Hello Jon, Thanks for the input! Aruba’s ARM is frequently been cited as the poster child for dynamic channel plans. I am not using Aruba here but it is probably my next upgrade choice unless something better comes long.
Does ARM detect if an AP goes down and adjust TX power and/or channel accordingly? Were you ever able to identify your DFS source on channel 144? Our core facilities are near a regional airport that also serves the Air National Guard and I don’t see DFS timeouts. I have read that sometimes false positives can be generated in DFS channels and channel switches in response. Todd From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv [mailto:WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU] On Behalf Of Jonathan Miller Todd, We are an Aruba shop using dynamic channel plans. We let Aruba's ARM (Adaptive Radio Management) decide on the best channel for each radio, and in some cases, give it the ability to turn off a 2.4 radio if it detects that there's too much co-channel interference in an area. ARM will not switch channels if there is a client associated to a radio, except in the case of an emergency (DFS beacon, etc). We also let it pick the Tx power within a range that we specify (typically 12 - 15 EIRP on 5GHz, lower on the 2.4). ARM has some secret sauce about how it decides which channel is best, and has some parameters that we can tune, but we haven't really fiddled with the knobs too much. We are using DFS channels, but we haven't had complaints about clients that can't see them. I suspect that part of the reason that we haven't had complaints about dead spots is that we have a pretty dense deployment, so in our res halls, a client should be able to see at 3-4 APs, and the odds of all of them running on a channel that a given client does not support seems to be slim enough. Also, it may be that we just got lucky and don't have too many older 5GHz radios around that don't support all DFS channels. We have disabled channel 144 because we did see some beacon events on it, but all other 5GHz channels are enabled. ====================================================================== CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: The information contained in this message may be privileged and confidential. If this e-mail contains protected health information, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited, except as permitted by law. If you have received this communication in error, please notify the sender immediately by replying to this message and deleting it from your computer. Thank you ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/discuss.