802.11an 40 Mhz channels with WLC (7.4)

[serotonin888]

Hi

I would be interested to learn if anyone has enabled 40mhz channels in 802.11an.

Did this cause you any issues?

Any client compatibility issues?

What about sites with a mix of 802.11a and 802.11an AP's? 

(I'd be inclined to enable this in sites with only 802.11an AP's. but would appreciate the thoughts\experience of others)

Do the clients become sticky to the 802.11an AP's?

Thanks in advance!

[Leo Laohoo · Accepted solution]

I've enabled 40 Mhz since deploying 802.11n APs in 2009.  

The only issue I have noticed are the drivers for 802.11n wireless NIC needs to be updated.  We had cases where the clients would report there's not enough wireless signal even though they are standing underneath the AP.  We soon discovered that the drivers were out of date.  Going to get the "updated" drivers from the laptop manufacturers website was not a smart move (because the drivers were equally out of date).  The solution was to go to the wireless NIC manufacturer's website and pull the latest drivers.  This fixes the issue.  Now, when we push updates to the laptops, we make sure the wireless NIC driver is one of them.  

[serotonin888]

Thanks for the reply.

I think initially we'll deploy this in greenfield sites where updating the drivers won't be so critical (they never had wireless before :) ).

We should have a fairly standard deployment of laptops so if issue are encountered we can plan to update the drivers globally before enabling at site that already have wireless.

Appreciate your response.

[Muhammad Munir]

Hi

I agree with Leo. Just to add it, it also depend upon the WLC physical environment. for more information, please go through the following link. Here we are assuming that you are using 5500 series WLC.

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/wireless/controller/5500/install/guide/ctrl5500.html

[Abha Jha]

It is always suggested to use 7.6 firmware version as that is more stable than 7.4

[Abhishek Abhishek]

The drivers for 802.11n wireless NIC needs to be updated, Go to the company website and het the latest NIC drivers updated.