Cisco Wireless 8821 phones sporadically lose Wireless Connection

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Rahul_Wankhade
Comes here often

Cisco Wireless 8821 phones sporadically lose Wireless Connection

Hi All,

 

Need some urgent assistance here. We have 4 Wireless VOIP Phones 8821. We are facing frequently disconnection issue. 

 

Meraki AP model -  MR42, Connected VOIP phone signal strength is -50 dBm which is good I guess. 

 

VOIP Phones verizon -  sip8821.11-0-5SR3-2

CUCM Version - System version: 11.5.1.15900-18

Meraki APs Version - MR25.13

SSID authentication : 802.1x 

 

What could be cause ? Only issue with VOIP phones no other devices all are working fine. 

 

Regards,

Rahul Wankhade

 

Regards,
Rahul Wankhade
1 Accepted Solution
cmr
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

@Rahul_Wankhade we have a load of 8821s and 26.x/27.x is much better than 25.x. Upgrade now and if you do happen to see any issues that are worse than what you currently have, you have 3 weeks to rollback

If my answer solves your problem please click Accept as Solution so others can benefit from it.

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9 Replies 9
MerakiDave
Meraki Employee All-Star Meraki Employee All-Star
Meraki Employee All-Star

Thanks @Rahul_Wankhade for the details, but it could be any number of things.  Is a case open with Meraki Support to start digging into your wireless configuration, confirm the right settings, best practices are being followed, 802.11r status, minimum bit rates, band steering, etc?  Was a pre-deployment site survey completed, or at least some type of VoIP readiness assessment and config review completed?  The -50 dBm might be great, or might not be, also depends on a few variables and your specific RF environment, but hopefully you have a continuous -67 dBm throughout the environment.  Check that any/all QoS configs are set up properly, on the wired side too.  Run latency tests and make sure things are within range, etc.  Try to collect whatever data points you can and mention all of them when opening a case.  Did you come up with a channel plan based on the 8821?  Are you band steering to 5GHz?  Do you have DFS channels enabled, and if so, confirmed if and which of those channels are running in your deployment versus what the phones support, and if there's a mismatch, tried disabling DFS channels to re-test?  Have you tried a newer firmware with as the latest GA 26.8.1 and/or reviewed the corresponding release notes between your 25.13 and 26.8?  Sorry lots of questions, just throwing out some thoughts on things to consider or perform in conjunction with opening a case.  

Rahul_Wankhade
Comes here often

Hi Thank you!

 

How will enable 802.11r we are using Layer 3 roaming mode there is no option under SSID. Also can you please share best practices for Meraki Wireless, SO will fine tune the our meraki wireless network.  

Regards,
Rahul Wankhade
cmr
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

Hi @Rahul_Wankhade , do you have different VLANs/subnets behind the SSID that the 8821s are connected to?  If not, change from layer 3 roaming to bridged mode.  This will then allow 802.11r and is much better for roaming anyway.

If my answer solves your problem please click Accept as Solution so others can benefit from it.
DarrenOC
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

Hi @Rahul_Wankhade 

 

Wish Cisco had never End Of Lifed the 7925’s. The 8821’s have been trouble ever since they came out, bug fix after bug fix.

 

Take a look through this deployment guide for the 8821’s.  There’s even a section in there for Meraki.

 

https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/cuipph/8821/english/Deployment/8821_wlandg.p...

Darren OConnor | doconnor@resalire.co.uk
https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrenoconnor/

I'm not an employee of Cisco/Meraki. My posts are based on Meraki best practice and what has worked for me in the field.
cmr
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

@Rahul_Wankhade we have a load of 8821s and 26.x/27.x is much better than 25.x. Upgrade now and if you do happen to see any issues that are worse than what you currently have, you have 3 weeks to rollback

If my answer solves your problem please click Accept as Solution so others can benefit from it.
Rahul_Wankhade
Comes here often

Hi Thank you!

 

We are planning to upgrade software version 0n 26.8.1 Will keep you posted the result. 

Regards,
Rahul Wankhade
grivera23
Conversationalist

I am having some similar issues with CP-8821 phones. We get delayed rings meaning the LAN phones will ring and not the wireless. There is a lag from 15-30 seconds before it will ring on the 8821's after someone picks up the phone on the LAN phone. If no one picks up it may or may not ring. Definitely a high latency issue. When I ping from the Meraki dashboard  I get a latency about 200ms vs. ping the AP from my desktop I get 1ms. It almost seems like the 8821 is in a sleep mode but it is not. 
We had the 7925 phones but they did not play nice with Meraki
Any assistance with this would be appreciated. Going to open up a ticket with Meraki now and see what they say.

AP=CW9164i

Phone firmware=sip8821.11-0-6sr6-2

CM Version 14.0.1

 

cmr
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

Do you have them on their own WPA2-PSK SSID, 20MHz, 5GHz only, all roaming options off?  That's what we did to get them good and reliable.

If my answer solves your problem please click Accept as Solution so others can benefit from it.
grivera23
Conversationalist

CMR,
Yes, part of my config is exactly what you suggested.

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