{"id":309,"date":"2016-08-31T08:30:21","date_gmt":"2016-08-31T12:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/badger-fi.com\/?p=309"},"modified":"2016-08-31T08:30:21","modified_gmt":"2016-08-31T12:30:21","slug":"single-channel-architecture-and-virtual-cell-and-its-effect-on-co-channel-contention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.badger-fi.com\/?p=309","title":{"rendered":"Single Channel Architecture and Virtual Cell and its Effect on Co-Channel Contention"},"content":{"rendered":"

Before you go ripping me, hear me out.<\/p>\n

I was recently called out to a high school who had put in a trouble incident indicating that they were experiencing slow wireless performance and client disconnections in a particular area of the building.\u00a0 When I arrived I found that there was a high concentration of clients in the cafeteria which numbered around 200, 150 of those on a single Meru AP832\u00a0 (clients were primarily on one side).\u00a0 Currently we employ AP832s (3×3 AC) in high density areas unless it is recent construction in which case the whole school is done with the AP832.\u00a0 The cafeteria in this high school along with all other high schools in the district qualify as high density areas and are outfitted accordingly.\u00a0 I fired up MetaGeek inSSIDer for a quick glance to make sure everything looked ok.\u00a0 I quickly noticed that I had two BSSIDs on the same channel very close in dBm on both bands, which we all know is cause for concern.\u00a0 My man Rowell Dionicio<\/a> explains this issue well in a recent blog post at Network Computing<\/a>.\u00a0 You might be thinking, “Wait a tick #MeruMitch!\u00a0 Isn’t that what single channel architecture is?”\u00a0 Not really.\u00a0 In this particular instance I experienced a bug where a handful of AP1020s (2×2 N) thought that one of two radios inside were a radio from an AP832.<\/p>\n

\"Single
Single Meru AP1020. The 2.4 GHz radio thinks it is in an AP832, where the 5 GHz radio is correct<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This effectively broke my virtual cell (virtual BSSID) which in turn created co-channel contention.\u00a0 For those not in the know, a virtual cell is a virtual BSSID that Meru groups all of it’s physical BSSIDs behind to create it’s “special sauce single channel architecture<\/a>“.\u00a0 Watch the video and… DON’T SHOOT THE MESSENGER!<\/p>\n

At the time I did not capture any further information so for the sake of this blog post I re-created the scenario at my house.\u00a0 Going forward please pretend that 5NINER-Meru<\/strong> = LCPS<\/strong>.\u00a0 Also the “Shed” AP was actually moved into my house for the purpose of this dramatic re-creation.<\/p>\n

\"5NINERBrokenCell\"<\/p>\n

\"5NINERBrokenCellPhysical\"<\/p>\n

\"5NINERESSCells\"
Broken virtual cell. Two AP832s on 1\/100 and one AP1020 on 1\/100. The AP832s retain their virtual BSSID, but the AP1020 being on the same channel creates another virtual cell which is causing co-channel contention.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There were a total of seven AP1020s which suffered from this bug and a few of them were within hearing distance of where this high concentration of clients was located.\u00a0 I checked the controller and found the channel utilization through the roof in this area.\u00a0 I removed the corrupted APs from the controller and added them back.\u00a0 I set all AP1020 radios back to 11\/44 and AP832 radios back to 1\/149.\u00a0 You did read that correctly…ALL.\u00a0 Both virtual cells were back in business.<\/p>\n

\"5NINERProperVCell\"\"5NINERProperVCellPhysical\"<\/p>\n

\"5NINERProperESSCells\"
Two unique properly configured virtual cells. Same APs as before. Two AP832s on 1\/100 and a single AP1020 on 11\/44.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ok, now pick yourself back up off the floor and\/or clean up the brain matter that exploded all over the wall just now when your head exploded.\u00a0 Brain matter on the wall is unbecoming.\u00a0 I digress.\u00a0 Once the physical radios were all back behind the virtual BSSIDs created by the ESS profile, the client’s performance dramatically improved and everyone was happy again.<\/p>\n

You may argue that this would be simply a one off issue due to the AP radio corruption that took place.\u00a0 In fact, it is not.\u00a0 It would be very easy to have a problem like this occur with the APs working as they should in an improperly designed network.\u00a0 To properly design a Meru single channel wireless network you should group like model APs in their own virtual cell when in a mixed model environment.\u00a0 A group of AP832 AP’s virtual cell will have a different virtual BSSID from a group of AP1020 APs which in turn means each virtual cell should be assigned unique channels.\u00a0 They can all happily co-exist in the same ESS profile though.<\/p>\n

\"5NINERESSCellsExplained\"<\/a>
Same ESS profile. Broken virtual cell causing CCC.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"5NINERProperESSCellsExplained\"<\/a>
Same ESS profile. Proper channel assignment creating two unique virtual cells.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I understand the controversial side of single channel architecture but the fact of the matter is that it works great when it is designed and installed CORRECTLY!\u00a0 All the same RF fundamentals, designing, deploying, etc are relevant when using single channel architecture.\u00a0 Poor marketing among other things give it a bad name.\u00a0 Taking it out of the box, racking the equipment, throwing everything on the same channel, and letting it rip WILL yield poor performance.\u00a0 Counter to some marketing I have read, single channel architecture is NOT for the network group that “doesn’t have time to worry about maintaining the wireless network” or “doesn’t have time to properly survey.”\u00a0 That is real folks!\u00a0 I have read or heard that garbage before.\u00a0 So please…I ask from my little single channel heart, give me and my precious FortiRu a chance.\u00a0 We definitely deserve a spot “in the ballpark” among the big boys.<\/p>\n

Yours in loving single channel goodness,<\/p>\n

#MeruMitch<\/p>\n

PS – There will be a Whiskey and Wireless<\/a> podcast in the near future where I talk about my single channel adventures.\u00a0 Keep an eye on the Whiskey and Wireless Twitter feed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Before you go ripping me, hear me out. I was recently called out to a high school who had put in a trouble incident indicating that they were experiencing slow wireless performance and client disconnections in a particular area of the building.\u00a0 When I arrived I found that there was a high concentration of clients […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":345,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[41,42,85,114,117,130],"class_list":["post-309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wifi","tag-co-channel-interference","tag-co-channrl-contention","tag-meru","tag-sca","tag-single-channel-architecture","tag-virtual-cell"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.badger-fi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.badger-fi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.badger-fi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.badger-fi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.badger-fi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.badger-fi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.badger-fi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.badger-fi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.badger-fi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}