DCA Channel Sensitivity in 802.11a environment

[kobayashimaru08]

Hello!

Have a warehouse, about 20 - 1242APs, using 7925 phones. WLC running 6.0.199, phones running 1.3.3.   Had a big problem with Radar, so disabled the UNII-2 channels. These seems to have quieted the environment down a lot, but still seeing some radar in the 52, 56, 64 channels.  Still causing a bit of fluctuation.  Currently have DCA Channel Sensitivity set to High.  and wondering if setting it to medium would help this?  I hate to just simply disable the channels, and further reduce the amount of channels.  Thanks

[tfraij · Accepted solution]

Hello Patrice,

This setting ( DCA sensetivity )  determines how sensitive the DCA algorithm is to  environmental changes, such as signal, load, noise, and interference,  when determining whether to change channels.

Note        To see why the DCA algorithm changed channels, click  Monitor and then View All under Most Recent Traps. The  trap provides the MAC address of the radio that changed  channels, the previous channel and the new channel, the  reason why the change occurred, the energy before and after  the change, the noise before and after the change, and the  interference before and after the change.

now if there is radar detected , then the channel would change even you deacrease the sensetivity ( but less frequent ->> when it has it with stronger power)...

for channels 48-64.... they still can be operated by radar.

the non radar channels are 36 up to 48.

hope this helps.

Kind regards

Talal

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please rate answers that you find useful.

[Vinay Saini · Accepted solution]

Hii Patrice ,

Radar detection is independent of the DCA sensitivity level. So making changes will not help in case of RADAR .

Changing sensitivity to medium and running algorithm at specific interval (not default 600 secs) will generally be recommended in voice deployments

incase you are not facing severe interference and noise (apart from Radar signal).

I cant think of any other solution apart from shutting the radar channels (DFS)

Current DCA algorithm is intelligent enough and moves the AP to non-dfs channel once the RADAR is deceted if non-dfs channel is available and free from congestion (Noise/Interfernce)

Thanks

Vinay

[George Stefanick · Accepted solution]

Pat, dont discount disabling the UNII2 and Extended  if you feel the need to. With just 20 access points, you still have a wide selection of channels in UNII1 and 3.

[kobayashimaru08]

Thanks to everyone who answered! George, I did disable the UNII2 and it helped a lot, it's just those other three channels now. I have been told that it helped a lot. The location in question has improved immensely, and no further complaint made, so I am going to leave it be for now. However the DCA sensitivity I have better understanding now, and that will come handy for our other locations if I need to change it. Again Thanks everyone!

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