AP305C WiFi6 best practice

[Naza783]

Dear Community,

We just got a couple of AP305C with the idea of start replacing the dozen of AP230 we have around our concrete building, and was wondering if you can give me some advice in regards to WiFi6 best practices or recommended configuration for our new AP305C, we are putting great hope that these devices will start coping with the extra-load of clients that we have, but so far there has not even a massive improvement, and I don't even know if WiFi6 is actually enable on them! I can see on the Extreme IQ portal that they have the radio mode 11-ax-5g, and using the default template for 305C, so I guess WiFi6 is enable. 

Would be great to know what settings would you recommend as best practice for their Radio Profile

Any help would be much appreciated, thank you!!!!

[Stefan_K_ · Accepted solution]

Not sure about the default settings, but you could check if OFDMA and MU-MIMO is enabled. 

[Naza783]

Thank you!! Didn't realised WiFi6 means that to actually enable those settings, as mentioned here: https://community.extremenetworks.com/t5/extremecloud-iq/newer-wifi-6-ax-aps-with-bss-coloring-ofdma...

Was a bit confused by the number of channels to use, I thought WiFi6 will use more channels, but as I understand WiFi6 what it does is actually using the channels for both 2.5 and 5 Ghz, shall I perharps disable steering or leave it all as default?

[Stefan_K_]

Hi Naza,

don't confuse Wifi6 with Wifi 6E. Wifi 6 (802.11ax) uses 2.4 and 5 Ghz Channels, but offers new features like OFDMA, MU-MIMO (UL) and some more... 

Wifi 6E is also 802.11ax with the same new features, but also offers the usage of 6 Ghz channels. Neither AP410C nor AP305C have Wifi 6E support. 

[Naza783]

Thank you so much Stefan_K_! 

Yes, that was exactly my problem, for some reason I assumed new channels would be of 6Ghz just like it was when we jumped from 2.4 to 5....oh dear, I'm showing my age here! lol

I've got a couple of more last-minute questions? if you guys can help me out that woudl be great!

1) If I enable OFDMA in the 5Ghz Radio Profile, shall I enable it too in the 2.4 Ghz Radio Profile too? I think I'll have to, right? So that the AP has OFDMA enable on both frequencies, or does it really matter?

2) OFDMA and MU-MIMO seem to be doing the same function, is it advisable to have both of these features enable on both radio profiles? I'm starting only with OFDMA in the 5Ghz range, see how that goes when we monitor the performance, and it would be good to know the community's thoughts and experience regarding this

Thanks again!

[Stefan_K_ · Accepted solution]

1) Nothing speaks against enabling it on both radios.

2) They are not really the same, so you can enable both! Not sure if you can enable MU-MIMO on 2.4Ghz channels. Technically its possible with Wifi6, but I don't think its possible to configure with Extreme (at least with the on-prem WLC)

MU-MIMO improves capacity by allowing multiple devices to be served simultaneously through different spatial streams. OFDMA enhances efficiency by dividing bandwidth more granularly, enabling multiple devices to transmit or receive small amounts of data at the same time.