Need help changing AP roaming assistant value

[Sir Dan Baker]

Hej guys,

I'm a well satisfied user of two RTN66U's with one set up as accesspoint. I have turned on the roaming assistant but I would like to change the upper-value on which the Asus disconnects the client from -70 to -60 if that's possible.
I know how to get into the back-door of these units using putty-tel (been using this to push the wifi output to 500mw) but I don't know the specific commandline to change this value. Could one of you kindly provide me with this command so I can force these units to disconnect faster?
The reason why I want to do this is that the level of -70 is still usable for normal surfing but not for streaming long periods of Netflix. So I want my iPhone to switch faster from the ground level router to the 1st floor level accesspoints.

Thanks in advance .

 

[Sir Dan Baker]

Nobody?


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[sfx2000]

Well if this helps...

Many clients will start making decisions at -70, but only if the delta between AP1 and AP2 are about 8-12dB apart - 8dB in traffic, 12dB on idle - so if the AP's are too closely spaced, they will camp...

Pushing Tx power to 500mw can be part of the problem, considering most Clients max out at 30mw (15 dBm)

 

[Sir Dan Baker]

Ah indeed, the 500mw can be part of the issue here. Thanks, didn't think in that direction yet.
But I would still like to be able to change this -70 number if possible. Maybe I could tweet Merlin directly.
If I get an answer to this, I'll post it here.


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[john9527]

to change the roaming rssi.....

nvram set wl0_user_rssi=value (for 2.4 GHz)
nvram set wl1_user_rssi=value (for 5 GHz)
nvram commit
service restart_wireless

After you do this, if you go back to the Wireless>Professional tab it won't let you save anything because of a value out of range on for the roaming assistant.

 

[sfx2000]

Ah indeed, the 500mw can be part of the issue here. Thanks, didn't think in that direction yet.
But I would still like to be able to change this -70 number if possible. Maybe I could tweet Merlin directly.
If I get an answer to this, I'll post it here.

I would turn power down first to 100mW or less - enterprise network planning assumes 2x client Tx...

500mW unbalances the link, so the client won't trigger perhaps when it should..

 

[Sir Dan Baker]

Just found a whole article about enterprise networkplanning: http://www.cisco.com/web/CZ/ciscoconnect/2013/pdf/T-VT1-HighDensity-RF-design-Alex_Zaytsev.pdf
Although it's pretty technical for a mere mortal like me, some of it made good sense and is definitely worth keeping in mind. I like the part of different antenna-designs a lot.
Thanks @sfx2000

 

[RogerSC]

to change the roaming rssi.....

nvram set wl0_user_rssi=value (for 2.4 GHz)
nvram set wl1_user_rssi=value (for 5 GHz)
nvram commit
service restart_wireless

After you do this, if you go back to the Wireless>Professional tab it won't let you save anything because of a value out of range on for the roaming assistant.

I went to change this, and afterwards also found this in "nvram show | grep user_rssi":

wl_user_rssi=-70

so I changed that one as well. Just in case it is used instead of wl0 and wl1.

Thanks for this, by the way.

 

[john9527]

@RogerSC - The wl_ vars are just used by the gui so that the same gui code can be used for both 2.4 and 5GHz.....it will follow the last value that you set for either 2.4 or 5GHz in the gui.

 

[RogerSC]

@RogerSC - The wl_ vars are just used by the gui so that the same gui code can be used for both 2.4 and 5GHz.....it will follow the last value that you set for either 2.4 or 5GHz in the gui.

Thanks! Don't have the source code at this point, appreciate it.