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AdrianM's avatar
AdrianM
Tutor
Dec 13, 2018

DTIM Beacon Interval

I can only assume that there is no way to alter the Beacon Interval for Orbi - given the number of times this question arises from users of other Netgear WiFi routers. Or am I being too pessimistic? This would be a real PITA as I have numerous battery powered robots that I "tuned" the interval on my previous OpenWRT setup to get minimal standby current:

 

While in Modem-sleep, the ESP8266 will disable the modem (WiFi) as much as possible. It turns off the modem between DTIM Beacon intervals. This interval is set by your router.

4 Replies


  • AdrianM wrote:

    I can only assume that there is no way to alter the Beacon Interval for Orbi - given the number of times this question arises from users of other Netgear WiFi routers. Or am I being too pessimistic? This would be a real PITA as I have numerous battery powered robots that I "tuned" the interval on my previous OpenWRT setup to get minimal standby current:

     

    While in Modem-sleep, the ESP8266 will disable the modem (WiFi) as much as possible. It turns off the modem between DTIM Beacon intervals. This interval is set by your router.

    The DTIM interval is the peroid of time to wake up wireless clients from Sleep Mode. 

    Currently, change of this interval is not possible in Orbi settings.

    • RocketSquirrel's avatar
      RocketSquirrel
      Luminary

      There's a configuration variable in NVRAM.

       

      # config show | grep -i dtim

      wl_dtim=1

       

      You can telnet into the Orbi and change it.

      # config set wl_dtim=4

      # config commit

       

      I don't know whether a change to the main Orbi will propagate to satellites or whether you'd need to telnet into each unit. Whether changing this variable will have the desired effect is left as an exercise for the reader.