Wireless Access

Hello,

At my company we upgraded to aruba 515 AP. We got around 8 of them but recently noticed that signal is really weak or that device is locked to one AP instead of connecting to another one. I could have full bar signal and then move to cross the room and I would have one bar or don't even detect wifi at all. Difference is one slim wall and 5m from full bar wifi. If you need any kind of information let me know because right now I don't know what is usefull 

Numerous factors can cause this, the first question would be what type of wall is this? RF is a line of sight technology. If something is obstructing this (such as a wall with a interior metal skeleton) then it will fail. 

What are the power settings configured for on each AP? What is the client device type?

The wall is made out of plasterboard and that room is confress room with two exits, each side has AP near it. Devices are phones, laptops, raspberry and etc.

No idea how to check the power settings for each AP, maybe this picture will be useful

FORGOT TO MENTION

Before this we had other brand AP and even less of them. No problem with the wifi

Power levels look okay, tho why are you using wide-bands in 2.4GHz? What client types are these? Was a RF plan completed?

I am not the who setuped this up so I can't answer you that question nor I know who could

any luck figuring this out? having a similar problem here.

Hi,

Nothing so far. I had issue with switching between multiple AP so I turned the fast roaming on but besides that nothing is fixed yet.

Which Software Version are you using?

Have you checked with tools like Ekahau if AP placement is optimal?

Comming from one vendor to another means often a replacement of APs. The different Antenna propagation could be one cause.

Which vendor and AP type did you used before?

Please use a tool like Ekahau to verify the RF spectrum. If you dont have a spectrum analyser you can download the free tool "WinFi Lite" from the Microsoft store.

Your image shows the 2.4GHz radio with channels '11-" etc. The "- and +'" seems like indicate that you probaly use 40Mhz bandwidth on the 2.4Ghz radio. Its strongly recommended to dont use 40mhz bandwidth on the 2.4GHz radio. Also note that the 2.4Ghz is "best effort" due to less available channels and lots of interfernce sources. Better use 5Ghz if you can.

First look with Ekahau (perfered) or with the free WinFi Lite toolto the next itemts:

• Client RSSI and SNR
• Radio 2.4 or 5, IEEE 802.11##
• Channel in use
• CCI (Co Channel Interfernce)
• Supported rates

Hello,

We hired a company that took all the measurements and planned optimal places for AP. I will try run that software and post results here later today

P.S We were using Ubiquite AP and it worked but it couldn't handle large user amount and we had less APs 

Is the AP Powered at POE+ 802.3at? Ap's go into a restricted mode if powered by POE only.

Yes, all APs are on POE. How do I check if its on POE+ 802.3at?

When the system status led is solid green the AP is powered the right way with POE+ (802.11at). If its amber (solid or flashing) the AP run in restricted power mode on POE (802.11af). Look at your switch documentation if its POE+ capable.

Did you have some result of the WinFi tool?

Tip. When look in the Winfi Lite tool and want to see things like basis rates, you have to put it in "pro view" in the right uper corner.

Okay we have both led indicators solid green. What do you get for decibels when standing directly underneath an access point? 

Thanks

That depends on some factors such like EIRP tx power, antenna gain, antenna pattern, etc. Theoretically is the signal strength a few meters next to the access point better than directly below it becaus of the antenna pattern of the internal antennes.

All is based on design and needs, but roughly your will plan the following from client perspective in an office environment:

• Signal Strength (RSSI) of client between -60 and -65dBm
• SNR of client between 30dBm and 25dBm

Whats ArubaOS firmware do you running?

LED with WiFi symbol is solid green. LED with power is flashling slowly green. I though I could run WinFi on windows 8.1 so I will do that on another laptop

P.S OthersAPs power light is blinking but slowly

Hi Lukas,

If the system status LED is flashing green, that means that it is not 1000Mbit negotiate. Probaly because the switch is a 100Mbit interface, speed negotiate, or a cable fault. Because an AP-515 can deliver much higher speeds to the clients its recommended to connect to an 1Gbps switch interface at least.

The Led statuses are documented in the installation guide.

https://support.arubanetworks.com/Documentation/tabid/77/DMXModule/512/Command/Core_Download/Default.aspx?EntryId=35506

I don't think the issue is with the speed.

If I am next to the AP I will be getting ~-50dBm but for example I could go to another room and it would be around -83dBm. Wall is made of plasterboard

Added pictures from WinFi Lite:

2.4 Ghz5 Ghz

• On 2.4GHz your channel utilization seem a bit high.
• On 5GHz never use 80MHz in a multi-AP / Enterprise environment.
• Channel 116 on 80Mhz is also in range of the TDWR weather radar (120-128), avoid this because it can block  the AP to transmit for 30 minutes if it seens a radar event (or false positive event).
• Did you do a accurate wall attenuation measurment, to known the exact attenuation of the wall? link