Meraki WiFi does slow downloads and fast uploads on symmetrical fiber

[RumorConsumer]

Hi there!

I have a network literally out in the middle of nowhere in Northern California. Its a property out in Mendocino with a bunch of houses and some cabins on a 160 acre plot. We have 100mbit fiber wired into 3 of the buildings which are topped with MR74s and then I have a mix of MR52s and MR34s and the odd MR33 and MR42 here and there meshing it up to provide coverage.

So no other wireless traffic. 

The weird thing is that straight from the switch over ethernet I can pull 99mbit up and down no problem. I can do the same plugging in another 3P router like an Asus into the switch. I go 20 feet away and get on a solid Wifi signal through a Meraki AP and i get 50mbit down (spikes higher here and there but nothing consistent) and 95mbit up. So its not like the link can't handle it. I looked at the channel utilization and all are "very low" as there are maybe 30 people here at any given time using very light internet - mail, iMessage, some internet. There is no conceivable reason we should be seeing such low download. And its consistent around the property - in an area where signal to a MR74 (gateway) is strong and good its about that 1:2 ratio, same for when I get on a repeater a ways away, it may be 10 down 20 up but that 1:2 ratio is pretty consistent. 

I had heard that maybe my radios were overpowering my clients? I have it all set to auto on the APs. My clients are a mix of modern Apple portables and iOS devices which have no trouble elsewhere. 

Thanks in advance.

[PhilipDAth]

You definately haven't enabled traffic shapping on the APs?

https://documentation.meraki.com/MR/Firewall_and_Traffic_Shaping/Traffic_and_Bandwidth_Shaping

Are the switch and AP negotiating the same speed/duplex?

Any errors on the switch port?

[RumorConsumer]

First of all - thank you for being such a consistent voice here. You reply to a lot of people in need from what Ive seen and are willing to admit when you're wrong. 

And that is correct - no traffic shaping. 

And interesting question on the link speed and yes just verified its full duplex 100mbit or gigabit depending on where on the property we are.

[PhilipDAth]

Thanks!

Oops, missed the bit about the speed/duplex being verified as working.

Does Wireless Health have anything interesting to say?

https://documentation.meraki.com/MR/Wireless_Health

[PhilipDAth]

Do you know what channel width is being used?  I think I would be trying 40Mhz for the 5Ghz band in your case.  Is the client connecting on 5Ghz?

[RumorConsumer]

It varies. Its set on auto. So 80mhz right now near and connected to an MR84 atop this building. In other parts of the property I think it drops to 40mhz in some cases.

I tried setting the outdoor profile to 20mhz on 5ghz and it seemed to kill link speed to clients aside from APs that were connected to outdoor APs. And everybody complained the moment I changed it 🙂 

It did seem to minorly help the bandwidth situation. 

And yes looking at my clients 95% of them are on 5ghz.

[PhilipDAth]

Perhaps try 40Mhz as a middle ground. 

[Uberseehandel]

This diagram shows the relationship between channel width and available channel numbers.

One should remember that not all WiFi enabled devices can transmit on all the theoretically available channels, so it is theoretically possible that a device might receive a 40 MHz wide channel but only transmit on a 20 MHz channel. This asymmetric behaviour will result in considerable variances in upload and download performance. Also, I cannot recall if the Little River (?) airport has weather radar operating, but it is possible that some parts of your property are more influenced by that than other parts.

Remember, no matter how sophisticated the AP, the client device will limit what is possible.

[RumorConsumer]

Here is a real time snapshot... slightly less robust part of the network.