New MR 29.1 Beta - new release chain with WPN, more IPv6, new band steering & client balancing tech

cmr
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

New MR 29.1 Beta - new release chain with WPN, more IPv6, new band steering & client balancing tech

Wireless firmware versions MR 29.1 changelog

Important note

  • Meraki APs use UDP port 7351 for cloud communication and TCP ports 80 and 443 for backup communications when running MR 27 and older firmware. When running MR 28+ firmware, Meraki APs will now use TCP port 443 as the primary means for cloud connectivity. In order to maintain connectivity to the Meraki cloud on MR 28+ ensure that TCP port 443 is allowed to communicate with 209.206.48.0/20 on firewalls that are deployed upstream of your Meraki APs. (Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E APs)

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.

New

Bug fixes

  • General stability and performance improvements (Wi-Fi 5 Wave 2, Wi-Fi 6, and Wi-Fi 6E MRs)
  • AP intermittently stops redirecting HTTP Traffic to the Splash page prior to Splash page login (Wi-Fi 5 Wave 2 and Wi-Fi 6 APs)
  • Enabling FIPS may cause issues with RADIUS authentication (Wi-Fi 6 APs)
  • AP may stop publishing MQTT updates until rebooted (Wi-Fi 5 Wave 2 APs)
  • When an Apple client enters an incorrect PSK the AP responds with a disassociation response instead of deauthentication response, resulting in multiple failed connection attempts from the client (Wi-Fi 5 Wave 2 APs)
  • AP may experience DHCP failures on 2.4 GHz WPA2 Enterprise SSIDs (MR42)
  • AP may not sync PMKs on WPA3 Enterprise SSIDs configured with OKC (Wi-Fi 5 Wave 2, Wi-Fi 6, and Wi-Fi 6E APs)
  • Client average latency values may be missing for some clients (Wi-Fi 6 APs)
  • Meraki Auth does not work when an SSID is configured to Tunnel data to a concentrator (Wi-Fi 6 APs)
  • AP configured with an iPSK and 802.11r SSID, without RADIUS, fails to apply policies when a client roams to a new AP (Wi-Fi 5 Wave 2 and Wi-Fi 6 APs)
  • AP may reboot when detecting a very high number of DFS events (Wi-Fi 6 APs)
  • Client capability may be incorrectly reported as 2.4 GHz only (Wi-Fi 5 Wave 2 and Wi-Fi 6 APs)
  • Channel and channels widths not available in Indonesia regulatory domain (Wi-Fi 6 APs)
  • Under certain conditions an AP may not respond to ICMP requests (pings) destined for its Management IP (Wi-Fi 5 Wave 2 and Wi-Fi 6 APs)
  • AP may reboot when configured with more than 50 iPSK SSIDs (Wi-Fi 5 Wave 2 APs)
  • AP running in dark mode may still have the ethernet port LED light on (Wi-Fi 6 APs)
  • AP may not show all SSID spoof events in Dashboard (Wi-Fi 5 Wave 2 and Wi-Fi 6 APs)
  • Multicast traffic received on wired interface may Not be forwarded to clients on LAN (MR30H)
  • AP on channel 100/104 may show high channel utilization with no clients connected (Wi-Fi 5 Wave 2)
  • MT sensors unable to connect to MR42E and MR53E
  • Enable MT14 TVOC data to be sent via MQTT

Known issues

  • Sporadic packet loss & instability on Layer 3 roaming & Teleworker VPN SSID's (Wi-Fi 5 Wave 2 and Wi-Fi 6 APs)
  • No DHCP response error is seen after a client performs a successful L3 roam (Wi-Fi 5 Wave 2 and Wi-Fi 6 APs)
  • AP performance may degrade over time (Wi-Fi 6 APs)
  • AP may stop broadcasting beacons on WPA2 configured SSID (MR53E)
  • AP may loose Cloud connectivity for an interval of time (Wi-Fi 6 APs)
  • SES-imagotag ESL status may display as gray even when ESL is functioning normally (Wi-Fi 5 Wave 2 and Wi-Fi 6 APs)
7 REPLIES 7
cmr
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

I have been running it on an MR55 and MR56 for a month as part of the MR29 early access program.  As a note, I have not seen either the 3rd or 5th known issue.  The others would not have applied to my configuration anyway.

ww
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

Still no owe?

kNeil
Meraki Employee
Meraki Employee

Yes, OWE is supported. Just make sure you are in "New Version" of the Wireless-->Access Control page to see the option

pjc
A model citizen

It would be good to know exactly what the 'enhancements' are to client balancing, band steering and mesh networking...for example, for my clients, band steering has not previously been always reliable

cmr
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

It is a new set of algorithms that at the moment are simply meant to be more stable, but are being developed to be more active.  I normally turn client band steering off, but haven't had the usual issues with it on when using 29.1.

JohnD
Getting noticed

FWIW I'm noticing 29.1's proactive steering being more than just at association can cause a lot of client bouncing between APs if the AP steering is incorrect.

 

I have a space in my home where the AP strongly believes it's appropriate to steer to an upstairs AP, but the client sees that as -87dBm RSSI instead of -60 to the closest AP which happens to be more loaded. That takes throughput down from 400mbps to 90mbps and the client desperately wants to roam back to the primary AP. On 29.1 this is resulting in every 2-3 minutes trying to steer the client back to the other AP and the client being unhappy 30 seconds later and roaming back to the correct AP.

 

Just like before 29.x, I would highly highly recommend keeping band steering / client balancing OFF unless you notice issues with your clients. Modern Windows/Android/iOS clients are smart and look at the QBSS load element in the beacons to decide which AP is correct. AP-side steering is fraught with peril because how well the AP can hear the client may not correlate with how the client can hear the AP.

RaphaelL
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

Will this fix our invalid_pmkid with IOS devices : 

  • AP may not sync PMKs on WPA3 Enterprise SSIDs configured with OKC (Wi-Fi 5 Wave 2, Wi-Fi 6, and Wi-Fi 6E APs)

Fingers crossed ! 

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