Nebula 20.00 - Fine tuning among frequencies - steering band 2.4-5 GHz

GiuseppeR

Hello everyone,

I’m having some issues (the client is telling me so but I have to verify… 😎) with WiFi on a site.

I went to its parameters and I see this “i” as info:

Band select is telling me that is NOT supported on 6GHz.

So the logic of that option of GHz management system switch should be: 2.4 switch to 5 if 5 has better signal. If 6 GHz has better signal than 5, how does it manage this frequency?

Zyxel_Tina

Hi @GiuseppeR,

Regarding your question, please allow me to clarify

The "Band Select" feature in Nebula is specifically designed to steer dual-band clients from the 2.4GHz band to the 5GHz band by delaying or suppressing probe responses on the 2.4GHz frequency. Here is how the logic works regarding the 6GHz band:

• Band Steering Limitations: Currently, Band Select does not support steering clients to the 6GHz band. This is because the discovery mechanism for 6GHz (WiFi 6E/7) differs from traditional 2.4/5GHz bands. In 6GHz, clients typically discover the network via Reduced Neighbor Reports (RNR) broadcast on the 2.4GHz or 5GHz radios, or through active scanning on specific Preferred Scanning Channels (PSC), making traditional band steering techniques inapplicable.
• Client-Led Selection: Transitions to 6GHz are primarily managed by the client device's own roaming and band-selection algorithms. If a client is WiFi 6E/7 capable and sees a 6GHz signal with better quality/throughput, it will prioritize that band independently of the "Band Select" toggle.

Recommendation (if applicable)

If 6 GHz adoption is a priority at the site, one option worth considering is to configure the SSID to broadcast on 5 GHz and 6 GHz only, disabling 2.4 GHz for that SSID. This removes the "comfort zone" of 2.4 GHz and encourages capable devices to connect on whichever of the two stronger bands their hardware supports.

That said, please keep in mind an important constraint: 6 GHz exclusively supports WPA3. This means only Wi-Fi 6E or Wi-Fi 7 clients with WPA3 capability will be able to see and connect to the 6 GHz radio. Legacy devices that do not support WPA3 will not see the 6 GHz SSID at all. If the site has a mixed device environment, a separate SSID retaining 2.4 GHz access may still be needed for older clients.

Zyxel_Tina

Hi @GiuseppeR,

Regarding your question, please allow me to clarify

The "Band Select" feature in Nebula is specifically designed to steer dual-band clients from the 2.4GHz band to the 5GHz band by delaying or suppressing probe responses on the 2.4GHz frequency. Here is how the logic works regarding the 6GHz band:

• Band Steering Limitations: Currently, Band Select does not support steering clients to the 6GHz band. This is because the discovery mechanism for 6GHz (WiFi 6E/7) differs from traditional 2.4/5GHz bands. In 6GHz, clients typically discover the network via Reduced Neighbor Reports (RNR) broadcast on the 2.4GHz or 5GHz radios, or through active scanning on specific Preferred Scanning Channels (PSC), making traditional band steering techniques inapplicable.
• Client-Led Selection: Transitions to 6GHz are primarily managed by the client device's own roaming and band-selection algorithms. If a client is WiFi 6E/7 capable and sees a 6GHz signal with better quality/throughput, it will prioritize that band independently of the "Band Select" toggle.

Recommendation (if applicable)

If 6 GHz adoption is a priority at the site, one option worth considering is to configure the SSID to broadcast on 5 GHz and 6 GHz only, disabling 2.4 GHz for that SSID. This removes the "comfort zone" of 2.4 GHz and encourages capable devices to connect on whichever of the two stronger bands their hardware supports.

That said, please keep in mind an important constraint: 6 GHz exclusively supports WPA3. This means only Wi-Fi 6E or Wi-Fi 7 clients with WPA3 capability will be able to see and connect to the 6 GHz radio. Legacy devices that do not support WPA3 will not see the 6 GHz SSID at all. If the site has a mixed device environment, a separate SSID retaining 2.4 GHz access may still be needed for older clients.

GiuseppeR

Hi @Zyxel_Tina

Thanks for the nice feedback.