MR42 Frequent Channel changes with Firmware MR 25.11

[dmo]

MR 42 and MR66 have worked flawlessly until this last firmware of MR25.11 on June 9th.  Event logs show "Channel change to improve network performance", which drops clients when this takes place.  Prior to June 9, I very rarely saw this in the logs, after updated firmware it is happening about every hour to hour and half.  No configuration changes have been made to the network, haven't had to touch it as it has worked flawlessly until after the update.  I have now removed the auto channel change to manual and lowered the transmit power to solve the issue. 

  Is anyone else having this issue?  Has the algorithms for the auto channel, network performance been changed within this new firmware?  

Time Client Event type Details

Jun 20 17:03:42		Auto RF channel change	Channel changed to improve network performance  more »
Jun 20 14:49:11	Android-93	802.11 disassociation	client not authenticated
Jun 20 12:34:10		Auto RF channel change	Channel changed to improve network performance  more »
Jun 20 12:17:58		Auto RF channel change	Channel changed to improve network performance  more »
Jun 20 12:15:41	iPhone	802.11 disassociation	client association expired
Jun 20 12:10:43	iPhone	WPA authentication
Jun 20 12:10:43	iPhone	802.11 association	channel: 56, rssi: 6
Jun 20 09:47:55		Auto RF channel change	Channel changed to improve network performance  « hide New_Channel 56/80 Old_Channel 149/80 Radio 1
Jun 20 08:33:09		Auto RF channel change	Channel changed to improve network performance  « hide New_Channel 1/20 Old_Channel 6/20 Radio 0
Jun 20 07:33:17	Nathans-iPhone	802.11 disassociation	client association expired
Jun 20 07:28:04	Nathans-iPhone	802.11 association	channel: 149, rssi: 7
Jun 20 07:02:09		Auto RF channel change	Channel changed to improve network performance  « hide New_Channel 149/80 Old_Channel 64/80 Radio 1
Jun 20 06:47:05		Auto RF channel change	Channel changed to improve network performance  « hide New_Channel 6/20 Old_Channel 11/20 Radio 0
Jun 20 02:34:02		Auto RF channel change	Channel changed to improve network performance  « hide New_Channel 11/20 Old_Channel 1/20 Radio 0

[PhilipDAth · Accepted solution]

It sounds like your clients are not coping with roaming requests when the channel changes.

I would try going Wireless/Radio Settings and creating a new RF profile based of one of the options that comes up in the wizard.  Then apply that profile to the APs.

[dmo]

Thank you for responding,

  The I now have implemented the RF profile from the default profile to classroom, and set everything I changed back to auto, and to run off of the classroom RF profile.  Something has changed with this past update to cause these issues.  This system has worked flawlessly from when I installed back in November 2017.  50 AP's and 400 to 1,000 people on campus with no issues until after this update.  Frustrated, but chalk it up to job security!  Thanks again for your help!

[TimHughSmith]

Did anyone ever get any more information about the actual event:

"Channel changed to improve network performance"

It seems proactive to optimise..

It's not channel jammed - there is another event for that where AutoRF will change chan

It's not DFS - there is another event there too..

I've found a few posts about this..
One of them mentions that Support can revert some of the aggressiveness of the AutoRF changes..

I.e. don't change it while clients are active (apparently this used to be the old behaviour).

There was also the suggestion of having an AutoRF freeze / black out period (makes a lot of sense to me).

I've got a case open and have asked these questions, will see how we go.

Curious to know if anyone else is having similar problems still?