Optimal Meru AP Settings?

[pbad]

I have inherited a Meru Wireless network with 50 APs. The AP settings for all 50 Aps have been set as shown in the attachments and these settings have been the same since the school opened in 2015. The Meru wireless controller settings look very complicated and not as user friendly as the ruckus wireless controller that I am used to.

 

I am hoping that someone will be able to help me to increase the throughput of the APs or at least check the settings to see if they are ok.

[BKGarry]

Are all your APs on the same channel and do you have a map of their locations?

 

We initially had a Meru wireless network when this building was opened, and we found that the Virtual Cell/Port technology when everything was on the same channel had a performance hit when they were setup on their "Ideal" setup of all the same channel.

 

We had meru in, and they split them into 3 different channels and the performance was better. Just over a year ago I switched from the AGN Meru network to an AC unifi network, and the performance has been noticeably better, but I cannot tell you whether it is from going AC or from using Unifi, but I did go from 52 APs down to 41 and have a noticeably better performance for end users.

 

Do you have a valid support contract with Meru, although it was very expensive (I replaced all my APs for the cost of a Year and Half of the controller support) they are actually very good at it, and they even sent someone onsite here to do packet sniffing and adjust the network. It may be worth seeing if you can get that from them.

[pbad]

Are all your APs on the same channel and do you have a map of their locations?

 

We initially had a Meru wireless network when this building was opened, and we found that the Virtual Cell/Port technology when everything was on the same channel had a performance hit when they were setup on their "Ideal" setup of all the same channel.

 

We had meru in, and they split them into 3 different channels and the performance was better. Just over a year ago I switched from the AGN Meru network to an AC unifi network, and the performance has been noticeably better, but I cannot tell you whether it is from going AC or from using Unifi, but I did go from 52 APs down to 41 and have a noticeably better performance for end users.

 

Do you have a valid support contract with Meru, although it was very expensive (I replaced all my APs for the cost of a Year and Half of the controller support) they are actually very good at it, and they even sent someone onsite here to do packet sniffing and adjust the network. It may be worth seeing if you can get that from them.

 

Yes, all APs have been set to use channel 6 for RF band 802.11bgn and channel 36 for RF band 802.11ac. I also have a map of the AP locations. I'm not sure about the support contract as I'm still looking through the documentation.

[BKGarry]

As you are running "Native Cell" it is not using any of their "Virtualisation" technology, this could be causing you some issues.

 

I would look at your map and split the 2.4GHz between channels 1, 6 and 11 as that could be causing you overlap issues (unless virtual cell is turned on at the AP level)

 

With 5GHz I usually got between 36, 40 and 48 (there is not channel overlap on 5GHz I think, but don't quote me on that)

[pbad]

As you are running "Native Cell" it is not using any of their "Virtualisation" technology, this could be causing you some issues.

 

I would look at your map and split the 2.4GHz between channels 1, 6 and 11 as that could be causing you overlap issues (unless virtual cell is turned on at the AP level)

 

With 5GHz I usually got between 36, 40 and 48 (there is not channel overlap on 5GHz I think, but don't quote me on that)

 

Thanks for your suggestions. I will look into it after the Christmas break.

[BKGarry]

Probably best,

 

So their single channel tech, you have to have Virtual Cell and/or Virtual Port enabled, at the moment it looks like it isn't, so it is working the same as any other wireless network that has all the APs on the same channel.

 

I would check with your Finance team to see if you are paying for support, as they are (or used to be) really good.

[AlanD]

I am hoping that someone will be able to help me to increase the throughput of the APs or at least check the settings to see if they are ok.

 

This sounds like a sensible question to ask. But its not so easy to answer.

 

Getting the highest throughput to a single (or low number) of clients might be to use Meru's single cell technology and/or use wide 40MHz channels on both 2.4 and 5GHz bands.

 

BUT,

 

that wouldn't give the best performance when you might have several classes of users on neighbouring APs when you would almost certainly be better using narrow 20MHz channels and NOT using virtual cell technology - but using "layers" (Do Meru still call it that) on channels 1, 6 and 11 so that the load gets divided up and reducing the size of the collision domain. In this arrangement - a single client won't get such a high speed - but collectively- a lot more data will be getting through the APs. You might still be able to use 40MHz channels on 5GHz band especially if you include the DFS channels - but don't use a virtual cell.

 

Be wary of band steering and roaming/load balancing options. Both can cause problems for some clients. If the clients are relatively new, I find it works best letting clients manage this - because the firmware in the chip sets now tends to work as it was intended.

 

In the early days of 2.4GHz, the single cell solution brought definite advantages - and was good at mitigating against a potentially large collision domain. But its less clear that it has such advantages today. And roaming tends to be much better today with client chip sets.

 

Remember that getting the best out of the APs depends on the clients too. Not a great deal of benefit if your AP supports 3 concurrent streams (OK, don't too excited but that...as you need really good signal to noise ratio to get the spatial separation it demands even for 20% improvement) if your clients only have a single stream wireless adaptor.

 

And positioning the APs in the centre of classrooms makes a big difference for pushing data through the 5GHz band, when even a thin dividing wall (or body of child) can otherwise reduce the throughput to a measly 54 mb/s "g" data rate completely losing the ability to work at "n" rates.

 

And don't promise anyone that investing in brand new "ac2" access points will transform everything....because it won't...because you won't be able to use 80MHz or 160MHz channels...your clients probably don't support "ac2" anyhow - and even if some did, there would be other clients that don't which makes MU-MIMO perform worse than not having it. And as for those high QAM rates you need such a good signal to noise ration that you'll struggle to see any benefit. Yes - you will see some benefit...but it won't be as transformational as you might be hoping for....certainly not a replacement for wired PCs.

[AlanD]

Just taken a longer look at your configuration. I would definitely try changing the Channel width to 40MHz on the 5GHz radio (assuming that you have a dense deployment of access points and clients)...and I would probably turn beam forming on as you are using native cell (I would turn it off for virtual cell..). In the UK you struggle to get 3x80GHz channels without running into cochannel interference - and even then you have to use DFS channels - which with more distant access points are often misinterpreted as noise from radar/weather and so access points stop using them after a while. I'd want to see the configuration from all the access points - and check that the Channel allocation between neighbouring access points is sensible - and being selected automatically...and also that RF power is being managed automatically.

 

Are you saying that ALL your APs have the SAME channel and power settings? (This might be true if you wanted to use their virtual cell technology...but not if you are using "normal" channel use). Is it possible to set the channel and power settings to be automatic?

Edited December 18, 2018 by AlanD

[pbad]

Just taken a longer look at your configuration. I would definitely try changing the Channel width to 40MHz on the 5GHz radio (assuming that you have a dense deployment of access points and clients)...and I would probably turn beam forming on as you are using native cell (I would turn it off for virtual cell..). In the UK you struggle to get 3x80GHz channels without running into cochannel interference - and even then you have to use DFS channels - which with more distant access points are often misinterpreted as noise from radar/weather and so access points stop using them after a while. I'd want to see the configuration from all the access points - and check that the Channel allocation between neighbouring access points is sensible - and being selected automatically...and also that RF power is being managed automatically.

 

Are you saying that ALL your APs have the SAME channel and power settings? (This might be true if you wanted to use their virtual cell technology...but not if you are using "normal" channel use). Is it possible to set the channel and power settings to be automatic?

 

Yes, all APs have the same channel and power settings. There is no automatic option for setting the channel and no automatic option for setting the power.

[BKGarry]

How many clients are we talking about here, as I think that with native cell and all the same channel you are going to be having collision issues.

 

Do you have a map you can PM over? As I may be able to give you pointers on what APs to set to what channel, as you are going to be having issues, I am pretty sure of it.

[AlanD]

Yes, all APs have the same channel and power settings. There is no automatic option for setting the channel and no automatic option for setting the power.

 

Really...

 

Perhaps meru focused all their efforts into single cell solution...and didn’t put much effort into the wireless controller.

 

I would have expected an enterprise wireless solution to arbitrate and decide on channel selection and power automatically depending on what each access point can see as being a neighbour.

 

If you have set them manually...did you say you had 50..then you are going to be busy....and you are probably going to need something to measure signal strength...possibly an android phone app...to adjust the power settings of each AP and do a lot of walking....and then you might decide to move some APs to better locations.

 

Perhaps someone who uses Meru will tell you there is a better way...

[SpaceInvader83]

I'm afraid manual channel maps and tweaking of power settings is the only way (On our Meru system anyway). Depending on how dense your AP's are located you may find even powering off some of your AP's may actually be helpful.

[abrigham]

You are using the 800 series which is by far their best AP. If you configure Virtual Cell correctly you will get unprecedented WiFi for high density.

[AlanD]

You are using the 800 series which is by far their best AP. If you configure Virtual Cell correctly you will get unprecedented WiFi for high density.

 

Even firtinet/Meru doesn’t claim this...and they have been into schools to switch it back to native cells with lower power and smaller collision domains to improve performance. But there are circumstances...such as if you can guarantee most of your clients support ac or ac2 that using a single 160 or even 80 MHz Channel can be very effective....and certainly easier to manage..

[AklEngineer]

I'm afraid manual channel maps and tweaking of power settings is the only way (On our Meru system anyway). Depending on how dense your AP's are located you may find even powering off some of your AP's may actually be helpful.

 

Depending on the Controller System Director software that is runinng on the controller, you could enable ARRP to allow the system to automatically adjust the transmit power and channels. Have a look at this page, there is a section towards the 2nd half of the page that talks about Native Cell - https://cookbook.fortinet.com/configuring-virtual-cell-and-native-cell/

 

The other option, as some other have mentioned, is to switch it to use Virtual Cell.