tog
09-01-2006, 11:20 PM
It would prove very valuable to have the ability to do one or all of the following with StarV3 while an interface is set to transmit rate "auto":
Specify a minimum rate
Specify a maximum rate
Perhaps the ability to specify both in a range (ex. 12 - 24) would best handle it
An example of its usefulness in the real world:
I have a 2.4GHz 2X-cloaked link that shoots through a few obstructions across a piece of property. A few hundred foot link I would suppose. The signal strength is around -71 to -74. It performs very poorly and inconsistently when you leave it at auto, it hovers around 36 - 48. If you force it to 24, it performs perfectly.
This leaves you with a concern that some day 24 might start to perform poorly while 18 or 12 might work fine, you'd have to notice this and manually change it.
A related topic, it could be useful to have the "802.11g only" setting exclude 1, 2, 5.5 and 11mbit transmit rates from its auto rate, though I suppose if one could specify the minimum as 12, the need for this feature would be diminished. 802.11b/g mixed could become the setting you want to use if you wish to include or force to 11mbit transmit rate.
The reason for the above, I have found through some experimentation with auto-rate, that rapidly switching between CCK and OFDM can cause very poor performance for all. I have observed that across certain paths, 11/CCK will work when even 6/OFDM will not, or any OFDM rate will perform poorly while CCK will perform almost perfectly. When you get one of these clients that only works with CCK attached to your otherwise OFDM AP, they can pretty much screw it up for everybody, latency bounces, throughput is bad. You then force the AP to 11/CCK only and it performs fine and sturdy for all.
I believe in most instances, it would be ideal for an auto-rate AP to only allow OFDM data rates, then any client who cannot perform reasonably using OFDM should be moved to an 11mbit AP or have their path improved if possible. You do NOT want your AP switching between CCK and OFDM rapidly, you would rather the one client suffer until you improve their path or move them to a CCK AP.
Specify a minimum rate
Specify a maximum rate
Perhaps the ability to specify both in a range (ex. 12 - 24) would best handle it
An example of its usefulness in the real world:
I have a 2.4GHz 2X-cloaked link that shoots through a few obstructions across a piece of property. A few hundred foot link I would suppose. The signal strength is around -71 to -74. It performs very poorly and inconsistently when you leave it at auto, it hovers around 36 - 48. If you force it to 24, it performs perfectly.
This leaves you with a concern that some day 24 might start to perform poorly while 18 or 12 might work fine, you'd have to notice this and manually change it.
A related topic, it could be useful to have the "802.11g only" setting exclude 1, 2, 5.5 and 11mbit transmit rates from its auto rate, though I suppose if one could specify the minimum as 12, the need for this feature would be diminished. 802.11b/g mixed could become the setting you want to use if you wish to include or force to 11mbit transmit rate.
The reason for the above, I have found through some experimentation with auto-rate, that rapidly switching between CCK and OFDM can cause very poor performance for all. I have observed that across certain paths, 11/CCK will work when even 6/OFDM will not, or any OFDM rate will perform poorly while CCK will perform almost perfectly. When you get one of these clients that only works with CCK attached to your otherwise OFDM AP, they can pretty much screw it up for everybody, latency bounces, throughput is bad. You then force the AP to 11/CCK only and it performs fine and sturdy for all.
I believe in most instances, it would be ideal for an auto-rate AP to only allow OFDM data rates, then any client who cannot perform reasonably using OFDM should be moved to an 11mbit AP or have their path improved if possible. You do NOT want your AP switching between CCK and OFDM rapidly, you would rather the one client suffer until you improve their path or move them to a CCK AP.