Radio Profile - channel selection auto - neighbor APs on same channel & running at Max power allowed.

[w1f1n00b]

I’ve been seeing many instances where APs are on the same channel as their neighboring AP with RSSI in the 60s or 70s. I’m looking for steps to take to prevent this that don’t require manual channel plans, as I have too many APs to manage in that manner (wish this wasn’t the case).

In this one example I’m trying to figure out why the two radios are showing drastically different channel costs. full disclosure, not really sure what these numbers mean or how they’re calculated so any info or resources are greatly appreciated.

Also of note, these Radio Profiles are set to auto power selection with max power of 14dB. There are 50+ APs at the site (apx every other room), yet every AP is running at power 14. none have adjusted power down at all. Is this typical? My understanding is that even if Co-channel and adjacent channel interference are minimized, RF should still be kept to minimum power necessary to avoid general interference.

[SamPirok]

Hi John, starting with channel costs, the lower the channel cost the better. Channel cost goes up with more usage/traffic/noise, so a lower channel cost indicates a clearer channel with less interference, in general. This channel cost is what the auto channel selection feature uses to select the best channel for your APs to be on. Something to keep in mind with output is that it can only take in to account Aerohive APs, so if you are sharing air space with a neighboring network or individual hotspots, this output may not be totally accurate. Another thing to keep in mind is that this information is updated when the AP performs a successful background scan, and I think that’s probably where your issues is coming up. 

If the AP is set to automatically choose the channel and power, it needs to be able to get a background scan through to make a decent judgement of what settings are needed in the moment. The background scan also updates the output you’re looking at now. If the AP isn’t getting background scans through, it’s going to make the decision based on the last successful scan. If you go in to your Radio Profile, can you tell me what settings you’re using for background scans?