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Forum Discussion
5Ghz channels
Hello, I saw this topic here. But I would like understand why all upper 5Ghz channels are unavailabled for the clients. In Europe, at least in France, we can use the next channels in 80Mhz : ...
Please feel free to post about this here:
https://community.netgear.com/t5/Idea-Exchange-For-Home/idb-p/idea-exchange-for-home
Good Luck.
BrutusNL wrote:
Kudoed (is that even a word *grin*) and hope this gets a lot more attention, especially from Netgear.
It appears (to me) that Netgear elected NOT to implement DFS in the Orbi. Check this out:
https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/Orbi-Compatible-Smart-Plugs/m-p/1676535#M47405
It seems that 5G devices are supposed to monitor for radar signals when they select channel besides the ones Orbi is using. When they detect radar, they are required to change. Not being compliant is probably a "big deal" to the government. So, it's not a simple matter of adding frequencies to the table and letting the user select from them. There's a good chance that radar signals do not "look like" WiFi signals, so this programming may not be trivial. (sigh)
Would be interested to know if any other consumer 5G WiFi brands implement DFS. (Maybe they all avoid those channels as Netgear does.)
It also doesn't help us that 5G channels do not overlap, only as long as a person wants only a small bandwidth. Netgear gets 866MB bandwidth by combining all the available channels.
Orbi uses 80 MHz channel width on 5 GHz. There are only two non-overlapping non-DFS 80 MHz channels in the 5 GHz band. Orbi uses one for the backhaul and the other for client data. Unless you allow DFS, which it seems no NETGEAR routers do, there isn't really anything left to tweak. NETGEAR could allow you to choose to use 40 MHz or 20 MHz channel width, but the throughput would be 1/2 or 1/4 and people would then complain about slow speeds.
st_shaw wrote:
......... Orbi uses one for the backhaul and the other for client data. Unless you allow DFS, which it seems no NETGEAR routers do, there isn't really anything left to tweak.
..........
I don't think this is completely true.
At least in Europe, the 40 MHz channels 151 & 159 are not allowed to be used (due to Band C licensing) so that leaves only one non-overlapping non-DFS channels according to st_shaw's statement. I've never seen that my backhaul is using channels 149-161.
Orbi uses the DFS band for backhaul for sure. I can see that my backhaul is changing between DFS channels 100-144, which confirms that Orbi is applying the DFS regulation correctly. Seems that once Orbi detects radar signals on a certain channel it jumps to another channel, which is how DFS should work.
In fact, for my Router (which is located on the ground floor) I can see that Router's backhaul channel is jumping quite frequently between the channels, may be because it's exposed to radar signals more than the Satellite which is located in the basement. The basement rarely changes it's backhaul channels as I can see.
I'm not sure what you're saying isn't true. Here in the US, my Orbi is using 80 MHz channel 157 for the backhaul.
I suspect Orbi reserves the right to use DFS channels for the backhaul, if necessary, but it's behind the scenes and not something the user has access to adjust.
