topic Re: Transmit power control settings in 9800 controller in Wireless

Transmit power control settings in 9800 controller

Linkwave — Wed, 25 May 2022 22:25:02 GMT

Hello,

I hope someone can help me figure out how to set up manually specific Tx power levels, channels and channel width in the 9800 series controller for each AP or groups of APs.

Thank you in advance.

Re: Transmit power control settings in 9800 controller

Flavio Miranda — Wed, 25 May 2022 23:07:02 GMT

It is not good idea manually define power, channel and channel width. But, if you want to do that, you can change it using cli.

This link has all you need in CLI and GUI

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/wireless/controller/9800/config-guide/b_wl_16_10_cg/802-11-parameters-for-cisco-access-points.html

Re: Transmit power control settings in 9800 controller

Arshad Safrulla — Thu, 26 May 2022 09:22:39 GMT

Below guide provides you an overall idea if you want to do it globally or for a selected group of AP's using policies and profiles.

C9800 Radio Resource Management Deployment Guide - Cisco

However of your requirement is to change power levels per AP, the go to configuration>>wireless>>Access points>>>Select the band>>>AP Name and then click on the AP name it will open a configuration box which will allow you to change the radio settings per AP. If you want to do it via CLI @Flavio Miranda has already shared a link with the cli commands.

I wouldn't really look at changing the power levels manually without a proper understanding of connecting client capabilities, AP positions, antenna's connected to AP's, overall RF environment etc. So it is highly recommended that you conduct a RF survey to gather the requirements and then another post deployment survey to validate the changes.

Re: Transmit power control settings in 9800 controller

sanmar26 — Thu, 26 May 2022 15:30:41 GMT

So to do this on a group you will most likely have a group of APs tagged with RF profiles. Below show an example of how this is done for a RF profile which then will be linked to a RF Tag. I would side with Flavio & Arshad on changing just one AP as in most deployments you will have several. Cisco does use RRM which will assist in the RF setting for the deployment. TX power and width selections should be followed with the deployment one has created for a site around clients being used in the environment, so keep that in mind.

On a RF Profile it will be the following:

ap dot11 24ghz rf-profile HQCorp-24GHz-RF-Profile

description "HQCorp-26GHz-RF-Profile"
channel chan-width (Width Value)
tx-power max (value)
tx-power min (value)
no shutdown

ap dot11 5ghz rf-profile HQCorp-5GHz-RF-Profile
description "HQCorp-5GHz-RF-Profile"
channel chan-width (Width Value)
tx-power max (Max Value)
tx-power min (Min Value)
no shutdown

Linking RF Profiles to RF Tag:

wireless tag rf HQCorp-RF-TAG
24ghz-rf-policy HQCorp-24GHz-RF-Profile
5ghz-rf-policy HQCorp-5GHz-RF-Profile

Hope it helps.

Re: Transmit power control settings in 9800 controller

Linkwave — Fri, 17 Jun 2022 10:56:22 GMT

Thank you very much, Flavio.

I am not sure why you suggested that it is not a good idea to set up manual profiles. Can you be kind and elaborate?

We have spent a great deal of time and effort designing the system using Ekahau Pro. The design considered both RF environment, capacity and user requirements in specific zones of the targeted coverage area. This is a standalone customer environment. It is expected to have [very] low risk of RF environment changing (such as introduction of rogue APs or some non Wi-Fi RF noise sources), so we do not think that we will need to rely on controller having to dynamically adjust the settings as the environment changes.

Keeping your advice and concern in mind, I suppose we could try to let the controller control Tx power, but I still think we want to do RF/channel planning and channel width manually.

Do you think this is an acceptable compromise strategy?

Thank you again, I really appreciate your input.

Re: Transmit power control settings in 9800 controller

Linkwave — Fri, 17 Jun 2022 10:57:57 GMT

Thank you, Arshad.

I provided a detailed response to Flavio explaining why we want to set it up manually. I am fairly confident that we are addressing all the concerns you listed in your response.

Re: Transmit power control settings in 9800 controller

Linkwave — Fri, 17 Jun 2022 10:59:06 GMT

Thank you very much. We are giving it a try next week.

Re: Transmit power control settings in 9800 controller

Flavio Miranda — Fri, 17 Jun 2022 12:27:42 GMT

"This is a standalone customer environment. It is expected to have [very] low risk of RF environment changing (such as introduction of rogue APs or some non Wi-Fi RF noise sources), so we do not think that we will need to rely on controller having to dynamically adjust the settings as the environment changes."

I need to agree with you but ,unfortunatelly, my experience tells me the opposite. Unless you tell me this company is in the middle of the desert and not surrounded by anything,

Otherwise I will desagree.

People think that they can control wifi and create a interference free, stable environment. You are using a free frequency spectrum. This will change all the time for reason you can not imagine.

If you did your home work which is install necessary amount of AP and put them on the right place, the rest should be done by the WLC.

I like the idea to control the power on the radio, for 2.4 mostly, but what I do is give to the WLC a smaller range so that it decided where to stay inside that smaller range. That´s it.

Channel width is also something good to define but there´s no maggic also.

Re: Transmit power control settings in 9800 controller

Linkwave — Fri, 17 Jun 2022 13:35:41 GMT

Thank you again, Flavio.

Although this venue is kind of "in the middle of the desert" (it is a large company HQ building in a suburban area, literally kilometers away from any other potential source of Wi-Fi RF), I think we will follow your advice and implement a compromise solution and indicate the threshold TX power to allow WLC to have control until.

I will try to remember to share the experience after the implementation.

I really appreciate your input.

Re: Transmit power control settings in 9800 controller

denmendoza — Thu, 27 Jun 2024 15:17:59 GMT

Hi everyone, I follow these steps with 17.8.1 and I end up with error messages to the effect... "Channel cannot be modified via CLI" and "Transmit power cannot be modified via CLI"

Any advice?

Re: Transmit power control settings in 9800 controller

Gaurav Kansal — Tue, 02 Jul 2024 11:13:08 GMT

Dear Linkwave,

Please go to Configuration > Wireless > Access Points > 5GHz Radio and open your access point from list. There you find RF Channel Assignment and Tx Power Level Assignment . In both section you find assignment method, change it to custom from global and you will be able to make change Tx power levels, channels and channel width. If you face any issue then reply me, I'll make it more clear for you.

GoodLuck
Regards
Gaurav Kansal

If you find this post helpful then please vote as Helpful and if it solves your issue then please mark as Solution.

Re: Transmit power control settings in 9800 controller

Linkwave — Tue, 02 Jul 2024 12:00:41 GMT

Thank you very much!

Re: Transmit power control settings in 9800 controller

denmendoza — Tue, 02 Jul 2024 15:07:20 GMT

Thanks Gaurav,

My query was specifically for configurations via CLI not GUI

Of course, I cannot speak for Linkwave

Re: Transmit power control settings in 9800 controller

tobies — Tue, 07 Jan 2025 12:02:59 GMT

I know, this topic is quite old, but since I have the same issue and it is still unanwered, I'd like to raise it again. For me, it makes no sense offering CLI commands that don't work.

ap config 90e9.5e0a.xxxx
slot 0
band 24Ghz
transmit-power 2

I need to configure 200 APs in a warehouse environment with fixed channel, tx-power and ext-antenna-gain (RRM is NOT an option in this specific case). That would be 1200 values I have to enter via the GUI and I'd really like to avoid that.

Setting "no dca" makes no difference. Does anyone here have a solution?

Re: Transmit power control settings in 9800 controller

denmendoza — Tue, 07 Jan 2025 13:43:19 GMT

The strategy I settled on was to begin with a baseline representative startup-config file, then use CLI commands to ftp desired startup-config onto WLC and then reboot. Sure, the drawback is the need to reload the WLC. But, a big advantage is the confidence knowing that you are indeed removing all on-the-fly changes that may have been made since the previously loaded startup-config. Then, incrementally edit any existing startup-config (in text editor), being aware of dependencies of related settings/configurations, and then save as next incremented startup-config filename. My "library" of startup-config files has Profiles with groups of APs at my desired Tx Power levels (and Channels too). As such, CLI command to deploy any desired set of Tx Powers is simply specifying the desired startup-config filename to ftp onto WLC. This method has worked nicely for me...

Re: Transmit power control settings in 9800 controller

tobies — Fri, 10 Jan 2025 11:39:42 GMT

Okay, @skronawithleitner just gave me this solution:

Do NOT enter config-mode, but stay in exec. There you have the ability so set channel, tx-power and antenna-gain via CLI:

ap name APNAME dot11 5ghz slot 1 txpower 2

Re: Transmit power control settings in 9800 controller

denmendoza — Fri, 10 Jan 2025 14:49:13 GMT

wow, tried just now, and it worked (not entering config-mode)... 🙌😎🔥

Re: Transmit power control settings in 9800 controller

tyoung008 — Tue, 12 Aug 2025 20:30:44 GMT

Thank you @tobies !

I ran into a customer that had manual power and channel set for 200+ APs. The CLI commands also have an auto option to revert back to DCA and DTPC.

ap name APNAME dot11 24ghz slot 0 txpower auto ap name APNAME dot11 24ghz slot 0 channel auto

That makes reverting back to dynamic much easier!

Tom