NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.
Forum Discussion
What Back-haul Channels are Available?
Hey gang, I just bought an RB50 pair and have 2 questions. Can I adjust the bandwidth of the backhaul channel down to say, 20MHz? If they are .11ac radios, a higher MCS on a 20MHz channel migh...
jetter2 wrote:........
- I know the Orbi isn't DFS certified, but what channels are acually selectable for the backhaul radios?
Orbi adheres to DFS regulations. Orbi has a radar detection and avoidance capability.
When the Backhaul is operating on a DFS channel, it continuously monitors for the presence of radar signals appearing on that channel.
If a radar signal is detected, Orbi ceases transmission on the channel and moves to a new channel.
jetter2 wrote:......you double your noise floor with every channel bonding I would get better results out of a single 20MHz 5GHz channel than sitting there and having to fight CCI contention.
.......
Orbi automatically adjusts the 5 GHz backhaul channel bandwidth depending on the quality of the radio environment. In my Orbi I frequently see that my backhaul link is operating with 20 or 40 MHz bandwidth, and this keeps changing.
Wait...can someone confirm for me the firmware level for the RBK50 that supports DFS Channels? I was under the understanding that Orbi never recieved DFS certification?
There is a really thorough explanation of Orbi radio channels in this post:
https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/Understanding-Orbi-Radio-Fronthaul-Backhaul/m-p/1671092
I haven't seen a definitive table ANYWHERE that lists the Backhaul, nor the fronthaul channels as DFS capable..
jetter2 wrote:I haven't seen a definitive table ANYWHERE that lists the Backhaul, nor the fronthaul channels as DFS capable..
The only 5G channels the Orbi allows a user to select are 36, 40, 44, 48 which are all "not DFS" in any country. Some of the channels are forbidden in specific countries, such as Israel, China.
The list of backhaul channels the Orbi will select from probably varies by country. In the US, this is what my Orbi shows:
root@RBR50:/# iwlist ath2 freqchannel
ath2 126 channels in total; available frequencies :
Channel 100 : 5.5 GHz
Channel 104 : 5.52 GHz
Channel 108 : 5.54 GHz
Channel 112 : 5.56 GHz
Channel 116 : 5.58 GHz
Channel 120 : 5.6 GHz
Channel 124 : 5.62 GHz
Channel 128 : 5.64 GHz
Channel 132 : 5.66 GHz
Channel 136 : 5.68 GHz
Channel 140 : 5.7 GHz
Channel 149 : 5.745 GHz
Channel 153 : 5.765 GHz
Channel 157 : 5.785 GHz
Channel 161 : 5.805 GHz
Channel 165 : 5.825 GHz
Current Frequency:5.785 GHz (Channel 157)A bunch of these channels are DFS in the US. (100 through 144). As far as I know, my Orbi has never selected a DFS channel. There is a file where Orbi writes a message any time radar is detected: /var/radardetect.log I have never found this file on my Orbi.
Other community members have reported finding the file with contents. For example:
Radar Detected at [Wed Jan 23 23:19:55 CET 2019 ] on channels [116,120,124,128]
Radar Detected at [Wed Jan 23 23:26:20 CET 2019 ] on channels [100,104,108,112]
