a new profile  with any country same thing happen.

My controller on the office which is a old 620 with 6.3.1.7 if you create a new profile it select all the 5ghz channels.   But like i said i have been upgrading and yes it does not change it.

And im aware that this profile says which channel to use, i never though it was otherwise

Maybe my bad english send you the wrong idea sorry, my bad.    Hope it more clear for you now what i was posting before??

All i want to know is why of all the sudden you get all channels on 5ghz band selected, when it was not like that before.

Before they had the DFS channels unselected.

As i understand what you said is because there was a new regulatory profiles updates that support more channels, right?

Cheers

Carlos

Ah, so if I get you right, you are wondering just why the defaults for a new profile changed in the GUI?

If I create a new regulatory domain profile at the CLI on 6.4.0.2 6.4.2.0 and type "country code US", only

the non-DFS channels get added by default.  I do not know whether this is a copy of "default" or built-in values, but I'm not about to change "default" to find out.

Well yes you are right

It works with US...

My controller is RW so i never tried putting US...

But if i try with CA, with my country which is PA(and we use whataver US use in this things) with old versions our channels were identical as US...and thats how it should be... 

Also Canada(not sure if it should be like it but it was)

I try selecting over 10 countries and in all 10 countries you can see ALL th 5ghz channel selected! Now i wonder if this is correct???

Thanks for pointing me this.  Now i know US works like it should!

By the way im using 6.4.2.1 on a 7010

Cheers

Carlos

That sounds fishy, I'd ask TAC.

Also, if your customer can afford to experiment, there is an off chance advertising the country code with dot11h beacon fields may allow some clients to use channels that their firmware tells them not to by default.