FP231G Dual 5g: clients only connecting to radio 2

[John1028]

I'm having an issue with Dual 5g mode on my FP231G APs.

Radio 1 is off

Radio 2 is the low 5g channels

Radio 3 is the high 5g channels

Dense deployment (it's a school and every classroom has an AP)

The issue is all clients are only connecting to radio 2.  Radio 3 is propagating, I can see it with the fluke WIFI scanner.  DAARP is working, the client experience is pretty good except I'm getting some very high channel utilization numbers due to the fact that the clients are all connected to just 4 channels on radio 2.

I made a new connection profile with single radio 5g and that's working great, all the channels are utilized and my channel utilization issues are gone or very minimal.

I made a test profile with dual 5g enabled, radios 1 and 2 off, and clients connect to radio 3 without a problem.

My questions are:

• Is there a way in the config to encourage clients to connect to radio 3 when using dual 5g mode? 
• Is this likely just a client issue and they are choosing the lower frequencies for reasons I can't do anything about?
• Do I have something goofy in my config that is preventing radio 3 from being used?

Thank you!

config radio-2
set band 802.11ax-5G
set band-5g-type 5g-low
set channel-bonding 40MHz
set power-mode dBm
set power-value 7
set wids-profile "default"
set darrp enable
set arrp-profile "arrp-default"
set vap-all manual
set vaps xxxxx
set channel "36" "44" "52" "60"
end
config radio-3
set band 802.11ax-5G
set band-5g-type 5g-high
set channel-bonding 40MHz
set power-mode dBm
set power-value 7
set wids-profile "default"
set darrp enable
set arrp-profile "arrp-default"
set vap-all manual
set vaps xxxx

set channel "100" "108" "116" "124" "132" "140" "157"

[ebilcari]

If you disable the other radios do you see the devices connected to these channels '"100" "108" "116" "124" "132" "140" "157"'?

These channels are added later and some of the devices may not like them.

[John1028]

Yes, the clients connect to the upper channels without any problem if use single 5G mode or if I use dual 5G mode and disable radio 2.

[ebilcari]

What is the firmware version of the AP?

Have you checked the PoE budget of the switch? Maybe it's a power limitation, you can check the power details also from within the AP:
# cw_diag power

You can also try to avoid using the Radar channels [116-128] since they have a fallback mechanism and maybe there is a tower nearby.

What is the maximum number of the devices that have you seen connected only on radio 2?

[John1028]

Firmware is FP231G-v7.4-build0680

I will put the APs back into dual 5Ghz mode and check the output of that command.  I do not believe it's POE related because I can clearly see both radios propagating when I look at the WIFI signals with my Fluke Aircheck.  The signal is there, it's just not being preferred by the clients.

Also, I currently have 32 APs set up and they all behave the same way, on different switches.

Maximum number of clients I've seen on 1 AP is 44

[FnUser]

Try on AP:

cw_diag power full

cfg -c

[FnUser]

it has resolved a problem for me, R1 2.4Ghz, R2 5Ghz, R3 5Ghz are working

[John1028]

Thank you for your reply.

Does this command increase the radio power to full?

I have a very dense deployment and full power on the AP would not be a good choice for us.

I do want to say that all the radios are working:  I can see them with good power levels when I scan with a fluke WIFI meter.  The problem is no clients are connecting to the upper channels when using dual 5G mode.  All clients connect to radio 2 which causes some massive channel utilization issues since there are only 4 channels to work with.

I made a test profile and disabled radio 2 and the clients connected normally to radio 3, so I don't think there is a problem with the hardware.

We are currently using single 5G mode and the clients are connecting properly and all channels are being used, with excellent channel utilization.

[FnUser]

I don't think it will make the power full. I think there is potential bug and work around to activate full power. 

In dual mode if you run: cw_diag power (see the power)

You will see that AP has: Power Mode: low (4) Oper Power Mode: low (4). It means no Radio 3. 

Example 

Current Power Mode: low (4) Oper Power Mode: low (4)

Radio 1: MaxTxpower 0 TxChainMask 0x03 RxChainMask 0x03

Radio 2: MaxTxpower 17 TxChainMask 0x03 RxChainMask 0x03

Radio 3: MaxTxpower 50 TxChainMask 0x03 RxChainMask 0x03

USB: disabled

full:usb, txpower full; low:txpower 17, disable radio-3

by setting power to high will not make any difference, but full resolved the problem for us.

This example after full is applied AP set to R2 and R3 has ~80% power, both radios are used by users.

Current Power Mode: full (2) Oper Power Mode: full (2)

Radio 1: MaxTxpower 0 TxChainMask 0x03 RxChainMask 0x03
Radio 2: MaxTxpower 22 TxChainMask 0x03 RxChainMask 0x03
Radio 3: MaxTxpower 21 TxChainMask 0x03 RxChainMask 0x03
USB: enabled

full:usb,txpower full; low:txpower 17,disable radio-3

Command we used 

cw_diag power. -- see the power state

cw_diag power full.  --set to full power

cfg -c --save config

[John1028]

Thank you!  I will try your solution and mark it as the accepted solution if it fixes the issue for us.