IoT devices: 802.11n with autonomous AP - 802.11g on WLC?

jmorrison_bcp · ‎06-15-2024

I get 802.11n connections with IoT devices (ESP, Tuya) on an old 1140N autonomous AP, but they only get 802.11g speeds on capwap/WLC.(mobility express, also tried converged wireless)

The WLC shows WMM disabled on the client. Wlan WMM is set to optional. IOS doesn't show WMM either but it still works. The IOS config is pretty basic.

IOS does not show WMM capability but it does for other clients. I still get MCS rates. As far as I can tell, wmm is disabled in IOS but it still supports 802.11n rates.

IOS 15.3(3)JD6 1140

State             : Assoc              Parent           : self
SSID              : xxxxx
VLAN              : 0
Hops to Infra     : 1                  Association Id   : 2
Clients Associated: 0                  Repeaters associated: 0
Tunnel Address    : 0.0.0.0
Key Mgmt type     : WPAv2 PSK          Encryption       : AES-CCMP
Current Rate      : m4-2               Capability       : ShortHdr
Supported Rates   : 1.0 2.0 5.5 11.0 6.0 9.0 12.0 18.0 24.0 36.0 48.0 54.0 m0-2 m1-2 m2-2 m3-2 m4-2 m5-2 m6-2 m7-2
Voice Rates       : disabled           Bandwidth        : 20 MHz
Signal Strength   : -70  dBm           Connected for    : 737260 seconds
Signal to Noise   : 23  dB            Activity Timeout : 34 seconds
Power-save        : Off                Last Activity    : 26 seconds ago
Apsd DE AC(s)     : NONE

WLC client details:

Client State : Associated
Wireless LAN Id : 1
Wireless LAN Name: xxxx
BSSID : xx.xx.xx
Connected For : 283 secs
Protocol : 802.11g
Channel : 6
Client IIF-ID : 0x80000008
ASIC : 0
IPv4 Address : Unknown
IPv6 Address : Unknown
Association Id : 3
Authentication Algorithm : Open System
Status Code : 0
Session Timeout : 0
Client CCX version : No CCX support
Input Policy Name  : unknown
Input Policy State : None
Input Policy Source : None
Output Policy Name  : unknown
Output Policy State : None
Output Policy Source : None
802.1P Priority Tag : Not supported
WMM Support : Disabled
Device Type : Unknown
Power Save : OFF
Current Rate : 36.0
Supported Rates : 1.0,2.0,5.5,11.0,6.0,9.0,12.0,18.0,24.0,36.0,48.0,54.0
Mobility State : Local
Mobility Move Count : 0
Security Policy Completed :
Policy Manager State : DHCP_REQD
Policy Manager Rule Created : Yes
NPU Fast Fast Notified : Yes
Last Policy Manager State : L2AUTHCOMPLETE
Client Entry Create Time : 158618497 seconds
Policy Type : WPA2
Authentication Key Management : PSK
Encryption Cipher : CCMP (AES)
Management Frame Protection : No
Protected Management Frame - 802.11w : No
EAP Type : Not Applicable
Interface : default
VLAN : 1
Quarantine VLAN : 0
Access VLAN : 1
WFD capable : No
Manged WFD capable : No
Cross Connection capable : No
Support Concurrent Operation : No
Client Capabilities
  CF Pollable : Not implemented
  CF Poll Request : Not implemented
  Short Preamble : Implemented
  PBCC : Not implemented
  Channel Agility : Not implemented
  Listen Interval : 102
  Fast BSS Transition : Not implemented
  11v BSS Transition  : Not implemented
Fast BSS Transition Details :

IOS config:

dot11 pause-time 100
dot11 syslog
!
dot11 ssid xxxx
   band-select
   authentication open
   authentication key-management wpa version 2
   guest-mode
   infrastructure-ssid
   wpa-psk ascii 7 xxx
dot11 arp-cache optional
dot11 phone

interface Dot11Radio0
 no ip address
 !
 encryption mode ciphers aes-ccm
 !
ssid xxx
 antenna gain 0
 beamform ofdm
 channel 2437
 station-role root ap-only
 bridge-group 1
 bridge-group 1 subscriber-loop-control
 bridge-group 1 spanning-disabled
 bridge-group 1 block-unknown-source
 no bridge-group 1 source-learning
 no bridge-group 1 unicast-flooding
!

RxTx · ‎06-16-2024

I have 35 IoT - wemos D1 devices connected on my AP's.

If I enable g data rates 1-11Mbps , all IoT devices are connected to g so I disabled data rates from 1-11Mbps, and all IoT devices are connected to n and with good speed almost all at 72Mb depend of signal quality; lowest is one IoT at Signal Strength: -68 dBm Signal Quality: 26 dB Connection Speed: 58 Mbps

If you want you can disable g (disable all data rates from 1 to 11Mbps ) and you can see if IoT will be connected at n but displayed as g as it does on some old wlc sw version.

jmorrison_bcp · ‎06-17-2024

What version of WLC? 8.10.185 won't let me disable all 1-11 rates - it says one has to be mandatory. I tried disabling 11g and they connected with 11b instead. I tried the same in a converged wireless that still supports 1140 and seems the same.

It's an ESP SDK/firmware problem - I found one that connects with 802.11n because it advertises WMM.
I'd like to convert or replace the 1140 autonomous APs but for now the old IOS APs have a feature/bug where they support 802.11n rates regardless of client WMM status.

RxTx · ‎06-17-2024

I am using custom Tasmota on all of my devices and I know that wifi library it is closed source and buggy and without WMM support.

you can setup one RF profile like this and it will work for 8.10.185:

edit:

Right now I am using this profile on my AP's

jmorrison_bcp · ‎06-17-2024

Right, I guess I need to use a custom profile.

Odd thing is Tasmota thinks it's connected with 802.11n - even when WLC says its 802.11g.
I changed platformio.ini to rebuild with an old SDK and WMM is now enabled

-D PIO_FRAMEWORK_ARDUINO_ESPRESSIF_SDK22x_190313

ESP seems to stick with an AP even after reboots/power cycle. IOS autonomous shows WMM now. MCS rates, same as before.

Clients Associated: 0                  Repeaters associated: 0
Tunnel Address    : 0.0.0.0
Key Mgmt type     : WPAv2 PSK          Encryption       : AES-CCMP
Current Rate      : m3-2               Capability       : WMM ShortHdr
Supported Rates   : 1.0 2.0 5.5 11.0 6.0 9.0 12.0 18.0 24.0 36.0 48.0 54.0 m0-2 m1-2 m2-2 m3-2 m4-2 m5-2 m6-2 m7-2
Voice Rates       : disabled           Bandwidth        : 20 MHz
Signal Strength   : -78  dBm           Connected for    : 27 seconds
Signal to Noise   : 15  dB            Activity Timeout : 60 seconds
Power-save        : On                 Last Activity    : 0 seconds ago
Apsd DE AC(s)     : NONE

I had to shut Dot11Radio0 to get it to move to a WLC AP where I can see WMM is enabled. Speed is only 54 but I haven't updated the rf-profile.

WMM Support...................................... Enabled
  APSD ACs.......................................  BK  BE  VI  VO
Current Rate..................................... 54.0
Supported Rates.................................. 1.0,2.0,5.5,11.0,6.0,9.0,
    ............................................. 12.0,18.0,24.0,36.0,48.0,
    ............................................. 54.0

RxTx · ‎06-18-2024

for autonomous I use this settings:

speed basic-12.0 18.0 basic-24.0 36.0 48.0 54.0 m0. m1. m2. m3. m4. m5. m6. m7. m8. m9. m10. m11. m12. m13. m14. m15. m16. m17. m18. m19. m20. m21. m22. m23.

I don't have much expectations from IoT devices, mostly are China clones and are build to be cheap, I had a lot of problems with wemos D1 mini clones including a full bad batch with Tx problems due to bad capacitor near antenna.

On mine if they lose connection to wifi for any reason they hardly reconnect back quick so I set a rule with a timer that will restart the device in case it can't ping one IP for 600sec.