AP1010 + Symbol MC3000 Series scanners

[oj88]

A client of mine has 14 Aironet 1010 AP's all around the warehouse (controlled by a WLC4402). The problem is, the signal strength shown on the Wavelink TelnetCE application as one red bar to two yellow bars, sometimes two green bars when you're really close to a 1010 AP.

Here's the weird part. Using a single Aironet 350 AP with rubber duck antennas, the signal strength goes up to 3 to 4 green bars.

We're still in the testing stage and only one scanner is currently being used at one time.

I have left the power and channel settings to auto on the WLC, and are currently automatically set at maximum for all AP's (power Level 1).

What am I missing?

Though, I currently have an open TAC ticket for this, I just think that a few extra dozen brains might help speed things up.

Thanks!

[john.preves]

Your cells are at max power. You are really close to an AP but you have no idea if that is the AP you are looking at in the client utility. (It probably isn't).

Of course without a survey it could be anything, but your first step is to record all of the radio MAC addresses for the facility and figure out where they are.

Then using your utility tool thing you need to see when you are associated to what when you roam etc..

My guess is you are stuck on AP's that are too far away, instead of the one you think it is.

The more I read about these LWAPP controlers the more I want to turn the Auto RF off. I haven't actually touched one yet, but so far all I have seen is problems.

[magress]

The biggest misconception of auto-rf is that it is supposed to be used in conjunction with a site survey - not as a replacement. You must make sure you meet the minimum requirements of auto-rf. Have you checked the noise/interference profiles of the access points under the 'Monitor' tab on the GUI? What version of code are you running and is the problem the same with a different type of client or specific to this client?

-Mark

[oj88]

Thanks for the replies.

I have set the tx threshold on the b/g band to -76dB from -65dB. There was a marginal improvement on the average SNR across all the b/g channels as the TX power on some radios went down a few notches. However, it still shows one red bar (poor) to two yellow bars (fair) in the Wavelink TelnetCE running on the Symbol MC3000. But if I exit the application, WinCE's Wireless Status utility shows full-scale and "Excellent". I'm at a loss on where TelnetCE is getting its signal strength readings.

I then got a chance to try another wireless scanner; an Intermec CK30. To my surprise, this dinosaur reports 2/3 to full-scale in most areas.

I did the site-survey using a laptop and OmniPeek and I did not experience any problems. I also did a walk-through with my Palm PDA, also with good results. It's just that the TelnetCE application is reporting the signal strength lower than it is actually receiving.

So here's the bottom line:

WinXP - "Excellent" and full-scale

PalmOS PDA - 80-95% scale

Intermec CK30 - 2/3 to full-scale

WinCE - "Excellent" and full-scale

Walvelink TelnetCE running on the same WinCE device - "Poor" with one red bar fluctuating to two yellow bars

See the attachments.

[magress]

There might be a few settings we can adjust to improve this. If you are running 4.0 code trying disabling aironet ext. and MFP under the wlan settings. If the above does not yeild any results trying disabling DTPC support under global RF under the wireless tab.

-Mark

[oj88]

Sorry it took me a while to update this thread.

Anyway, I think we've got the problem licked. The vendor who supplied the Symbol scanners updated the installed Wavelink TelnetCE application. Right now, signal strength meter on the said application is showing 3 green bars to full-scale (5 bars).

As I had hoped, it was just a cosmetic problem, which the patch took care of. In real SAP transactions that they did, they didn't encounter any disconnection issues.

Thanks to all that helped.