WLC 5520 - WIFI6

[lAhmed Saadl]

Hello,

I have AIR-CT5520-K9, with AP 9115 series. I have 2 questions; how could I totally enable WIFI 6 features, and if enabled, would that impact current connected users on WIFI 5 or 4?

Thank you

[marce1000]

 - You need to run a software version on the controller that can support the 9115 series :
                https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/wireless/compatibility/matrix/compatibility-matrix.html

   If done Wifi6 is available by default ; (if nothing else is done) ; wifi5 or 4 users will be able to connect (backwards compatible)

 M.

[Rich R]

I'll just add one caveat to that - your clients must be using up to date drivers.  For example some older Intel drivers could not connect at all when WiFi 6 is enabled.  Other older equipment using older drivers might be similarly affected.  Some of our customers encountered the Intel problem when we first started deploying WiFi 6.
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000054799/wireless.html
Minimum driver version to resolve that was 19.10.17.2 25/03/2019

More recently Intel had problems with their WiFi 6 drivers too so even their AX products need the latest drivers installed to work reliably.

[lAhmed Saadl]

Yes, Thanks Marce and Rich for these crucial updates.

So, please correct me if I am wrong with my statement;

"from Client side, latest version of WiFi driver should be installed, and then if the features is already enabled on controller an AP supports it, the client should connect dynamically without any issues."

Is there a feature act as a roaming? I mean what if for some reasons we enabled WiFi 6 and the client was unable to connect; is there a way to dynamically enforce selecting the most appropriate Wifi 5 or even 4? if not, how may I detected these issues to rollback? I mean how proactive could I know that some of clients are facing issues in connecting to WiFi? same as know troubleshooting ways?

--

From WLC side, is enabling that feature (802.11ax) the only thing to provide WiFi 6?

Thanks again

 

[lAhmed Saadl]

Also, can we customize enabling WiFi 6 on specific SSID, just for initial testing or it is just a global configuration that cannot be customized?

[JPavonM]

@lAhmed Saadl take special care not to mix AP from different generations (Wi-Fi 6 with Wi-Fi 4/5) as under that scenario devices would disconnect to re-negotiate association with the new AP, even when roaming from Wi-Fi 5 AP to Wi-Fi 6 (in this scenario it is up to the driver to do it or not, so try to avoid it).

Regarding enabling Wi-Fi 6 specifically to some SSIDs, yes this is possible to disable 802.11ax features under SSID configuration so to behave like a 802.11ac access point. This is a workaround to support all legacy devices that do not support Wi-Fi 6 headers, like barcode scanners and others.

And for your question, if the client do not support Wi-Fi 6 it will connect using lower standards, it won't take care of the Wi-Fi 6 headers. But if the client is Wi-Fi capable and for some reason it fails to join using Wi-Fi 6, it will connect using lower standards, but there could be issues with drivers impacting that logic, that's why it's so important to keep drivers updated to latest as @Rich R commented before.