Help with Auto TX Power on RF Profiles

[rayneraguilera]

I'm trying to adjust the TX power on my access points so clients get connected to the closes AP when they move and do not get stuck to a single one. I adjusted the TX power using a RF Profile between 8 - 14 dBm, but after a while I still see some of my AP delivering 24 to 26 dBm.

This makes my clients connect to the same 4 APs. How can I adjust the TX power and make the APs follow my settings?

[ww]

That should work. Make sure the ap is attached to the correct profile. And that the ap rf settings are not set manually

[PhilipDAth]

These are some fairly safe values if you want a starting point.

Also note you can not *make* a client connect to the closest AP.  This is purely a decision for the client.  Some clients are dumber than others.

Also raise the minimum bit rate to something like 12Mb/s.

[Paccers]

@PhilipDAth A little high on the Tx values possibly? You'd end up with a min. 5 GHz EIRP of 20dBm on an MR56 with those values. Meraki's power TX values are set at the radio before antenna gain is included so it's not an EIRP value being set on the slider. Confirmed on their Transmit Power and Antenna Configuration page.

[UKDanJones]

I’ve heard conflicting views on this (even from people at Meraki). 

my understanding is that if you use an internal antenna or a meraki antenna and select the correct model from the list then the EIRP in dashboard will be correct.

You only need to adjust this (account for antenna gain) if you’re using a non-meraki antenna on an external antenna AP. 

It would be super helpful if someone knew a definitive answer to this and could point to a document (the one linked above is still ambiguous enough that it could be taken either way which is where the confusion comes from). 

The way I’ve mentioned above (antenna gain included in internal antenna and meraki antenna when selected) is certainly how I’ve been designing/configuring the last 5/6 years. 

[Paccers]

If there is a difference in how its interpreted for internal vs external antennas then that is bonkers haha!

Some confirmation on it all for sure would be great, I personally interpret the blurb "The power levels listed in dashboard are the base power levels of the AP, they do not include antenna gain." as being non-EIRP values regardless of internal/external antenna use

[UKDanJones]

I agree but my concern then would be that every AP model will have completely different EIRP even if the radio profile is set as the same value.

With my interpretation it would only be external APs with non-Meraki antenna (using Acceltex/Ventev etc). 

[Paccers]

Valid concern for sure! A few dB's here and there isn't a concern though right? 😉

[UKDanJones]

🫠😂😭

[thomasthomsen]

Im just listening in here  🙂 - Just because of findings on the MR46E 🙂 (My "rants" about that can be found somewhere on these forums Im sure 🙂 )

[rayneraguilera]

Thank you all for your replies...

My question is related to the fact that after I configure my profiles to deliver the AutoPower max and AutoPower min to the values I want, the access point stills uses more power than the configured value even when it is attached to a profile.

Here my profile values:

Now, here's the power delivered by access points.

Why are do I have those APs delivering more power than the configured value?

[thomasthomsen]

I would recommend setting the channel-width to something static, instead of auto (from the picture though, all your APs are running the same channel-width , so no worries) - But, from experience, some clients prefer wider channels, so for example, if an AP is running 80 Mhz but far away, and a much closer AP is running 20, some clients will still prefer the wide (but far away) AP 😕

And while you are "playing" why not enable more 5Ghz channels, looks like you are only using the non-DFS ones (depending on reg-domain of course). If worried about DFS I recommend enabling the Auto RF / AI channel planning. That actually seems to be ok, when in a DFS environment (again only from personal experience). 

Also , from experience, remember to disable "Client balancing", I think it's still enabled by default on Meraki RF profiles. To me "Client balancing" is very useful for high density, like lecture halls and so on, but for a normal office environment, I always disable it, because historically, it has only caused trouble.

[UKDanJones]

The APs will eventually reduce Tx to come in line with the profile selected. Give them time. 

Your roaming issue will be the mix of AP models you have. 

Clients will always prefer the latest PHY - 802.11ax > 802.11ac (in the same way they'll prefer wider channels and you should never mix channel widths).

If you want your clients to roam nicely if suggest ‘downgrading’ your 802.11ax APs to use 802.11ac. In all honesty, if you're not using 6 GHz you probably won't see any benefit of using 802.11ax anyway. 

[UKDanJones]

Oh and definitely use 12 Mbps rather than 8 Mbps. 12 Mbps uses a 1/2 coding scheme so you'll end up with fewer retries by upping to 12 Mbps

[rayneraguilera]

It hasn't come down since I installed the APs almost 8 months ago

[UKDanJones]

Have you checked the beacons? I had this at home recently where the dashboard was telling me one thing, but the AP was actually following the RF Profile (I checked with WiFi Explorer Pro)

[K2_Josh]

If you're looking at testing tuning options related to WiFi roaming, I would also consider tweaking the _client_ roaming aggressiveness.

Here's a doc for the intel driver: https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-mk/000132395/change-the-intel-advanced-wi-fi-adapter-settings-...

Roaming aggressiveness can also be set via powershell:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/roaming-aggressiveness-doesnt-change-anything/...

Set-NetAdapteradvancedProperty -Name “Wi-Fi” -DisplayName “Roaming Aggressiveness” –DisplayValue “1. Lowest”

Set-NetAdapteradvancedProperty -Name “Wi-Fi” -DisplayName “Roaming Aggressiveness” –DisplayValue “5. Highest”

[rayneraguilera]

Hi, thank you all for your replies,

I just want to understand why power on my APs goes above the configured range. I understand that most of the replies are focus on roaming and that sort of things. The clients in the network are POS handheld terminals, like the one you see on restaurants to pay your bill. 

So, no much I can do on the client side since they are almost "dumb" clients.

However, I can configure the APs so they do not transmit way to much power (my environment is a high density one) so when a client move it roams to the closest AP. Unfortunately, most of my APs are not using the configured power range and transmit way too much power than needed. 

I need to understand why and how to bring the power down.

Thanks.

[Rimccart]

Hi there, 

If we are observing that the APs are not obeying the configured RF profile settings and there are no manual overrides specified then I would encourage you to engage Meraki support and open a case. Based upon the date of the initial post if APs have not lowered their power transmission in about 24-48 hours then there could be a greater issue. 

I have observed scenarios where APs will not transmit at a forced maximum power due to regulatory domain restrictions, but I have not come across the opposite where they will not lower their maximum power transmission.