MR29.1 Release Ready For Public Beta - Get Ready For More Meraki Innovations

tmastrangelo
Meraki Alumni (Retired)
Meraki Alumni (Retired)

MR29.1 Release Ready For Public Beta - Get Ready For More Meraki Innovations

Do you want to create some #Merakimagic with your Wi-Fi network?  We’ve got some really cool features coming out with our next firmware release - MR29.1 - ready now for public beta.

 

While this release offers a host of enhancements, the top features that I am most excited about include Wireless Personal Network (WPN), Band Steering & Client Balancing, as well as expanded IoT support.

 

Top Features:

 

  • Wireless Personal Network (WPN) - offering the ability to segment the wireless network on a per-user basis to provide a home-like personal network experience on a shared network (single VLAN).  This feature is particularly well suited for shared environments such as university dorms, hotels, senior homes, etc. 

Do you have a high-density environment in which users complain about performance issues?  MR29.1 adds both Band Steering and Client Balancing to optimize performance and improve the user experience.  

 

  • Band Steering  detects clients capable of 5GHz operation and steers them to that frequency, leaving the more crowded 2.4GHz band available for legacy clients; while Client Balancing uses information about the state of the network and wireless client probes to steer the client to the best available access point - improving download and upload performance while reducing loss and latency for mission-critical applications.  

This is a WIN-WIN for everyone! 🙌

 

Are you wondering what do you do with that USB port on your MR57?  How about some IoT applications! One in particular is Electronic Shelf Labels (ESL):

 

  • MR29.1 offers Expanded IoT Support via USB port (6E APs only) for SoluM and Hanshow USB gateways.

Other features include enhancements to Mesh Networking and IPv6

 

If you need more information on how to manage your firmware upgrades, check out this article or the FAQs page on firmware.

19 REPLIES 19
redsector
Head in the Cloud

🤔I m pretty shure that band steering ist available on earlier MR versions.

WB
Building a reputation

As cmr has confirmed it seems they have re-worked the underlying algorithm so maybe they are treating this a re-launch of Band Steering rather than an improvement/optimisation?

 

They have detailed the changes on their Band Steering page

cmr
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

@redsector indeed...  it is a new algorithm for bandsteering that should produce more reliable results.  It is planned to be further updated once proved stable.

redsector
Head in the Cloud

I updated to 29.2 and its running very well.

WB
Building a reputation

I note 'AP may loose Cloud connectivity for an interval of time (Wi-Fi 6 APs)' as a Known Issue within the relase notes! If this is the 'random AP drop offs from Meraki Dashboard' issue many have reported I am also hoping for a fix for that in the not-too-distant future!

cmr
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

This is being fixed in 29.2, though I have had some WiFi6 APs running it for over a month and haven't seen the problem...

WB
Building a reputation

I had a good run recently but had about 10 randomly drop off the other day, a reboot brought them back but still 😞

Malarkey_MX
Here to help

When will this known issue be addressed:

 

- Sporadic packet loss & instability on Layer 3 roaming & Teleworker VPN SSID's (Wi-Fi 5 Wave 2 MRs/Wi-Fi 6 MRs)

GertC
Conversationalist

What MR support MR29.1 ?

GertC
Conversationalist

And important to add.. also can take advantage of the features of the new firmware

cmr
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

As per my post with the release notes in:

 

Legacy product notice

  • When configured for this version MR12, MR16, MR18, MR24, MR26, MR32, MR34, MR62, MR66, and MR72 will run MR 26.8.3.

In terms of new features the release notes hold some more information and so does @Fabian1's post.

Fabian1
Getting noticed

Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax) 

MR45, MR55, MR36, MR44, MR46, MR46E. MR56, MR76, MR86, MR57

MR 29.1 or newer

Wi-Fi 5 Wave 2 (802.11ac Wave 2)

MR20, MR30H, MR33, MR42, MR42E, MR52, MR53, MR53E, MR70, MR74, MR84

Fabian1
Getting noticed

Looks like we have to separate networks to get the new features running...

Unfortunately if you have just one "legacy" AP, you can't activate WPN.

RaphaelL
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

How long can we expect 29.1 to be Stable RC ? I want to try it , but our change management they don't like anything labeled as 'beta' 😞 

tmastrangelo
Meraki Alumni (Retired)
Meraki Alumni (Retired)

Release 29.4 is the planned GA version - currently scheduled for November 2022.

 

Thanks for the reply 🙂 

now we have 29.2 and it´s working better than all versions before.

TimHughSmith
Getting noticed

Hey all, Anyone running 29.2 in high density? or medium density?

We are on 28.6 right now. (MR56, MR30H, MR42 mainly).

Running 28.6.1 on 144 MR56. They are roughly 30 feet apart across 8 floors using VLAN for each floor. I've implemented 5GHz band steering and for the most part it to place systems on 5Ghz. Also changed radio profile to reduce power and increase bit rate as much as possible to support legacy systems and iPhones. Its 100% wireless shop with about 800 computers but still get some users mainly complain MS Teams meetings. I haven't implemented L3 roaming yet but seems like some systems connect to other floors. They get IP for that VLAN but signal to computer is low so I'm not sure L3 roaming would help with that. On my work laptop I changed the wireless adapter driver settings to roaming aggressiveness to high, transmit power to medium, and 5Ghz preferred because there were a few areas that I noticed that I still got 2Ghz. When no one is in the building I can see the LED go from green to blue within seconds and latency may jump a bit while it changes but nothing real bad. Only concern is that the driver settings on systems might be a little more challenging to change.

 

The other annoying issue is that he APs loose connection to the dashboard. I've contacted Meraki about this and they said that its a known issue and new firmware should address it. I was also informed from Meraki that reboot needed to be done because it APs would have performance issues after about 2 months. Since we have MS switches I was able to put in a port schedule on the uplink ports to do it on a weekly basis. Unfortunately the port schedule settings don't have a monthly setting so that was the longest period I could schedule.

 

If you are running med or high density, I'm curious on what your experience has been.

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