Lower, legacy data rates disable

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Levente
Levente Posts: 9
First Anniversary First Comment
edited April 2021 in Nebula
While this possibility is existing in a controller based environment, Nebula will not offer it for admins. It would add a lot more airtime capacity by disabling data rates from 1-11Mbps.

Will you consider adding this feature anytime soon?

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  • Zyxel_Joslyn
    Zyxel_Joslyn Posts: 360  Zyxel Employee
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    Hi @Levente

    If you want to restrict the connection of 802.11a/b/g stations, you can enable the function as "Allow 802.11ax/ac/n stations only". Access point > Configure > Radio settings. If turned ON, legacy clients including 802.11a/b/g will not be allowed to associate.


    Joslyn
  • Peppino
    Peppino Posts: 138  Ally Member
    First Anniversary 10 Comments Friend Collector
    edited December 2020
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    Hi Joslyn,

    This is not the same. That would also exclude anything above 11Mbps, including 54 Mbps IoT devices. Blocking data rates from 1-11Mbps is quite  an "industry standard", all vendors have it, and it is even possible to set this by using a phisycal controller. This is just another Nebula limitation like the MAC filtering. Blocking 12-54 has a lot of disadvantages.
  • Levente
    Levente Posts: 9
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    Hi Joslyn,

    1. Since beacons are sent at the lowest "basic rate" of the BSS, disabling lower data rates forces beacons to use higher data rates and reduces network overhead. Be sure to test changing data rates prior to implementation to ensure adequate coverage still exists and that no impact to clients in your environment results from this change. A good starting point is to disable the 1-2 Mbps 802.11b data rates!
    Here is an example. Assuming 6 SSIDs per-AP, 100ms TBTT, and 3 co-channel APs in the same area (within signal range to induce CCA medium busy backoff amongst each other):

    This assumes a 180 byte beacon frame, which is probably too low for modern WLANs which have added many features that result in more Information Elements. For example, I typically measure beacons at around 370-400 bytes today. 802.11u and Hotspot 2.0 capabilities will increase this further. So, these calculations on bandwidth utilization are probably about half of what they are today. Double these numbers :)

       Beacon Data Rate     Resulting Channel Bandwidth Utilization
       1 Mbps               25.92%
       2 Mbps               12.96%
       5.5 Mbps             4.71%
       11 Mbps              2.36%
       6 Mbps (802.11a/g)   4.32%
       12 Mbps (802.11a/g)  2.16%

    Same network example, now with only 3 SSIDs per-AP:

       Beacon Data Rate     Resulting Channel Bandwidth Utilization
       1 Mbps               12.96%
       2 Mbps               6.48%
       5.5 Mbps             2.36%
       11 Mbps              1.18%
       6 Mbps (802.11a/g)   2.16%
       12 Mbps (802.11a/g)  1.08%

    Limiting active SSIDs and disabling lower data rates can make a HUGE difference!
  • Zyxel_Joslyn
    Zyxel_Joslyn Posts: 360  Zyxel Employee
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    Hi,

    According to your description, it should be rate control. This feature is already in our feature and will be enhanced in 2021 March. We will add a function to let customer choose which beacon rate is needed. 

    Joslyn

  • Levente
    Levente Posts: 9
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    Hi Joslyn,

    This is excellent news, thank you very much. I look forward to see this implemented in the next release.

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