ORBI RBR50/RBS50 2.4Ghz/5Ghz Band Steering

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ekhalil wrote:

The band steering feature encourages dual-band-capable clients to stay on the 5 GHz band on dual-band APs. This ability frees up resources on the 2.4 GHz band for single-band clients.

The following parameters control Band Steering in Orbi:

 

lbd_LowRSSIAPSteerThreshold_CAP_W2=35     (-60 dBm)

lbd_LowRSSIAPSteerThreshold_CAP_W5=20     (-75 dBm)

lbd_LowRSSIAPSteerThreshold_RE_W2=35    (-60 dBm)

lbd_LowRSSIAPSteerThreshold_RE_W5=20    (-75 dBm)

 

lbd_APSteerToRootMinRSSIIncThreshold=10

lbd_APSteerToPeerMinRSSIIncThreshold=10

lbd_APSteerToLeafMinRSSIIncThreshold=10

lbd_RSSISteeringPoint_UG=10

lbd_RSSISteeringPoint_DG=5

 

lbd_BTMSteeringProhibitShortTime=15 (when a wireless client connects to AP, AP will block 2.4GHz connection for 15 seconds, thus encourage it to try connecting to 5GHz network first. After 15 seconds, if the client did not join the 5GHz network, it will be able to connect to the 2.4G network.

lbd_SteeringProhibitTime=120

lbd_MaxSteeringTargetCount=1  (maximum number of clients that can be connected to AP’s 5GHz wireless network in priority)

lbd_MaxSteeringUnfriendly=86400

lbd_SteeringUnfriendlyTime=600

multi_ap_disablesteering=0

 

 

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All of this sounds great, assuming that a dual band client can get a sufficiently strong connection on the 5GHz band. But if it has a weak signal to the 5GHz band, and perhaps if it is still monitoring the 2.4GHz signal, it may re-attempt to connect via 2.4GHz, dropping the 5GHz connection. It is then ignored again, and it connects back to 5GHz. And the process repeats.

I believe this could be happening with my D-Link DCS2630L cameras, which support both bands. I have a D-Link NVR312L that attempts to connect to the streaming URL's of these cameras, and it is showing that the connections are dropping sporadically and frequently. I wish I could disable the camera's ability to connect on one of the bands, as I believe that would possibly solve my problems. I did run my Orbi with split SSID's for a few months, and the cameras had much more consistent connections. But I had more inconsistency with other devices, such as my Apple TV's, and if those don't work well, the family tends to gripe a lot more and a lot more loudly.

I have also tried another product as a network video recorder, iSpy, and saw similar behavior there too.