Spreading client connections between two adjacent APs

[SungpillHan3988]

Hello experts, 

We have two APs, A in main conference room and B in small conference room and there is drywall between two rooms, but the both APs are very close in distance, maybe 20feet. From last week, we have employees work in both room due to covid-19 and 6 feet rule. The problem happens when there more people in main conference and they are all connected to A, but B has only 1 client connected. 

Is there a way to spread client connections from A to B like load balancing? In Cisco WLC, there's a setting called 'Maximum allowed clients per AP Radio' but it's on WLAN setting, not AP. So, not sure if there's any other way to do than this setting..

And my AP is dual band AP. So does it mean the max connections are 200 for 2.4Ghz, 200 for 5Ghz for this AP? 

Model AIR-AP2802I-B-K9
Primary Software Version 8.2.170.0
IOS Version 8.2.170.0

[Scott Fella · Accepted solution]

Don’t worry about that. The client devices choose and the signal is probably good, so no issues on which one they connect to. When you start trying to load balance or tweak the environment because you see something you don’t like, that will cause you problems. Client devices make the final decision on what ap it will join, keep that in mind.

[Karsten Iwen]

The more interesting question would be: Are you facing any problems with most clients on AP1 or would you just "feel better" with clients connected evenly? And about how many clients are you talking here?

[SungpillHan3988]

Yes we are facing issues with AP 1. users say they get disconnected multiple times ( once every 1 or 2 hour) a day.

I checked the log (how ap eventlog Cisco_AP) but it shows only log about client connects, nothing like AP down or client get disconnected.

Clients  in AP 1 is about 20 connected daily

[Karsten Iwen · Accepted solution]

20 simultaneous clients are not really that much and the AP should be able to handle that. Given that you are using a quite old software-release I expect that you also have pretty old APs. Here one problem could be that one AP can not deliver the bandwidth that 20 users demand nowadays. You also should check your config for wireless best practices.

I would first do a detailed failure-log with things like:

• which clients get disconnected at which time
• are that always the same clients ore are all affected
• are they all on 5 GHz, on 2.4 GHz or is the problem on both bands
• if you find a client that disconnects more often than the others, I would start a client debug for this mac-address

[Scott Fella · Accepted solution]

I would first upgrade the controller to a recommended version.
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/wireless/wireless-lan-controller-software/200046-tac-recommended-aireos.html <>

Then also make sure that the Nic’s on the devices are all updated. The you start to troubleshoot, look at what devices do not have issue vs devices that have issues. You might find that there is a unique driver image, maybe wireless profiles defined wrong, multiple wireless profiles or even maybe old devices. Then you would look at how your plan is configured and then maybe start looking at features that might of been enabled that you should try to disable. Also look at if this has been happening for a long time or not and if there was a change that might of cause the issues.

[SungpillHan3988]

I disabled the channel 2.4Ghz on AP1 after I see the interference grew with rogue AP. 

The additional thing that I found was either I had to change preferred channel for everyone to 5Ghz or disable the 2.4Ghz in AP. When even single client uses the  troubled 2.4Ghz, it drops out others and make the channel unstable. Right now, everyone uses 5Ghz and no single drop at all.