03 December 2019

Disabling directed multicast on Ruckus Unleashed network



Ruckus has a Directed Multicast feature, enabled by default, that will give first 5 multicast
members a TCP rather than UDP message, with better delivery expectations.

Quote from Ruckus:
There are three mechanisms that Ruckus employs to help multicast applications work better.
1. Directed Multicast uses IGMP snoop to determine which devices are requesting access to a multicast session and then implements a multicast to unicast conversion, since Multicast implies multiple users receiving the same packets simultaneously and since WiFi clients can each be receiving at different Data Rates based on statistical success.

2. Multicast packets are traditionally sent at the broadcast, multicast, frame header - lowest common denominator rate – for 802.11bgn that is 1Mbps.

3. Directed multicast will send each client that subscribes to a multicast session an individual copy of each multicast packet sent as an 802.11 unicast at the highest speed that particular client can receive.

Instead of having one 1Mbps packet sent to several clients you get several unicast packets (that also get acknowledged) sent at 54Mbps to 300Mbps (for 802.11na).  There is a threshold (that can be sent) above which the number of simultaneous viewers of the same multicast diminishes the efficacy of this process.  To learn which clients desire access to the multicast the Ruckus Access Points do IGMP snooping and create a table of client join and leave messages.

Directed Multicast, IGMP snoop and IGMP queries are enabled in each logical interface – Ethernet, and WLAN/SSID.

In specific scenarios you may want this feature to be disabled, so we let IGMP work and flood AP WLANs with client multicasts. Not only after more than 5 members, but immediately.

The key is to determine exactly which SSID you want to do this on, next configure the system to disable the directed multicast feature.
SSH to your primary unleashed AP. Then issue the following commands:
ruckus# config
You have all rights in this mode.
ruckus(config)# wlan TheSSID
The WLAN service 'TheSSID' has been loaded. To save the WLAN service, type 'end' or 'exit'.
ruckus(config-wlan)# no qos directed-multicast
The command was executed successfully. To save the changes, type 'end' or 'exit'.
ruckus(config-wlan)# no qos igmp-snooping
ruckus(config-wlan)# end
The WLAN service 'TheSSID' has been updated and saved.
Your changes have been saved.
ruckus(config)#

28 November 2019

set the minimum data rate on a Ruckus Unleashed setup

Today I was working on a Ruckus Unleashed setup and wanted to set the minimum data rate of connected clients.
The reason why is because I don't want associations on the slower data rates to prevent slowing down the network as a whole and secondly to encourage these clients to roam to a nearer AP

First confirm your current settings (marked in yellow):
ruckus# show wlan all
WLAN Service:
  ID:
    1:
      NAME = CustomerSSID
<cut>
      Tx. Rate of Management Frame(2.4GHz) = 2.0Mbps
      Tx. Rate of Management Frame(5GHz)   = 6.0Mbps

      BSS Minrate = Disabled
<cut>
 To set the minimum data rate issue the follwing commands:
ruckus# config
You have all rights in this mode.
ruckus(config)# wlan CustomerSSID  
The WLAN service 'CustomerSSID' has been loaded. To save the WLAN service, type 'end' or 'exit'.
ruckus(config-wlan)# bss-minrate
  <NUMBER>             Enter the minimum transmission rate of the WLAN in the BSS.
ruckus(config-wlan)# bss-minrate 12
The mgmt-tx-rate will be set to the same value as bss-minrate.
The command was executed successfully. To save the changes, type 'end' or 'exit'.
ruckus(config-wlan)# end
The WLAN service 'CustomerSSID' has been updated and saved.
Your changes have been saved.
ruckus(config)#
If you show your wlan SSID again you will see:
ruckus# show wlan all
WLAN Service:
  ID:
    1:
      NAME = CustomerSSID
<cut>
      Tx. Rate of Management Frame(2.4GHz) = 12.0Mbps
      Tx. Rate of Management Frame(5GHz)   = 12.0Mbps
      BSS Minrate = 12.0 Mbps

<cut>
Note: This is configurable on a per SSID basis

disabling 802.11b data rates on a Ruckus Unleashed setup

Today I was working on a Ruckus Unleashed setup and found out that the 802.11b data rates were enabled by default.
This allows older 802.11b clients to connect using the DSSS (Direct-sequence spread spectrum) modulation. As this costs a lot of airtime it slows down your network. 
The best remedy is to keep the 802.11b clients from your network. 
Remember though, the RF spectrum is a shared medium. So if any 802.11b client is communicating with some neighboring ap nearby it still influences your network performance.

First confirm your current settings (marked in yellow):
ruckus# show wlan all
WLAN Service:
  ID:
    1:
      NAME = CustomerSSID
<cut>
      OFDM-Only State = Disabled
<cut>
 To disable the 802.11b data rates issue the follwing commands:
ruckus# config
You have all rights in this mode.
ruckus(config)# wlan CustomerSSID
The WLAN service 'CustomerSSID' has been loaded. To save the WLAN service, type 'end' or 'exit'.
ruckus(config-wlan)# ofdm-only
The mgmt-tx-rate will be set to 6Mbps due to ofdm-only enable.
The command was executed successfully. To save the changes, type 'end' or 'exit'.
ruckus(config-wlan)# end
The WLAN service 'CustomerSSID' has been updated and saved.
Your changes have been saved.
ruckus(config)#
If you show your wlan SSID again you will see:
ruckus# show wlan all
WLAN Service:
  ID:
    1:
      NAME = CustomerSSID
<cut>
      OFDM-Only State = Enabled
<cut>
Note: This is configurable on a per SSID basis

30 October 2019

Using the WLAN Pi's USB host interface in Windows 10

I've been playing with the WLAN Pi for a few weeks now, and I must say I'm very impressed what this device can do.
But ever since I first connected it I was not able to get the USB host interface working under Windows 10. I only got a serial communication port in the device manager under Ports.
I was fooling around with this for a while and today I was able to fix it thanks to Jerry Olla pointing me in the right direction.

To fix this you should download this file. Extract the contents to some temporary folder.
Next go to device manager (right mouse click on start, now select device manager), go to Ports (COM & LPT), right mouse click and select update driver.

In the upper part of the dialog click browse and select the folder where you just extracted the zip file to. Now click next/finish and the driver will be updated. You should now see a newly USB Ethernet /RNDIS Gadget device under the network adapters section.

Hope this helps others.
And if it doesn't I'm pretty sure my future-me will visit this page again after a reinstallation of Windows or so.

Keyword: USB\VID_0525&PID_A4A2\6&2C85465F&0&3