E400 low throughput in 5 GHz

In the office I had been testing a Ubnt Unifi for a while and I always got 80-90 mbps speed tests.  Recently with Verizon I was able to enable WiFi calling.  Nearly every call I'd have some issues with quality and so I wanted to try the E400 that I've found works great at home.

I updated the device before I even put it in the ceiling tile and it is running 3.1-r20.  The office is small and the signals are within 3db of -48 to each device (laptops, PCs, phones).

Phone is using 2.4.  Computeres are all 5 GHz.  Phone speed tests (I host an Ookla Speedtest) are 80+ mbps.  Computer speed tests are 20-23 mbps.

I've tried different channels and sizes - 20 and 80 MHz channels - with no chance in performance in 5 GHz.

Is anyone aware of issues with 5 GHz?

jluthman wrote:

In the office I had been testing a Ubnt Unifi for a while and I always got 80-90 mbps speed tests.  Recently with Verizon I was able to enable WiFi calling.  Nearly every call I'd have some issues with quality and so I wanted to try the E400 that I've found works great at home.

I updated the device before I even put it in the ceiling tile and it is running 3.1-r20.  The office is small and the signals are within 3db of -48 to each device (laptops, PCs, phones).

Phone is using 2.4.  Computeres are all 5 GHz.  Phone speed tests (I host an Ookla Speedtest) are 80+ mbps.  Computer speed tests are 20-23 mbps.

I've tried different channels and sizes - 20 and 80 MHz channels - with no chance in performance in 5 GHz.

Is anyone aware of issues with 5 GHz?


What type of computer is this (Mac, windows? Do you happen to know the type of wireless adapter). Also, what is the configuration in terms of security, fast roaming, 802.11w on the SSID? 

Also, what happens if you connect the same computer to the 2.4GHz radio instead of the 5GHz?

thanks.

Windows 10 on Thinkpad T530.  Intel Centrino Ultimate N 6300 AGN

It's WPA2 PSK

fast roaming is disabled

802.11w is optional

I don't think I can force bands with my laptop.  I could disable the 5 GHz on the E400 and test, would you like me to try that?


@jluthman wrote:

Windows 10 on Thinkpad T530.  Intel Centrino Ultimate N 6300 AGN

It's WPA2 PSK

fast roaming is disabled

802.11w is optional

I don't think I can force bands with my laptop.  I could disable the 5 GHz on the E400 and test, would you like me to try that?


Thanks. Could you please try disabling 802.11w to see if that makes a difference?

Also, yes please disable 5GHz on that SSID just as an experiment to see what throughput the laptop gets on 2.4GHz? (In the WLAN configuration section there is an option called 'Radios' that allows selection of either or both bands)

Logged into the radio and found all of my devices are now on 2.4

Laptop speedtest was 90x90

disabled 5 ghz radio, connected back up after soft reset and speedtest is 91x79

802.1w disabled (per SSID, not band specific), enabled 5 ghz radio, all devices on 2.4 still, speedtest 90x91


@jluthman wrote:

Logged into the radio and found all of my devices are now on 2.4

Laptop speedtest was 90x90

disabled 5 ghz radio, connected back up after soft reset and speedtest is 91x79

802.1w disabled (per SSID, not band specific), enabled 5 ghz radio, all devices on 2.4 still, speedtest 90x91


Thanks, so the 2.4GHz radio numbers are good, does seem to be something going on with 5GHz and that client. We'll try and recreate in our lab.

One more thing: what channel is the 5GHz radio on? Wondering why the laptop did not associate with it at the last step there. If we are on a DFS channel, it could be that we are still scanning or the laptop does not support the channel, and moving the radio to 36 or 149 might help to see if 802.11w on 5GHz radio is mattering there.

My initial testing I did 36 and 48.  The Unifi was 36 and worked for many months so I wanted to use that same frequency space.  Currently it is set for auto non DFS.

I don't believe it had ever used DFS nor can I even select it manually.

Manually to 36 again and computers are on 5 GHz.  Speedtest 92x93

149 computers are 5 GHz again 91x92

It appears there's an issue with 802.11w on this device?


@jluthman wrote:

My initial testing I did 36 and 48.  The Unifi was 36 and worked for many months so I wanted to use that same frequency space.  Currently it is set for auto non DFS.

I don't believe it had ever used DFS nor can I even select it manually.

Manually to 36 again and computers are on 5 GHz.  Speedtest 92x93

149 computers are 5 GHz again 91x92

It appears there's an issue with 802.11w on this device?


thanks a lot for helping narrow this down. Yes does seem to be 11w plus 5GHz causing issues. For now can you please leave 11w disabled?

We'll investigate and work on a fix in an upcoming sw release.

Of course.  If you need me to test in the future let me know.  Ideally email me as I may not see future posts.


@jluthman wrote:

Of course.  If you need me to test in the future let me know.  Ideally email me as I may not see future posts.


will do. Thanks.

Hi guys,


The latest software release has the same issue.

With 802.11w the throughput on 5Ghz(ac) is 30-40Mbps maximum.

Thank You for sharing your observations.

  • We knew the issue and our team is working on it.
  • If PMF is not mandatory in your setup/installation, please disable it.

Hi, I’m not sure if this is related but I found that when I turn on 802.11w (set to optional) pinging another host on my network from my laptop - approx every 4th ping has high latency, often as high as 800ms. This is also noticeable in remote desktop session where the screen freezes every few seconds.

As soon as I set the 802.11w to disabled the problem goes away. The laptop is an HP Folio 9470m with an Intel(R) Centrino(R) Advanced-N 6235 wireless adaptor.

I haven’t tried with any other clients yet. Will try to do that later today or tomorrow.

Cheers,

Rhys

We had a site experiencing extremely low (30Mbits or less) 5ghz performance, disabled 802.11w and now seeing 220 Mbit speeds.

Running latest firmware 3.1.1.1

Tim