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Radio Settings (RF Templates)

RF templates provide a way to make uniform radio configurations that are shared by all sites in your organization. RF templates do this while simultaneously allowing for model-specific exceptions to cover the different use cases that may occur in the organization or individual sites. Settings include enabling or disabling radio bands, managing channel width, setting transmission power, and configuring AP antenna gain.

RF Templates Settings

AP-specific default settings are available for all models in the Default Settings drop-down, for each radio band. You can use these defaults to create model-specific exceptions within the RF Template.

  • In the Mist menu, select Organization > RF Template and then either choose an existing template from the list that appears or click the Create Template button to create a new one.
Figure 1: Model-specific Default Settings Model-specific Default Settings

Use your browser's Refresh button to replay the illustration.

  • Template Name—This is the name that appears in the templates list on the RF Templates page.
  • Country—Your selection here determines which radio channels, and which power level defaults, are available for configuration.

  • Enabled/Disabled—Turn on or off the given radio band for all APs in the template.

    • Auto—When enabled for the 2.4-GHz radio band, auto will manage the 2.4-GHz radio band on the AP to maximize performance. For APs that support dual-band, this setting will convert the 2.4-GHz radio to 5-GHz according to RRM analysis. For APs such as AP12 and AP33 that don't support auto-conversion, auto will turn off the 2.4-GHz radio so the AP offers only the 5-GHz band, if RRM finds that doing so will improve network performance.
      Note:

      You can configure Auto radio band management in the AP's local configuration settings, in device profiles, and in RF Templates. However, for Auto to work in a device profile, it must first be enabled in the RF template for the site. You can enable Auto for either for 2.4-GHz band setting, or for Dual Band Radio Settings in the AP configuration page, as shown below.

  • Channel Width—For the 5-GHz and 6-GHz radio bands, you can set the channel width for all APs in the profile (2.4-GHz uses a fixed-width 20 MHz band). Juniper Mist APs do not automatically adjust channel width, for example in response to interference. In other words, they use the default channel width or whatever has been manually configured.
  • Preamble— A set of bits within a packet header that synchronize transmission signals between a sender and receiver (the preamble is sent from the AP to the client). The options for Preamble are as follows:

    • Unconfigured — If set to Unconfigured, this means that the additional header will not be added to synchronize transmission signals between sender and receiver (the preamble will not be sent from the AP to the client).

    • Short — This is the default. This applies to the 2.4-GHz radio band only. If you are seeing association failures such as "client does not support short preamble," you can change the preamble the AP sends to clients. This is faster, but it requires that clients have the "Short Preamble" bit set in their association request, which not all client implementations do.

    • Long — This is slower, but supports a wider range of clients.

    • Auto — This is slower, but supports a wider range of clients.

  • Power—This is the maximum transmit power allowed for a given data rate per transmit chain. Note that because total power out typically includes any MIMO gain, you should deduct MIMO gain (generalized, below) from the total power output (TPO) when configuring transmit power. See Transmit Power Notation for Juniper APs.
  • Channels—For the 5-GHz and 6-GHz radio bands, you can set the available channel selection (for your selected country) for all APs. When set to automatic, all allowed channels in the host country are available. For 6 GHz, the preferred scan channels (PSC) are as defined by the IEEE. The EU, for example, has half the channels allowed in the USA.
  • External Antenna Gain—Mist supports 1 dBm increments (although we recommend using a range plus or minus 3 dBm from the median value indicated in a site survey predictive design). For example, some external antennas are certified up to certain level of gain, which depends on the combination of AP and antenna. To prevent the gain from exceeding the maximum allowed for a particular AP model and regulatory domain, you can adjust this setting.
    Note:

    The amount of gain achieved depends on the specific AP and antenna used. For example, an AP43E model can support a directional antenna with up to 8 dBi gain on the 2.4-GHz band and up to 10 dBi gain on the 5-GHz band.

In addition to the RF Templates page described here, you can configure RRM and other settings in several other places in the Mist portal, as well as individually, on each Juniper AP. To understand the relationship and interaction between settings on these different levels, see Templates and Device Profiles.

Push Template Changes to The APs

After making changes to the power or channel settings, you need to push the updates to the relevant APs:

  1. Save your RF Template updates.

  2. Go to the Site > Radio Management page.

  3. Click the Optimize now button in the top right corner for each modified band (2.4-GHz and 5-GHz).

  4. Verify your changes, on the Mist menu: click Site > Radio Management and scroll down the page that appears to the Radio Events section. Look for events labeled Triggered site RRM.