Todd, We are an Aruba shop using dynamic channel plans.
We let Aruba's ARM (Adaptive Radio Management) decide on the best channel for each radio, and in some cases, give it the ability to turn off a 2.4 radio if it detects that there's too much co-channel interference in an area. ARM will not switch channels if there is a client associated to a radio, except in the case of an emergency (DFS beacon, etc). We also let it pick the Tx power within a range that we specify (typically 12 - 15 EIRP on 5GHz, lower on the 2.4). ARM has some secret sauce about how it decides which channel is best, and has some parameters that we can tune, but we haven't really fiddled with the knobs too much. We are using DFS channels, but we haven't had complaints about clients that can't see them. I suspect that part of the reason that we haven't had complaints about dead spots is that we have a pretty dense deployment, so in our res halls, a client should be able to see at 3-4 APs, and the odds of all of them running on a channel that a given client does not support seems to be slim enough. Also, it may be that we just got lucky and don't have too many older 5GHz radios around that don't support all DFS channels. We have disabled channel 144 because we did see some beacon events on it, but all other 5GHz channels are enabled. We have been running several dorms like this for about a year and have had very few complaints. Hope this helps, Jon Jonathan Miller Network Analyst Franklin and Marshall College On Tue, May 30, 2017 at 8:31 AM, Smith, Todd <todd.sm...@camc.org> wrote: > In my efforts to continuous improve the wireless experience here; I > occasionally like to revisit some of my assumptions to see if they are > still valid. What is the current consensus around channel plans for both > 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz ranges? Do organizations plan a static channel plan for > potentially thousands of access points or have the channel selection > algorithms matured enough to be truly useful now? > > If you use static channel plans, are there tools that you use to build > those plans? Do they handle 3 dimensions or are you mapping the channels > across an 2D floor? > > If you use dynamic channel plans, are there tools that you use to build > those plans? What parameters or metrics are being used to select a > channel? Is the issue of 2.4 GHz radios constantly changing channels still > a valid concern? If you are using 5 GHz DFS channels, do you have any > concerns about clients not being able to hear those channels and having > "dead spots". > > Thanks for the input! > > Todd Smith > Charleston Area Medical Center > > ====================================================================== > CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: The information contained in this message may be > privileged and confidential. If this e-mail contains protected health > information, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution > or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited, except as > permitted by law. If you have received this communication in error, please > notify the sender immediately by replying to this message and deleting it > from your computer. Thank you > > ********** > Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent > Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/discuss. > ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/discuss.
