increasing wifi speed using AP410c

[svettori]

HI, we are new to Extreme Network product. we have just installed new AP410c APs in our new office and we have noticed that client connect to speed of 286/286 (Mbps)

is there a way to increade it?

additional info:

-protocol : Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax)

-Wifi Frequency: 5 GHz

-latest windows drivers

thanks for your help

Stefano

[Christoph_S]

Hello @svettori,

Here's an article that will outline what speeds to expect: https://extreme-networks.my.site.com/ExtrArticleDetail?an=000116378

So it all depends on your configurations. 

To see what channel width you are currently using you can run the following command: #show run | inc width

Accordingly you can increase the channel width, bearing in mind that the higher you go the less channels you will have at your disposal and as such co-channel interference will have to be considered, but 40MHz channel width should be a safe bet. 

This is only one option, if still using the default radio profiles you will need to create a new one and test radio power (too much is not always a good thing) and at the very least enable OFDMA in both directions as well. 

BR,

[CalvinRempel]

In my experience, if you are getting 286 Mbps bi-directional over wireless in the real world, that is not half bad!

Increasing the 5GHz channel width from 20MHz to 40MHz (I cannot remember if 5GHz supports 80MHz channels) will potentially increase your throughput, though that really depends: how many other wireless networks are in the area using that same bandwidth. Distance to the AP is another consideration. If you only have a few APs and don't have a lot of neighboring WiFi networks competing for air-space, then going with wider channel bands may well be worth trying. In my environment, I have stuck to 20MHz channels since we have a lot of APs (school environment) and need to maintain adequate channel separation/avoid channel overlap and the interference it brings.

Disabling 2.4GHz WiFi, as someone else suggested, may also be an option worth considering, especially if you don't have any 2.4GHz only device that you need to support (though, I think some IoT devices sold today are 2.4GHz only). I know we had issues at one point with some devices preferring 2.4GHz over 5GHz even with the 5GHz signal was stronger, and unless you are in the middle of nowhere the 2.4GHz spectrum tends to be exceedingly congested with wireless traffic.

If you go with 5GHz only, then you can set up each AP to use 2 separate 5GHz bands (typically one in the upper range and one in the lower range) - this can help you load balance and reduce the number of users on each band (one way I have done this is by putting guest traffic on one band and internal traffic on another band. I'll usually use DFS channels for guest since those connections could potentially be interrupted).

[Jan_Reister]

Ciao Stefano,

you can easily achieve high datarates with a single client (throughput is somewhat different, about 60% of datarate). In manufacturing and other enterprise verticals, the goal is airtime efficiency, as there are several APs and many clients connecting to it.

As others have pointed out:

• create a copy of the default radio profile and edit it
• use all 5GHz channels available in the channel plan, in Italy it's 19 channels.
• if the number of APs  = number of available channels, use 20 MHz channels
• if # APs 1/2 # channels, 40 MHz, if 1/4 80 MHz
• all APs on same width in a site: don't mix widths!
• increase Minimum Basic Rate
• use single band SSID if possible, to avoid roaming to 2.4 GHz

Saluti e buon divertimento!

Jan - Milano

[svettori]

Hi Jan, first of all grazie

I am not a wifi expert so my following comment may sound a bit silly : when you say "in manufacturing and other enterprise verticals, the goal is airtime efficiency, as there are several APs and many clients connecting to it.", does it mean that, as you are in an office environment with a good number of users, the default speed we have now ( 286/286 (Mbps) ) is low-ish because if we had much higher speed this could affect the overall wifi service performance?

thanks