Asus Lyra wifi mesh system- Band selection criteria? Signal strength over speed, or???

[njweb]

How does Lyra mesh wifi system (AC2200 version) determine whether to connect a wireless client (e.g. Dell XPS 13 9350 with Killer 1535 wifi card) to 5 GHz vs 2.4 GHz? The reason I ask is my current Asus RT-AC5300 router (using the same SSID for all 3 bands and Smart Connect Off) selected the 2.4 GHz band today. It started off connected to 5 GHz and then shifted to 2.4 GHz despite not moving the laptop. Thus my downstream throughput is 38 Mbps (due to it selecting 2.4 GHz) instead of 200+ Mbps when I connect with 5 GHz
Can I assume the client (e.g. laptop's wifi card driver) is not the one selecting which band to connect to?

My RT-AC5300 works great and I get good range throughout a large home, but this selection of 2.4 GHz makes me wonder if Lyra would have selected 5 GHz in the same scenario? According to Wifi Analyzer, the 2.4 GHz signal strength is -41 dBm. The two 5 GHz bands signal strengths are -65 and -64 dBm.

Guess Lyra would pick 5 GHz if the 5 GHz band's signal strength is a bit better (e.g. in 50s)? It isn't going to pick the slower 2.4 GHz band in those situations, or is it?

 

[thiggins]

There is no way to know without testing Lyra. Band steering is not standardized and is implemented different ways.

Clients (STAS) are in charge of determining when it's time to move to a different BSSID (radio) and which one they connect to.

If an STA is associated to an AP, the only thing an AP can do to move it is to force it to disconnect. The AP then can then delay its response to an authentication probe from the STA on the radio it doesn't want the STA to associate to.

STAs usually decide to roam based on signal level (RSSI) and sometimes on retries. They use different methods to decide the new BSSID they will try to associate with, but the prime method is usually RSSI based.

 

[njweb]

Thanks Tim for the helpful info / confirming that it is in fact the client that decides. That was my first instinct.
I was hoping there would be some info on which RSSI level is considered good enough to go with the higher speed band. E.g. if 2.4 GHz band signal the STA sees is -45 dBm and the 5 GHz signal is -53 dBm (just an example), the STA would hopefully decide that since both signals are strong enough that it (the STA) would be better off connecting to the 5 GHz band on the AP in order to maximize throughput.

Guess I may need to try the Lyra for myself to find out how my wireless card will connect.

 

[thiggins]

I was hoping there would be some info on which RSSI level is considered good enough to go with the higher speed band.

This varies from client to client.

You might want to read some of the references in this thread.

 

[pete y testing]

the way the antennas between the nodes seem to work with the lyra also suggest its quite different to the other mesh systems available

see the smart antenna section of the product page

https://www.asus.com/au/Networking/Lyra/

 

[thiggins]

the way the antennas between the nodes seem to work with the lyra also suggest its quite different to the other mesh systems available

see the smart antenna section of the product page

https://www.asus.com/au/Networking/Lyra/

Pete: Your marketing B.S. detector must be offline. That just describes the backhaul management process all mesh systems use.

 

[pete y testing]

That just describes the backhaul management process all mesh systems use.

we may have to wait and see once its released , i have a feeling how the backhaul works and interacts with the nodes is different from others

 

[njweb]

we may have to wait and see once its released , i have a feeling how the backhaul works and interacts with the nodes is different from others

I picked one up yesterday but have not had a chance to open it yet.

 

[thiggins]

we may have to wait and see once its released , i have a feeling how the backhaul works and interacts with the nodes is different from others

That's what they all say...