Self Healing

Unleashed uses built-in network "self healing" diagnostics and tuning tools to maximize wireless network performance.

Automatically Adjust AP Radio Power

Unleashed provides a feature to automatically adjust AP radio power to optimize coverage when interference is present. This feature is designed to turn down the power of an access point if the following conditions are met:

The power is set to Auto in the AP configuration.
The AP can hear another AP that is on the same channel and same Unleashed network.
The AP can hear the other AP at a minimum of 50dB which means the Access Points are very close to each other.

Note that the 2.4G and 5G radio bands are considered independently. If all conditions are met, the AP will reduce its power by half. The other AP may or may not necessarily reduce its power simultaneously.

Note: In general, Ruckus does NOT recommend enabling this feature as it can lead to non-optimal AP power levels. With BeamFlex access points, Ruckus' general guidelines are to run access points at full power to maximize the throughput and SINR levels, thus maximizing data rates and performance.

Automatically Adjust 2.4GHz/5GHz Radio Channels Using Background Scanning

Using Background Scanning, the Unleashed Master AP regularly samples the activity in all Access Points to assess RF usage, to detect rogue APs and to determine the optimal channel for automatic channel selection.

These scans sample one channel at a time in each AP so as not to interfere with network use. You can, if you prefer, customize the automatic scanning of RF activity, deactivate it if you feel it's not helpful, or adjust the frequency, if you want scans at greater or fewer intervals (see Background Scanning).

Note: Background Scanning must be enabled to detect rogue APs on the network.

Automatically Adjust 2.4GHz/5GHz Radio Channels Using ChannelFly

The main difference between ChannelFly and Background Scanning is that ChannelFly determines the optimal channel based on real-time statistical analysis of actual throughput measurements, while Background Scanning uses channel measurement and other techniques to estimate the impact of interference on Wi-Fi capacity based on progressive scans of all available channels.

Note: If you enable ChannelFly, Background Scanning can still be used for adjusting radio power and rogue detection while ChannelFly manages the channel assignment. Both cannot be used at the same time for channel management.

Benefits of ChannelFly

With ChannelFly, the AP intelligently samples different channels while using them for service. ChannelFly assesses channel capacity every 15 seconds and changes channel when, based on historical data, a different channel is likely to offer higher capacity than the current channel. Each AP makes channel decisions based on this historical data and maintains an internal log of channel performance individually.

When ChannelFly changes channels, it utilizes 802.11h channel change announcements to seamlessly change channels with no packet loss and minimal impact to performance. The 802.11h channel change announcements affect both wireless clients and Ruckus mesh nodes in the 2.4 GHz and/or 5 GHz bands.

Initially (in the first 30-60 minutes) there will be more frequent channel changes as ChannelFly learns the environment. However, once an AP has learned about the environment and which channels are most likely to offer the best throughput potential, channel changes will occur less frequently unless a large measured drop in throughput occurs.

ChannelFly can react to large measured drops in throughput capacity in as little as 15 seconds, while smaller drops in capacity may take longer to react to.

Disadvantages of ChannelFly

Compared to Background Scanning, ChannelFly takes considerably longer for the network to settle down. If you will be adding and removing APs to your network frequently, Background Scanning may be preferable. Additionally, if you have clients that do not support the 802.11h standard, ChannelFly may cause significant connectivity issues during the initial capacity assessment stage.

You can enable/disable ChannelFly per band. If you have 2.4 GHz clients that do not support 802.11h, Ruckus recommends disabling ChannelFly for 2.4 GHz but leaving it enabled for the 5 GHz band.

Self Healing