Microsoft Surface wifi clients on C9800LC / C9115AXI-B APs

[MauryJ]

Hello all,

We have been using a C9800L with the 9115 APs for about a year now and it has generally been a good experience.   Recently, some of our users have been issued new Microsoft Surface laptops, using the Intel WiFi6 AX201 160Mhz adapter.   At least two of these users are experiencing frequent wifi disconnects, sometimes while sitting stationary, and sometimes while moving around different areas.   And the clients don't automatically reconnect to the wifi.

I am collecting traces for these clients in anticipation of needing to open a TAC case, but, I wanted to throw this out there to see if anyone else has seen similar behavior with these PCs.     

One thing we tried is disabling 802.1ax on these machines (limiting to 802.1ac), but, we still saw the same behavior.    And its only the newer Surface laptops that are having the issue, which is a minority of our wireless clients.   The network is using WPA2-Enterprise and MS PEAP.

[marce1000]

   1) Make sure the wireless drivers on the involved devices are up to date
   2) You can do client debugging indeed according to https://logadvisor.cisco.com/logadvisor/wireless/9800/9800ClientConnectivity , you can have Radio Active traces processed and analyzed with : https://cway.cisco.com/wireless-debug-analyzer
   3) Have a checkup review of the C9800L configuration with the CLI command : show tech wireless , feed the output into : https://cway.cisco.com/wireless-config-analyzer , this probably does not relate to the (initial) problem but it remains useful to do in many cases , 

 M.

[Rich R]

As Marce said there are numerous known major issues with the Intel drivers so step number 1 is to make sure the drivers are fully up to date:
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/download/19351/windows-10-and-windows-11-wi-fi-drivers-for-intel-wireless-adapters.html

You didn't mention what version of software you're running on the 9800-L - refer to TAC recommended versions below and make sure you're up to date.

[Leo Laohoo]

Try configuring only 20- or 40 Mhz channel bonding. 

Please confirm the issue is affecting only Intel-based wireless NIC and is also affecting RealTek wireless NIC.

[Leo Laohoo · Accepted solution]

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@MauryJ wrote:
We have been using a C9800L with the 9115 APs for about a year now and it has generally been a good experience.   Recently, some of our users have been issued new Microsoft Surface laptops, using the Intel WiFi6 AX201 160Mhz adapter.

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This is a known bug with the wireless NIC drivers which affects Realtek RTL88xx and Intel AX2xx.

For Realtek RTL88xx, the wireless NIC driver should be, at a minimum, 6001.10.352.0 (and later).  Refer to CSCwf03870. 

For Intel-based AX2xx, the wireless NIC drivers should be 22.200.2.1 (and later) or 22.220.0.0 (and later).  Refer to CSCwe50033.