wireless backhaul (5GHz) channel planning / mesh predictive site survey best practices

[Alexandre.Jr]

Hello,

Could you please help me with wireless backhaul (5GHz) channel planning / mesh predictive site survey best practices?  I've got an outdoor wireless network w/ 10RAPs and 50MAPs (E reg.domain) and wlc requires to be set the channel & tx power manually....(it was designed by someone a few years ago and just recently deployed. No 5GHz channel plan was provided, so I've to come up with one to be able to get the backhaul properly configured...)

Thank you in advance.

Alex

[Scott Fella]

I think what you need to identify is the RF utilization in the are that the rap/maps will be placed. You probably want to use UNI-1 as much as possible because of possible DFS that can make your mesh go down while it tries to determine the next channel. In E, you don’t have the availability to use UNI-3 unless you do, then just focus on UNI-1/3 for your Mesh.

[Alexandre.Jr]

Hi Scott, thanks for your reply. This is an outdoor deployment and in the -E reg. domain the UNII-1 channels are for indoor use.... What you suggest to do? I noticed radar activities on ch 100, 140 in this area. Should I go w/ the rest of the UNII-2C channels? What's about the channel width? Should I go w/ 40MHz channel width? Thanks in advance. Rgds, Alex

[Scott Fella]

If UNI-1 is strictly for indoor, then you have no other choice. You want to make sure you don’t have any channels that have been affected by radar. Collect more data and make sure no other channels have detected radar.

[alexandre.jr1]

Thank you Scott. Do you know any good learning material on wireless backhaul channel planning you could direct me to? I like to dig myself deeper in this topic. Thx in advance.

[Scott Fella]

I don’t know if any really. It’s almost like indoor back in the days when you had to do channel planning. These days, the wireless system can help make adjustments and there are tools you can use to look at the RF in the area. It really comes down to using a tool and determine what channels are clean and what channels you should avoid. Now it doesn’t mean that once you have setup your outdoor wireless that you will never have to adjust it, you might. Adjacent wireless networks, new wireless bridges crossing over your area, trees, obstructions, will make your environment change.

[alexandre.jr1]

I see...thank you Scott.
Another ones: 1) is it possible to group APs and have the WLC automatically assign channels from a list of specific dfs channels to it? e.g. group of outdoor APs which cannot use unii-1 channels as this are for indoor use.only would be assigned e.g only unii-2 channels
however other group e.g. indoor group would have another list of dfs channel list to be assigned... If so,.how could I do.it? 2) what's the best practice for.tx.power settings on backhaul? Global or custom settings?

[Scott Fella]

I would take a look at this guide first.

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/wireless/technology/mesh/8-0/design/guide/mesh80/Site_Preparation_and_Planning.html