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SW_'s avatar
SW_
Prodigy
May 07, 2019

ORBI RBR50/RBS50 2.4Ghz/5Ghz Band Steering

If you have a mixed of 2.4Ghz/5Ghz iOS devices, IoT devices, and legacy clients,

and you're currently having problem with your ORBI WiFi network such as:

 

  1. Devices/clients are unable to find/connect to 2.4Ghz band after Orbi reboots/restarts/etc., i.e., you have to manually disable 5Ghz band broadcast so that these clients can connect to Orbi 2.4Ghz WiFi network.
  2. Clients want to switch from 2.4Ghz band over 5Ghz due to poor/unstable 5Ghz signal, but can't.
  3. Bad roaming experiences, i.e., drop calls when walking between different rooms or areas of the house.
  4. WiFi drops.
  5. Poor WiFi performance.

 

Can you please try this?

 

Telnet into your ORBI Router and type these cmds from ORBI telnet terminal:

(Please check out this link for telnet and related information.)

 

  1. config get enable_band_steering           (Note:  This should return 1, which is the default value)
  2. config enable_band_steering=0
  3. config commit
  4. reboot

 

To re-enable band steering, do this:

 

  1. config enable_band_steering=1
  2. config commit
  3. reboot

 

Your Orbi will reboot.  Please wait for ~10mins to enable Orbi/Satellites WiFi network to reach steady state prior to testing.  After you're done with the experiment, can you please share your results and experiences?

 

8 Replies

  • SW_'s avatar
    SW_
    Prodigy
    May 07, 2019
    SW_ wrote:

    If you have a mixed of 2.4Ghz/5Ghz iOS devices, IoT devices, and legacy clients,

    and you're currently having problem with your ORBI WiFi network such as:

     

    1. Devices/clients are unable to find/connect to 2.4Ghz band after Orbi reboots/restarts/etc., i.e., you have to manually disable 5Ghz band broadcast so that these clients can connect to Orbi 2.4Ghz WiFi network.
    2. Clients want to switch from 5Ghz band to 2.4Ghz due to poor/unstable 5Ghz signal, but can't.
    3. Bad roaming experiences, i.e., drop calls when walking between different rooms or areas of the house.
    4. WiFi drops.
    5. Poor WiFi performance.

     

    Can you please try this?

     

    Telnet into your ORBI Router and type these cmds from ORBI telnet terminal:

    (Please check out this link for telnet and related information.)

     

    1. config get enable_band_steering           (Note:  This should return 1, which is the default value)
    2. config set enable_band_steering=0
    3. config commit
    4. reboot

     

    To re-enable band steering, do this:

     

    1. config set enable_band_steering=1
    2. config commit
    3. reboot

     

    Your Orbi will reboot.  Please wait for ~10mins to enable Orbi/Satellites WiFi network to reach steady state prior to testing.  After you're done with the experiment, can you please share your results and experiences?

     

    Fixed some mistakes.

     

     

    • ekhalil's avatar
      ekhalil
      Master
      May 08, 2019

      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

       

       

      • DougB628's avatar
        DougB628
        Apprentice
        May 08, 2019
        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

         

         

        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.