Hi Steve, We had a consultant in to review our Aruba config last fall and one of his recommendations was to enable the DFS channels. His customers had been using them for a few years (yes, some early adopters) successfully and his observation was with only a few minor exceptions, most current devices supported these channels. We don't have any VOIP here, fwiw. We are using 40MHz channels.
So, we enabled DFS channels in an AP group that covers just our IT offices starting around Thanksgiving. We noticed no issues so we added these channels to our campus-wide AP groups in late January. ajs On Tue, Mar 15, 2016 at 9:55 AM, Steve Bohrer <[email protected]> wrote: > Last April in > http://listserv.educause.edu/scripts/wa.exe?A2=WIRELESS-LAN;57305dd0.1504 > "802.11ac AP Deployment," several respondents say they use 40 MHz channel > width campus wide. Some noted that the ac standard provides for dynamic > switching back and forth to 20 MHz, so interference is less of an issue. > > But, those respondents didn't mention if they were using only the U-NII-1 > and U-NII-3 bands, or if they are also using the bands that require DFS, > U-NII-2 and/or -2e . > > Is there any consensus or best practice on this? Is anyone using -2 and > -2e, or just staying with four non-overlapping 40 MHz 5 GHz channels? Are > most current clients able to connect to the DFS channels? > > Aruba's "RF and Roaming Optimization for Aruba 802.11ac Networks" doc ( > http://community.arubanetworks.com/t5/Validated-Reference-Design/RF-and-Roaming-Optimization-for-Aruba-802-11ac-Networks/ta-p/227716 > ) says that: > > "Majority of voice specific devices do not scan many channels before > roaming as they have active voice calls. For such devices, do not use > U-NII-2 and U-NII-2e channels." > > and > > "Roaming test should be performed using different types of clients > expected on the WLAN, to see their behavior on DFS channels." > > So, that sounds like a "no" vote on DFS, though we don't have wifi VoIP > phones. Does any one have field experience and recommendations? Any guesses > if DFS channels will ever be useable with a student BYO client base? > > Thanks, > Steve Bohrer > Network & Security Admin > IT Infrastructure, Emerson College > 617-824-8523 > ********** > Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent > Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/. > -- Tony Skalski Systems Administrator [email protected] 507-786-3227 St. Olaf College Information Technology 1510 St. Olaf Avenue Northfield, MN 55057-1097 ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/.
