Don, I did some testing of four client interfaces in the spring when we had identified this issue (I've been meaning to post about this for a while, but spare time has been hard to come by), and collected the test results in a spreadsheet.
The two bga interfaces were not able to associate with UNII-2e channels. Of the two bgan interfaces, one worked with UNII-2e channels and the other did not. To make the test info available I have created a Google spreadsheet which can be found at: http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pvI5m65uYyGaZlGrZV7fxFA One of my goals is to make it possible for others to add their test data to the Google spreadsheet, so that everyone can benefit from the info collected on the channel support levels for 5 GHz clients It looks like Google has an automatic form creator to help automate the process of collecting data in a spreadsheet, so I will try sending that form to the wireless-lan list and see what happens. -Charles Charles E. Spurgeon / UTnet UT Austin ITS / Networking [EMAIL PROTECTED] / 512.475.9265 On Wed, Sep 10, 2008 at 09:05:43PM -0400, Don Wright wrote: > Charles, > I'd be interested to know which client/drivers you've already tested > this with. Maybe others have some as well to add to a list of either > working or not. Thanks, > > -- > Don Wright > Brown University > CIS - NTG > > > > On 9/10/08 10:41 AM, "Charles Spurgeon" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > FYI. This documents something that we have stumbled over with UNII-2e > > channels and is a "heads up" for anyone running Cisco LWAPP gear and > > using the auto channel selection component of RRM ("Dynamic Channel > > Assignment" (DCA) in Cisco-speak). > > > > The Cisco WLC release notes for v4.1.185.0 have an important caveat > > (CSCsi86794) that describes the behavior of DCA and the UNII-2 > > Extended channels (UNII-2e).(1) For some reason this caveat is missing > > in 4.2.130.0 release notes, while the DCA issue still appears to be > > present in that code. (Based on the text in the 4.1.185.0 release > > notes the UNII-2e support appears to have first shown up in > > 4.1.171.0.) > > > > Briefly, Cisco has added support for the UNII-2e channels to the > > wireless lan controller and LWAPP APs, and these channels are > > automatically enabled for use by DCA. > > > > As a result of the new support, AP radios may be automatically > > assigned by DCA to one of the UNII-2e channels. We found several > > radios in our system where that had happened. > > > > Unfortunately, none of the 802.11a clients that we have tested know > > about the UNII-2e channels, and therefore most (all?) 802.11a clients > > cannot associate with AP radios that have been assigned to the UNII-2e > > channels. An AP radio on one of those channels is no longer available > > to dot11a clients and your wireless coverage will have holes in it > > even though the AP is up and system monitors are happy. > > > > If the client NIC has an 802.11an radio then it may have support for > > the UNII-2e channels. You would need to test against an AP radio set > > to one of the UNII-2e channels to find out, since the vendor docs that > > we have looked at don't tend to have any documentation about the > > presence or absence of UNII-2e support. > > > > To avoid this issue, Cisco's release notes tell you to disable the > > UNII-2e channels in DCA. However, the release notes incorrectly tell > > you to also disable channel 149, which is NOT one of the UNII-2e > > channels. Instead, it is one of the older channels that is supported > > by all 802.11a NICs that we've tested. > > > > If you want to avoid issues with AP radios being set to UNII-2e > > channels that are invisible to clients then you can do that by > > disabling all DCA channels in the UNII-2e range of 100-140. > > > > Note that when you disable these channels using either the CLI or the > > Web GUI the AP radios must be disabled and then re-enabled to make > > that change. > > > > We would be interested in hearing about the experience at other sites > > with UNII-2e channels, especially the results of any tests of UNII-2e > > support in clients. > > > > Thanks, > > > > -Charles > > > > Charles E. Spurgeon / UTnet > > UT Austin ITS / Networking > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] / 512.475.9265 > > > > (1) The UNII-2e channels appear to be relatively recent > > additions. This Cisco doc mentions them in the context of DFS support > > requirements: http://tinyurl.com/yq7y9r > > > > ********** > > 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/.
