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Re: MSM710 with 10x MSM410 intermittent performance

 
Mark Pitcher
Occasional Contributor

MSM710 with 10x MSM410 intermittent performance

Overview

A customer has new LAN and wireless deployment in an existing building and wish to deploy wireless to two different groups of users: staff and guests.

There is one MSM710 (version 5.3.6.0-01-8252) and 10x MSM410.

Design

In order to achieve the required functionality the following VLANs and VSC’s were created.

VLAN Name, VLAN ID, Network, Gateway
server, 200, 192.168.200.0/24, 192.168.200.253
wlan, 230, 192.168.230.0/24, 192.168.230.253
wguest, 231, 192.168.231.0/24, 192.168.231.253

VSC Name, SSID, VLAN ID, Usage
Staff, Staff, 230, Internal staff wifi
Guest, Guest, 231, Guest wifi

Configuration

The HP MSM710 is only connected using the LAN port with an address of 192.168.200.250/24 and has VLAN 230 & 231 configured with an address of 192.168.230.250/24 & 192.168.231.250/24 respectively.

The client has requested services for IEEE 802.11g & n and this has been configured accordingly with distance between the APs set to medium. The APs are NOT tunnelled back to the controller and are connected to ports with VLAN 200 untagged and 230,231 tagged. The port the controller is plugged into is configured the same as the APs.

Issues

The client has been experiencing issues with wireless clients getting slow and intermittent connections.

Testing

As the LAN has only just been deployed, I thought it best to prove it was working properly before moving on and testing the wireless. The LAN was tested using iperf on two laptops and testing between VLANs. The exact results were not recorded but each test was set to two minutes with average throughput of 350-400 Mbps recorded (the laptops are over two years old and had other applications running, so this was deemed an acceptable result). Using the controller as an iperf server, a similar speed was recorded when testing via its LAN port.

The Staff SSID was then tested, again the exact results were not recorded but throughput would peek at around 9Mbps and vary down to 6Mbps but each run would suffer a period of 0Mbps for around 5 to 15 seconds at least once during each 2 minute test.

The settings were changed to IEEE 802.11n only and then IEEE 802.a & n with similar results, so IEEE 802.11g & n was restored.

The transmission rates were changed with all the slower rates (below 18Mbps removed). All but 1 AP were removed, with patch cables swapped. The test was repeated later on with a different AP so that only 1 AP was connected at a time. The set of tests produced the same result as each other but different from the previous results, the rate would peak at 17Mbps to start then drop to 9Mbps. The rate each second would alternate between 0Mbps and 9Mbps, very occasionally it would stay at 9Mbps for 2 seconds but no more than that. The periods of 0Mbps only lasted 1 second throughout the test.

I have not yet changed the AP distance to short or long, but with only 1 AP in the last tests done on the client site, I fail to see that this will make a huge difference.

I am at a loss as to what is causing this intermittent level of performance.

Is there anything obvious that I have mis-configured or are there any further tests anyone recommend I try?

Your thoughts and any assistance would be very welcome.

Many thanks

Mark

P.S. This thread has been moved from Communications, Wireless (Legacy ITRC forum) to MSM Series. -HP Forum Moderator

3 REPLIES 3
Trevor Commulynx
Regular Advisor

Re: MSM710 with 10x MSM410 intermittent performance

What are the Cards in your Laptops? I am seeing the same issues with Windows 7 and Intel 5100/6200/6300 AGN cards.

Packet trace shows "TCP Window Full" off the LAN port of the MSMS422.

Called logged with HP Support and they currently have no Idea. My Mac and any other Wireless card other than Intel works perfectly. Also ran a Ruckus Wireless network in parralell and it worked flawlessly with the Intel Cards.

Goodluck.

Trev.
Mark Pitcher
Occasional Contributor

Re: MSM710 with 10x MSM410 intermittent performance

Hi Trev

Thanks for your reply.

The clients experiencing problems range Mac
Books to HP & Acer laptops. All client devices appear to consistently have poor/intermittent performance.

The machine I was using for the majority of the testing is an Acer laptop running Windows XP SP3 with an Intel 4965 AGN which has been used to connect to other wireless networks (before & after) with no problems.

As I seem to be experiencing problems with every client device tried and a range of hardware suppliers I think there is a general problem with either the configuration or a fault with the equipment itself hardware/firmware.

I will keep trying to diagnose, but any other advice is gratefully received.

Cheers

Mark
Evan_ISS
Frequent Advisor

Re: MSM710 with 10x MSM410 intermittent performance


@Mark Pitcher wrote:
...

I will keep trying to diagnose, but any other advice is gratefully received.

Cheers

Mark

HI there Mark,

 

have a look at this thread: http://h30499.www3.hp.com/t5/Communications-Wireless-Legacy/N-Speed-Issues-MSM760-w-Intel-6200-AGN/m-p/4764344/highlight/true#M8635


I have had nothing but problems when setting MSM410s in "mixed" mode (e.g. g/n), thought the latest software would solve the problem but it hasn't.

 

To make matters worse I have been in touch with HP support and they now tell me that v5.7 of the software is buggy and they do not recommend it any more, yet it is still available in My Software and no announcement has been made regarding the issue.

 

Chaos.