The Need For Channel Planning

Alta Labs access points broadcast a signal on the 2GHz and 5GHz bands by default. There is limited space in these bands for signals to coexist. The 2GHz band has only 11 total channels, of which only 3 are viable (channels 1, 6 and 11). The 5GHz band contains over 40 channels by comparison, but there are so many competing broadcasts that interference remains a common issue.

Wireless channel planning is a method of measuring the strength of competing signals, then adjusting your broadcast to the channels with the fewest or weakest competing access points in the environment. This reduces interference which improves connectivity and throughput for your connected client devices.

Automatic Planning

Our access points offer a feature to automatically determine the best channel for each band. Enabled by default, its setting can be found by navigating to Settings -> System -> Advanced -> Automatic Channel Replanning. Channel replanning is automatically performed every night to ensure that any changes in the local wireless environment are accounted for.

Click the Quick Replan button to trigger the feature instantly rather than waiting for the nightly replan. Holding the Shift key will enable the Full Replan mode instead, which will discard historical channel plan data to start from scratch. This is useful after moving to a new home, for example, where the previous data would no longer apply.

Restricting Channels

As you see in the above screenshot, there are other parameters to configure automatic channel planning.

5GHz Auto Channel DFS

This toggle allows the channel planner to choose channels within the Dynamic Frequency Selection (DFS) range. This opens up a large portion of spectrum in the band, but is susceptible to increased risk of disruption from higher priority equipment which require the access point to change to a different uncontested channel for a minimum time period. For example, a weather station may perform an operation on the 5GHz band, causing the AP to switch channels and interrupting service for a brief time.

2GHz Auto Channel Restrictions

By default, only channels 1, 6 and 11 are allowed for automatic channel planning. It is not recommended to change this default in most environments, but you may configure the channel allowances here.

5GHz Auto Channel Restrictions

There are no default restrictions for 5GHz auto channels, aside from the DFS toggle above. If you need to implement some limits, you may configure the channel allowances for 5GHz here.