How to view Dual band Clients

[warickwinter]

Hey Cisco Community 

I recently ran with a project using Aruba wireless equipment and they have a very cool command that displays the amount of DualBand (able to connect to either 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz) clients that are on the network and which network they ended up connecting to. 

With all the interference on the 2.4Ghz network I want to ensure that all my dual band clients connect to our 5Ghz network. 

We are running Cisco 5508 and 5520

Thanks

[Leo Laohoo]

I want to ensure that all my dual band clients connect to our 5Ghz network. 

Band select will help but it all boils down to how badly/well-written the wireless drivers are.  At the end of the day, it is the wireless clients (and not the AP or the WLC) that will make the final "say" as to which AP and which band to join.

[warickwinter]

Hey Leo 

Thanks for the reply, I understand what you are saying and this is why I want to find a command that can show me which network the dual band clients are connecting to. 

I want to make my 5Ghz network more attractive to these devices but I need stats to work with to do this. 

[Leo Laohoo]

Thanks for the "1 star".

[warickwinter]

You gave me a political answer back, my question was "is there a command that will show me the amount of dual band clients I have on my network and which network they chose"

Your answer was insightful and correct but I still have no idea if there is a command that will show me this. 

[Leo Laohoo]

Not that I know of. 

The command "sh client detail <MAC address>" will only show which AP can "hear" the specific wireless client.

[Leo Laohoo]

With all the interference on the 2.4Ghz network I want to ensure that all my dual band clients connect to our 5Ghz network. 

I currently have a room-full of BYODs.  Directly above the room is an old electric motor.  I don't know why but this electric motor generates interference that uses up channels 6 to 14. 

The 2/3 of the BYOD are old laptops and they refuse to get into 802.11a.  802.11b data rates were turned off but the only solution was to turn off 802.11b and this was the only time the laptops would join.  

Had the laptops been corporate-owned, I would've gotten SMS to deploy newer drivers.  But they weren't.  

[warickwinter]

How did you eventually pick up it was the old electric motor?

[Leo Laohoo]

How did you eventually pick up it was the old electric motor?

We walked around with a Fluke Air Check.  In the centre of the building, there is this big circumference of nothing but interference.  The interference goes vertical.

Then one day, the building had to turn off the HVAC off to do some maintenance.  When they did this, the interference dropped and CU dropped to <40% (from 85-90%).   We had them turn the HVAC on one at a time and once they turned on the electric motor to one of their blowers, CU went up to it's "normal" value of 85-90%.  

(This is the second time I've seen this issue.)

But going back to your question:   I want to ensure that all my dual band clients connect to our 5Ghz network

In our case, 2/3 of the BYOD wireless clients simply refused to join the 5 Ghz network and we were getting complaints about how bad the wireless network was.  We've told them the reason why and given them the recommendation of doing something about the old electric motor but, due to funding, they refused to lift a finger and it was better to blame "networks".  After all, they reasoned, it was working fine with the Aruba 802.11b-only network. In the end, the only way was to disable 2.4 Ghz in that particular building. 

Start with the wireless NIC drivers.  If they ain't up-to-date then all bets are off.  Next, turn on roaming "aggressiveness".  

[mohanak]

As of now no command to display all dual-band clients in network.

This can be a tricky question since even dual band capable clients do not always select the faster 5 GHz band. Since bandwidth in 2.4 GHz is going to be limited, 5 GHz must be relied on to reach the goal.

Dual band adapters have been shipping with most laptops for some time. This does not mean that every laptop is a dual band client, but many are. Simply having a dual band client does not guarantee that it will choose 5 GHz over 2.4 GHz. The Microsoft Windows operating system defaults to a Wi-Fi channel search that starts with the 5 GHz channel 36 and continues searching through all of the 5 GHz channels that the client is capable of. If no 5 GHz AP is found then it will continue the search in 2.4 GHz starting at channel 1. Unless the Windows default is changed or the user has chosen a third party Wi-Fi utility to set spectrum preference to 2.4 GHz, the client radio will first try to associate to a 5 GHz AP. Apple Computer's latest release for Atheros and Broadcom chipsets also searches 5 GHz first.

The Cisco BandSelect feature enables the infrastructure to optimize these types of client connection choices. Where possible, it helps make sure that devices are attaching to the 5 GHz spectrum channels where interference sources tend to be significantly lighter. A much greater channel selection leads to the alleviation of bandwidth challenges.

[warickwinter]

Hey Mohanak 

Thanks for the reply, pity there is no command currently