Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Separate SSID for 5GHz band
Thanks for all the feedback. Our proposed plan would be to leave our campus wide SSID enabled on both bands with band steering enabled, then just enable a 5GHz only SSID in the dorms. We figured we would call the SSID UI-Wireless-5GHz rather than Fast or High Speed because that might set unrealistic expectations. If residents were having issues, we would ask them if they could connect to the 5GHz SSID and see if there was an improvement. If they can't see the SSID, we'd recommend they upgrade their wireless device. We are finding that Xbox and PS3 controller to console communication uses some sort of 2.4 FHSS communication. The console is broadcasting even when it is turned off. We've seen -60 dBm signal strength from a single Xbox. Get a whole building full of them among the other 2.4 stuff and we just don't think 2.4 is going to be usable. I doubt we could ban gaming consoles from the dorms ;-) -Neil -- Neil Johnson Network Engineer The University of Iowa Phone: 319 384-0938 Fax: 319 335-2951 Mobile: 319 540-2081 E-Mail: neil-john...@uiowa.edu On 7/7/11 6:53 PM, Holland, Ryan C. holland@osu.edu wrote: Band steering is favorable when you have similar coverage areas on both 2.4 and 5 ghz. That should be a given nowadays, however, with the adoption of 11n. I recommend folks evaluate their RF designs first prior to tinkering with these types of feature sets. Tune down your 2.4 so it's similar to your 5 ghz, THEN try band-steering. Otherwise, what John outlines will occur. === Ryan Holland Ohio State On Jul 7, 2011, at 7:22 PM, John Kaftan jkaf...@utica.edu wrote: We considered a 5Ghz SSID too but declined for the same reasons that Karl noted. Our vendor suggested band steering. We have only done minimal testing with band steering but it seems promising. I had 30 clients connected to a single AP in our testing with only 2.4 enabled. When I turned up the 5 Ghz band with band steering enabled all clients that were able (50%) went to 5 Ghz. I'd like to understand what happens when a decision needs to be made between 5 and 2.4, i.e. when 2.4 offers a better choice due to propagation. Would you rather connect at -90 dBm to 5 or -70 to 2.4? I have set the min RSSI to around 10 Mb for 5 Ghz thinking that I do not want them connecting to 5 Ghz no matter what. That should take care of it but I have not tested. John Kaftan Infrastructure Manager Utica College On 7/7/2011 11:16 AM, Karl Reuss wrote: On 7/7/2011 10:29 AM, Johnson, Neil M wrote: Has anyone here considered creating a separate SSID for the 5GHz band? The ideas is to encourage users to exclusively use 5 GHZ over 2.4. We've implemented band-steering, but it was suggested this would insure that users use 5GHz and not fall back to 2.4. We've had something like this in place for a long time now, with mixed results. Our main SSID is 'umd' which is on 2.4 and 5GHz. We also have a 'umd-fast' that is only on 5GHz. The idea was that people with 5Hgz cards would see the umd-fast SSID and would choose it due to the superior sounding name. If you couldn't tell your device to prefer 802.11a, umd-fast was an easy way to get it. Maybe we didn't do enough PR, but the -fast SSID seems to cause more questions and confusion than it's worth. With band-steering and OSs doing a better job of selecting bands, we will probably decommission the -fast SSID this summer. -Karl Reuss ** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/. ** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/. -- BEGIN-ANTISPAM-VOTING-LINKS -- Teach CanIt if this mail (ID 1222678676) is spam: Spam: https://antispam.osu.edu/b.php?i=1222678676m=ac618bf84df2c=s Not spam: https://antispam.osu.edu/b.php?i=1222678676m=ac618bf84df2c=n Forget vote: https://antispam.osu.edu/b.php?i=1222678676m=ac618bf84df2c=f -- END-ANTISPAM-VOTING-LINKS ** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/. ** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/.
Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Separate SSID for 5GHz band
We use a separate ssid for 5Ghz on our Ruckus devices. We mainly do it to provide N series devices a clear channel. By default, if they can't see the new ssid than they are using old stuff and we urge students to upgrade. Harry Rauch Sr. Network Analyst Eckerd College 4200 - 54th Ave S St. Petersburg, FL 33711 On 7/7/11 10:29 AM, Johnson, Neil M wrote: Has anyone here considered creating a separate SSID for the 5GHz band? The ideas is to encourage users to exclusively use 5 GHZ over 2.4. We've implemented band-steering, but it was suggested this would insure that users use 5GHz and not fall back to 2.4. Thanks. -Neil ** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/.
Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Separate SSID for 5GHz band
We considered a 5Ghz SSID too but declined for the same reasons that Karl noted. Our vendor suggested band steering. We have only done minimal testing with band steering but it seems promising. I had 30 clients connected to a single AP in our testing with only 2.4 enabled. When I turned up the 5 Ghz band with band steering enabled all clients that were able (50%) went to 5 Ghz. I'd like to understand what happens when a decision needs to be made between 5 and 2.4, i.e. when 2.4 offers a better choice due to propagation. Would you rather connect at -90 dBm to 5 or -70 to 2.4? I have set the min RSSI to around 10 Mb for 5 Ghz thinking that I do not want them connecting to 5 Ghz no matter what. That should take care of it but I have not tested. John Kaftan Infrastructure Manager Utica College On 7/7/2011 11:16 AM, Karl Reuss wrote: On 7/7/2011 10:29 AM, Johnson, Neil M wrote: Has anyone here considered creating a separate SSID for the 5GHz band? The ideas is to encourage users to exclusively use 5 GHZ over 2.4. We've implemented band-steering, but it was suggested this would insure that users use 5GHz and not fall back to 2.4. We've had something like this in place for a long time now, with mixed results. Our main SSID is 'umd' which is on 2.4 and 5GHz. We also have a 'umd-fast' that is only on 5GHz. The idea was that people with 5Hgz cards would see the umd-fast SSID and would choose it due to the superior sounding name. If you couldn't tell your device to prefer 802.11a, umd-fast was an easy way to get it. Maybe we didn't do enough PR, but the -fast SSID seems to cause more questions and confusion than it's worth. With band-steering and OSs doing a better job of selecting bands, we will probably decommission the -fast SSID this summer. -Karl Reuss ** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/. ** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/.
Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Separate SSID for 5GHz band
Band steering is favorable when you have similar coverage areas on both 2.4 and 5 ghz. That should be a given nowadays, however, with the adoption of 11n. I recommend folks evaluate their RF designs first prior to tinkering with these types of feature sets. Tune down your 2.4 so it's similar to your 5 ghz, THEN try band-steering. Otherwise, what John outlines will occur. === Ryan Holland Ohio State On Jul 7, 2011, at 7:22 PM, John Kaftan jkaf...@utica.edu wrote: We considered a 5Ghz SSID too but declined for the same reasons that Karl noted. Our vendor suggested band steering. We have only done minimal testing with band steering but it seems promising. I had 30 clients connected to a single AP in our testing with only 2.4 enabled. When I turned up the 5 Ghz band with band steering enabled all clients that were able (50%) went to 5 Ghz. I'd like to understand what happens when a decision needs to be made between 5 and 2.4, i.e. when 2.4 offers a better choice due to propagation. Would you rather connect at -90 dBm to 5 or -70 to 2.4? I have set the min RSSI to around 10 Mb for 5 Ghz thinking that I do not want them connecting to 5 Ghz no matter what. That should take care of it but I have not tested. John Kaftan Infrastructure Manager Utica College On 7/7/2011 11:16 AM, Karl Reuss wrote: On 7/7/2011 10:29 AM, Johnson, Neil M wrote: Has anyone here considered creating a separate SSID for the 5GHz band? The ideas is to encourage users to exclusively use 5 GHZ over 2.4. We've implemented band-steering, but it was suggested this would insure that users use 5GHz and not fall back to 2.4. We've had something like this in place for a long time now, with mixed results. Our main SSID is 'umd' which is on 2.4 and 5GHz. We also have a 'umd-fast' that is only on 5GHz. The idea was that people with 5Hgz cards would see the umd-fast SSID and would choose it due to the superior sounding name. If you couldn't tell your device to prefer 802.11a, umd-fast was an easy way to get it. Maybe we didn't do enough PR, but the -fast SSID seems to cause more questions and confusion than it's worth. With band-steering and OSs doing a better job of selecting bands, we will probably decommission the -fast SSID this summer. -Karl Reuss ** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/. ** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/. -- BEGIN-ANTISPAM-VOTING-LINKS -- Teach CanIt if this mail (ID 1222678676) is spam: Spam:https://antispam.osu.edu/b.php?i=1222678676m=ac618bf84df2c=s Not spam:https://antispam.osu.edu/b.php?i=1222678676m=ac618bf84df2c=n Forget vote: https://antispam.osu.edu/b.php?i=1222678676m=ac618bf84df2c=f -- END-ANTISPAM-VOTING-LINKS ** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/.
