802.11d with 3802i and Mobility Express

timgrantham · ‎12-02-2018

Hi,

Is there anyway to enable Country Code broadcast on the 5GHz channel with Mobility Express running on a 3802i?

The reason I ask is that we are in a highly populated WiFi area, and some APs are broadcasting the wrong Country Code - and this plays havoc with non US end user computing devices, we found in the bast that being able to enable 802.11d broadcast resolved all the performance issues.

Performance issues being things such as low TX rates, and devices not connecting when waking from sleep, as they are latching onto another country and the card is restricting to only allow channels that country would allow.

Any help is appreciated!

TIA

-Tim

Rasika Nayanajith · ‎12-02-2018

Hi Tim,

What version of software running on your ME ? 8.5.140.0 would be a good option

HTH

Rasika

timgrantham · ‎12-03-2018

Hi Rasika,

I'm using 8.8.100.0 - is 8.5.140 any better?

I have tried that version but couldn't see any option to enable 802.11d, was hoping that 8.8.100 would have implemented it.

Regards

-Tim

patoberli · ‎12-03-2018

I don't know about ME firmware, but on the WLC it's implicit enabled when configuring the country of the WLC (or at least that's what was once being told). You do need to have WMM enabled for it to work, but that's enabled by default.

timgrantham · ‎12-03-2018

World Mode is stated as being enabled

When I show 802.11a I get the following line.

World Mode....................................... Enabled

So I guess WMM is not enabled - any idea how to enable WMM on a Mobility Express?

Many thanks

patoberli · ‎12-03-2018

If you are able to connect at 802.11n or 802.11ac speeds, WMM is enabled. That feature is required for the newer speeds.
What is the connection quality and details of one of your "slow" clients?

timgrantham · ‎12-04-2018

Everybody is able to connect, the device is a MacBook Pro Retina Late 2015.

If I have a US MBRp connected we can get speeds of 705Mbps on the TX rate, use the UK originated MBPr and we get 70-150Mbps...

We had the exact same problem with a NetGear product, and they added 802.11d to the broadcast and the issue went away.

I'm just tempted to get a US WiFi card for the UK based MBPr and hope that resolves the problem - I cannot see anywhere to add the Country Code broadcast.

patoberli · ‎12-04-2018

Ah the problematic Mac Books.

I also once had this issue, in my users case it was a to tight security setting. He disabled for "privacy" reasons the geolocation features of his MBP. Because of that, he couldn't use DFS channels. Once he undid his "privacy" changes, everything worked fine.

timgrantham · ‎12-04-2018

Yup, and it's most annoying...

Might as well try replacing the WiFi card with a US one - that in theory should help.

Apparently it's all to do with the depreciation of 802.11d and the FCC rules and regulations where devices are not to solely rely on 802.11d for identification of their location, and WiFi capabilities.

Fine for newer devices, but for older ones it causes all sorts of havoc.

patoberli · ‎12-04-2018

Just make sure the geolocation services are enabled and set to their default settings.

Here how you probably can disable (or re-enable) them, if they are set wrong:

http://osxdaily.com/2018/08/20/disable-location-services-mac/

I'm not sure if that is what the user in my case did, but chances are good.

timgrantham · ‎12-04-2018

I have that already disabled - makes no difference, the only thing that we found that would make any difference is to enable 802.11d.

I'm guessing that it's not possible to do these days, as it would have been with the older 3602 devices which didn't run Mobility Express, and pre-date the FCC 2015 regulation

https://www.silextechnology.com/unwired/802-11d

patoberli · ‎12-04-2018

No no, you need to enable this, not disable!

I know this is not Cisco, but they detail on how you can check on the MAC if it correctly receives the 802.11d tags:

https://community.arubanetworks.com/t5/Wireless-Access/MacBook-s-Lose-Connectivity-amp-Have-issues-roaming/td-p/245935

In any case, I'm pretty sure 802.11d and WMM both work correctly on the AP.

Please try the following (I don't know if it actually works on ME), connect with the MBP, and issue on the AP, while being connected with ssh the command:

show client detail aa:bb:cc:... (mac address of the MBP)

And post the full output here please.

timgrantham · ‎12-04-2018

Output as requested

Client MAC Address............................... 
Client Username ................................. N/A
AP MAC Address................................... 
AP Name.......................................... 
AP radio slot Id................................. 1 
Client State..................................... Associated 
Client User Group................................ 
Client NAC OOB State............................. Access
Wireless LAN Id.................................. 1 
Wireless LAN Network Name (SSID)................. XNSYS
Wireless LAN Profile Name........................ XNSYS
Hotspot (802.11u)................................ Not Supported
Connected For ................................... 2499 secs
BSSID............................................ 
Channel.......................................... 100
IP Address....................................... 10.1.1.100
Gateway Address.................................. 10.1.1.1
Netmask.......................................... 255.255.255.0
IPv6 Address..................................... 
IPv6 Address..................................... 
Association Id................................... 15 
Authentication Algorithm......................... Open System--More-- or (q)uit
Reason Code...................................... 1 
Client IPSK-TAG.................................. N/A
Status Code...................................... 0 
Session Timeout.................................. 0 
Client CCX version............................... No CCX support
QoS Level........................................ Platinum
Avg data Rate.................................... 0
Burst data Rate.................................. 0
Avg Real time data Rate.......................... 0
Burst Real Time data Rate........................ 0
Avg Uplink data Rate............................. 0
Burst Uplink data Rate........................... 0
Avg Uplink Real time data Rate................... 0
Burst Uplink Real Time data Rate................. 0
802.1P Priority Tag.............................. disabled
Security Group Tag............................... Unknown(0)
KTS CAC Capability............................... No
Qos Map Capability............................... No
WMM Support...................................... Enabled
 APSD ACs....................................... BK BE VI VO 
Current Rate..................................... m4 ss3
Supported Rates.................................. 6.0,9.0,12.0,18.0,24.0,36.0,
 ............................................. 48.0,54.0
Mobility State................................... Local
Mobility Move Count.............................. 0
Security Policy Completed........................ Yes
Policy Manager State............................. RUN
Pre-auth IPv4 ACL Name........................... none
Pre-auth IPv4 ACL Applied Status................. Unavailable
Pre-auth IPv6 ACL Name........................... none
Pre-auth IPv6 ACL Applied Status................. Unavailable
Pre-auth Flex IPv4 ACL Name...................... none
Pre-auth Flex IPv4 ACL Applied Status............ Unavailable
Pre-auth Flex IPv6 ACL Name...................... none
Pre-auth Flex IPv6 ACL Applied Status............ Unavailable
Pre-auth redirect URL............................ none
Audit Session ID................................. 0201010a000000089ae3065c
AAA Role Type.................................... none
Acct Interim Interval............................ 0
Local Policy Applied............................. none
IPv4 ACL Name.................................... none
AAA FlexConnect ACL Applied Status............... Unavailable
IPv4 ACL Applied Status.......................... Unavailable
IPv6 ACL Name.................................... none
IPv6 ACL Applied Status.......................... Unavailable
Post-auth Flex IPv6 ACL Name..................... none
Post-auth Flex IPv6 ACL Applied Status........... Unavailable
Layer2 ACL Name.................................. none
Layer2 ACL Applied Status........................ Unavailable
mDNS Status...................................... Disabled
mDNS Profile Name................................ none
No. of mDNS Services Advertised.................. 0
Policy Type...................................... WPA2
Authentication Key Management.................... PSK
Encryption Cipher................................ CCMP-128 (AES)
Protected Management Frame ...................... No
Management Frame Protection...................... No
EAP Type......................................... Unknown
FlexConnect Data Switching....................... Local
FlexConnect Dhcp Status.......................... Local
FlexConnect Vlan Based Central Switching......... No
FlexConnect Authentication....................... Central
FlexConnect Central Association.................. No
FlexConnect VLAN NAME............................ management
Quarantine VLAN.................................. 0
Access VLAN...................................... 0
Local Bridging VLAN.............................. 0
Client Capabilities:
 CF Pollable................................ Not implemented
 CF Poll Request............................ Not implemented
 Short Preamble............................. Not implemented
 PBCC....................................... Not implemented
 Channel Agility............................ Not implemented
 Listen Interval............................ 10
 Fast BSS Transition........................ Not implemented
 11v BSS Transition......................... Not implemented
Learned Ip Addresses for Flex Web-Auth ACL
--------------------------------------------
 Allow Roam Flag : TRUE
 Ipv4 Address Count : 0
 Ipv6 Address Count : 0
 IPv4 Addresses
 -----------------IPv6 Addresses
 -----------------Client Wifi Direct Capabilities:
 WFD capable................................ No
 Manged WFD capable......................... No
 Cross Connection Capable................... No--More-- or (q)uit
 Support Concurrent Operation............... No
Fast BSS Transition Details:
DNS Server details:
 DNS server IP ............................. 10.1.1.1
 DNS server IP ............................. 0.0.0.0
Assisted Roaming Prediction List details:
 Client Dhcp Required: False
Allowed (URL)IP Addresses
-------------------------AVC Profile Name: ............................... none
Fastlane Client: ................................ Yes
Max DSCP: ....................................... 46
Nas Identifier: ................................. CiscoME
Client Statistics:
 Number of Bytes Received................... 2421998108
 Number of Bytes Sent....................... 1862955416
 Total Number of Bytes Sent................. 1862955416
 Total Number of Bytes Recv................. 2421998108
 Number of Bytes Sent (last 90s)............ 20806776
 Number of Bytes Recv (last 90s)............ 12316659
 Number of Packets Received................. 2714285
 Number of Packets Sent..................... 2010501
 Number of Interim-Update Sent.............. 0
 Number of EAP Id Request Msg Timeouts...... 0
 Number of EAP Id Request Msg Failures...... 0
 Number of EAP Request Msg Timeouts......... 0
 Number of EAP Request Msg Failures......... 0
 Number of EAP Key Msg Timeouts............. 0
 Number of EAP Key Msg Failures............. 0
 Number of Data Retries..................... 0
 Number of RTS Retries...................... 0
 Number of Duplicate Received Packets....... 0
 Number of Decrypt Failed Packets........... 0
 Number of Mic Failured Packets............. 0
 Number of Mic Missing Packets.............. 0
 Number of RA Packets Dropped............... 0
 Number of Policy Errors.................... 0
 Radio Signal Strength Indicator............ -64 dBm
 Signal to Noise Ratio...................... 27 dB
 Client Detected as Inactive................ No
Client RBACL Statistics:
 Number of RBACL Allowed Packets............ 0
 Number of RBACL Denied Packets............. 0
Client Rate Limiting Statistics:
 Number of Data Packets Received............ 0
 Number of Data Rx Packets Dropped.......... 0
 Number of Data Bytes Received.............. 0
 Number of Data Rx Bytes Dropped............ 0
 Number of Realtime Packets Received........ 0
 Number of Realtime Rx Packets Dropped...... 0
 Number of Realtime Bytes Received.......... 0
 Number of Realtime Rx Bytes Dropped........ 0
 Number of Data Packets Sent................ 0
 Number of Data Tx Packets Dropped.......... 0
 Number of Data Bytes Sent.................. 0
 Number of Data Tx Bytes Dropped............ 0
 Number of Realtime Packets Sent............ 0
 Number of Realtime Tx Packets Dropped...... 0
 Number of Realtime Bytes Sent.............. 0
 Number of Realtime Tx Bytes Dropped........ 0
Nearby AP Statistics:
 AP3890.A534.EE9E(slot 0)
 antenna0: 98 secs ago.................... -64 dBm
 antenna1: 98 secs ago.................... -64 dBm
 AP3890.A534.EE9E(slot 1)
 antenna0: 97 secs ago.................... -66 dBm
 antenna1: 97 secs ago.................... -66 dBm

patoberli · ‎12-05-2018

Thanks, this shows various good values.

Here the more important ones:

QoS Level........................................ Platinum
WMM Support...................................... Enabled
Channel.......................................... 100
Current Rate..................................... m4 ss3
Policy Type...................................... WPA2
Authentication Key Management.................... PSK
Encryption Cipher................................ CCMP-128 (AES)
 Radio Signal Strength Indicator............ -64 dBm
 Signal to Noise Ratio...................... 27 dB

I'm surprised about the chosen QoS level, I guess you have changed that?

Otherwise you can see that the signal strength is good, encryption is also correct and WMM is enabled and the client is connected to channel 100, which means DFS is also working.

Regarding the speed, your client is connect with m4 ss3. That means 3 spatial streams and connection speed m4. Depending on your channel width (20, 40, 80 MHz) and guard interval (800, 400) that would equal to:

78, 86.7, 162, 180, 351 or 390 Mbit/s.

Details (check the table/image at the last post): https://community.cisco.com/t5/wireless-mobility-documents/how-to-interpret-802-11ac-datarates/ta-p/3151995?lightbox-message-images-3402917=13625i2A74E522D5789F13

What that output doesn't show is the noise the AP can see. Depending on that, the m4 is a tad on the low side or realistic.

Honestly I can't see much wrong at the moment, besides possibly the configured channel width.

timgrantham · ‎12-05-2018

The QoS level is automatically chosen when FastLane is enabled - which apparently is best practices for Apple Devices, according to the ME Best Practices Analyzer.

All is good at the moment as it's using channels 100 in 80MHz - if it switches to channels 153 with 80MHz width, that's where the problems occur as the device reduces signal strength thinking it's in Europe and limited to 25mw - when we had the old device and 802.11d configured, things would be fine as the device would switch to 200mw as permitted.