Turn off 2.4 or turn power down?

[jfaaborg]

Looking for advice on either disabling 2.4 radios or turning the power down? I'm leaning towards turning the power down because I have seen apple devices (and possibly others) using the beacons to sync time and this would allow them, but not enough power for a laptop or phone to connect on 2.4 therefore going to 5G 

TIA

Jon Faaborg

[Scott Fella]

Jon,

I would lower the power. Try to have he 5ghz at least 3dbm higher than what the 2.4ghz is set to.

[jfaaborg]

I was looking at dropping the 2.4G down to the lowest 

[Scott Fella]

That is fine, just make sure 5ghz is at least 3dbm higher.

[Rasika Nayanajith]

I would leave 2.4GHz on 3 APs  in a given floor (as long as that cover the area) & turn off other AP's 2.4GHz radio.

To illustrate what Scott is suggesting (I would go with 6dB less in 2.4GHz) , see below FSPL (Free Space Path Loss) between 2.4GHz & 5GHz. (taken from https://www.semfionetworks.com/blog/free-space-path-loss-diagrams)

HTH

Rasika

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[Leo Laohoo]

I always recommend disabling low-speed data rates:  Disable Data Rates from 1- to 11 Mbps, make 12 and 24 Mandatory and the rest is Supported.  

Make sure your wireless clients can support this setting.  There are some wireless clients, like Ekahau-branded temperature tags for example, which require 1 Mbps.  iPhone 4 (and earlier) are single-band so turning off 2.4 Ghz can be counter-productive.

With this settings, keep an eye out on your clients.  Find the clients that are operating at 2.4 Ghz.  If these clients are single-band only, then try to get them upgraded.