topic Re: Automatic Channel and Power in M and MSM Series

Automatic Channel and Power

BGraham_1 — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 16:03:52 GMT

When the options for Automatic Channel Selection and Automatic Power Control are enabled in the controller for the APs, does this simply turn this feature on in the AP and selection of channel and signal strength are handled at the AP, or does the controller coordinate these among all APs?

Re: Automatic Channel and Power

ISoliman — Mon, 07 May 2012 06:03:49 GMT

What I know is the controller handles this, the APs send the details to the controller and according to that the controller does the calculation and assign the channels and the power to the APs.

Re: Automatic Channel and Power

gglater — Fri, 11 May 2012 17:47:11 GMT

Both Automatic Channel Selection and Automatic Power Control are managed by the APs themselves. Based upon the information that they detect about their environment, the APs will modify the channel selection or power levels accordingly.

This is not under the control of the MSM 7xx Series controller.

--glen

Re: Automatic Channel and Power

tschaps — Fri, 11 May 2012 17:53:24 GMT

Interesting, I thought the controller handled that, too. Here's a related question-- is there any menu item I am missing in my MSM 7xx Series controller (765zl) which can show me a list of the APs and the channel each of its radios are on?

Or is there some way to script it? It's an essential troubleshooting tool to know what channels various APs are on without having to gather than information manually.

Thx

Re: Automatic Channel and Power

gglater — Fri, 11 May 2012 19:18:26 GMT

There is no view of the APs and their channel settings.

If you select your AP from the listing on the left hand bar on the screen, and then mouse-over the little antenna icons that appear in the overview, the channel setting on each radio will appear as you mouse over the icons.

That doesn't really help you as you want a list, but it is a way to get that information.

You can, of course, just look at the wireless information displayed further down that screen for each radio.

I checked the CLI guide and don't see any way to query that information via the CLI either.

--glen

Re: Automatic Channel and Power

tschaps — Fri, 11 May 2012 20:37:23 GMT

I did not know that the mouseover of the icon showed the channel, and that is not exactly what I'd like, but it's very helpful. I have 60 APs in the school, not as many as some users here, but too many to check that manually. Scrolling down on each AP's detail page is definitely too much of a pain. A quick check to rule out channel overlap in the event of a report of problems will be much quicker now. Thanks.

Re: Automatic Channel and Power

ISoliman — Sun, 13 May 2012 04:19:57 GMT

The Controller handles the Channels selection and power this is for sure, what you have read might be for standalone APs :)

For the channels and channels overlapping, there is an option to show the nearby APs and the channels used to help in case if there is an interference, click on any group or AP and follow Overview > Neighborhood, there you will find all the details, but you will have to match the APs by their MAC

Re: Automatic Channel and Power

gglater — Mon, 14 May 2012 17:43:22 GMT

The question asked was about the features to which you refer, and those features are under the control of the access point, not the controller.

Yes, the setting of the initial channel is done on the controller. Any subsequent channel switching due to interference (if that feature is being used) is managed by the APs themselves.

--glen