AP410C, dual 5GHz config, but majority of clients connected to Wifi1

[w1f1n00b]

We recently deployed two AP410C access points to an area with high client counts.
Checking on them this morning, both APs have almost all clients connected to wifi1 with little to no clients on wifi0

In an effort to keep my configs as simple as possible I've avoided using any load balancing settings thus far.

Without having the "radio load balancing" setting on in the radio profile, does the AP make any efforts to distribute clients between it's two 5GHz radios, or is it purely up to the client driver to make that choice?

[James_A]

The documentation is quite vague on the second 5GHz radio, but I did notice here that the first radio (wifi0?) is listed as only being 2x2 in 5GHz mode, so perhaps that's why clients prefer the other radio: "Radio 1: 5 GHx 2x2 band 1 and 2 + 2.4 GHz 2x2"

https://docs.aerohive.com/330000/docs/help/english/ng/Content/hardware/ap/ap410c.htm

[w1f1n00b]

That would line up with why my original question as to why all the clients were associated to the wifi1 radio,  as the device driver prefers the best possible connection (same way they're prefer a 40mhz channel to a 20mhz one).

[w1f1n00b]

Interestingly enough I tested this in my lab and once wifi1 is disabled clients that were previously connected to wifi1 at Phyrate ax then connect to wifi0 at Phyrate ac. This makes me think that the wifi0 radio on the AP410c may not be ax compatible. I haven't yet tested other firmware versions on the AP.

[SamPirok]

Hey, thanks for your patience while we looked in to this. Yes, which radio the client device connects to is always a client side decision. You can influence this decision somewhat with client load balancing.

Quick firmware note- if you are on 10.4r3, it maybe better to run 10.3r4 and observe if client load balancing is corrected. If on a older version - update to 10.3r4. 

It may also be that the channel Wifi0 is using for 5 GHz is too congested for the clients to use, hence the decision not to use it. I might recommend checking the channel costs on the APs with the command "show ascp channel-info detail", the channels with the lower channel costs have the least amount of usage/interference. 

A good article to reference when adjusting your RF environment in general can be found here. 

[w1f1n00b]

Also noticing that the few clients now on wifi0 radio are connected with Phymode ac. All clients on wifi1 are connected at Phymode ax.

From my understanding of the AP specs, wifi0 should operate at ax when in 5GHz mode. Is this correct?