Optimize iot wifi connectivity unifi

mikestecker / optimising-unifi-performance.md

NOTE: Content below is written by Adrian Mace. Click here for an updated version.

Below are the key settings that I apply on any unifi installation for optimal performance.

• Ensure Enable Advanced Features is enabled
  This allows you to follow along with the guide in it’s entirety.
• Ensure Automatically Optimise Network and WiFi performance is disabled
  These settings will do a better job.

Settings > Wireless Networks > YOUR-NETWORK-HERE > Edit

• Ensure Fast Roaming is disabled
  It creates a lot more ‘noise’ on the dashboard in the form of anomalies when you have more than one access point within a home environment, and is useless if you only have a single one.
  At the time of writing it’s also a BETA feature.
• Ensure Combine 2 GHz and 5 GHz WiFi Network Names into one is enabled
  With these optimised settings you’ll see devices only using 2.4GHz if they either a) don’t support 5GHz (thanks Google!) or b) are too far away to maintain a reliable connection.
• Ensure Connects high performance clients to 5 GHz only is disabled
  With these optimised settings you’ll see devices always prefer 5GHz, and at the time of writing, the current method to detect ‘high performance clients’ is not reliable.
• Ensure DTIM Mode default values is disabled
  This is the interval in which the access point polls the devices to check if they’re alive. For many Apple / iOS devices, this causes them to not sleep correctly which both causes anomalies on the dashboard and kills the device battery life.
  • Set DTIM 2G Period to 3
  • Set DTIM 5G Period to 3

  Settings > Try New Settings > WiFi AI

  • Ensure Enable WiFi AI is disabled
    This is a great feature, but I found it to be choosing channels that were DFS (radar in the area causes intermittent dropouts of your network) or just not selecting channels 1 / 6 / 11.

  Devices > YOUR-ACCESS-POINT-HERE > Config > Radios

  • Ensure Channel Width is set to the following
    • Radio 2G should be set to HT20
    • Radio 5G should be set to VHT80 or VHT160 (HD series)
    • Radio 2G should be set to Medium
    • Radio 5G should be set to High

    Devices > YOUR-ACCESS-POINT-HERE > Config > Band Steering

    • Ensure Band Steering is set to Prefer 5G
      This ensures that clients will connect on the 5GHz channel when available.

    Devices > YOUR-ACCESS-POINT-HERE > Config > Airtime Fairness

    • Ensure Airtime Fairness is set to On
      This ensures that the access point shares data between connected clients on a time division multiplexing basis, rather than the default which allows a certain amount of bandwidth to be transferred before moving on.
      In practice if this is not enabled, a small Raspberry Pi connected to a far-away AP at 54Mbps will drag every other connected device’s effective bandwidth down to 54Mbps until the Pi is powered off or moved to a different AP.

    Forcing your transmit power to HIGH generally is not a good idea for performance.

    5 GHz and 6 GHz attenuate more rapidly and are more affected by obstructions, resulting in around half the range of 2.4 GHz. If you have a very dense area or a smaller home or business with multiple APs, setting a unique channel and keeping 5 GHz TX power on low or medium may be best. For those trying to achieve the most range and coverage from the APs they have, high 5 GHz and 6 GHz TX power can be set.

    The high transmit power (TX power) of UniFi APs is great for single-AP installations, but can be problematic in enterprise/multi-AP deployments. The high TX power will extend the range for slower TX rates only, as faster rates are transmitted at a lower TX power, which is normal for ALL APs and devices. This eats up air-time for faster rates in multi-AP deployments, slowing down the entire network and potentially causing packet loss.

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    Optimize and Troubleshoot UniFi Wireless Connections

    In this article I will show you how to optimize and troubleshoot UniFi Access Points (UAP) including the UniFI Dream Machine (UDM).

    

    Wireless or wired packet loss?

    Next thing is trivial, but very important – you have to determine if there is any packet loss and if yes is it from wireless or wired infrastructure.

    Open two Terminal windows (MacOS / Linux) or Command prompts (Windows) and try to continuously ping Google’s public DNS (8.8.8.8) and your router at the same time.

    If there is packet loss to both IPs, then you probably have a wireless issue. If there is only packet loss on 8.8.8.8 (Google’s public DNS), then you likely have a wired or Internet Provider issue.

    

    I have no packet loss in this example, only the latency is not great, but i’m not at home at the moment. I’m currently connected to my home using a VPN.

    If you want to have such VPN as well – check these articles, oh boy I have plenty:

    I’m explaining there how to setup a VPN step by step.

    If you have UniFi equipment check the first link, the other 2 are kind of universal.

    If there is packet loss from wired infrastructure

    I will focus more on the optimizing and troubleshoot UniFi wireless connections, but here’s few tips If turns out to have wired packet loss.

    1. Check your cables and replace them if needed. I had a cable issue before and it was very devious and tricky to catch, but so easy to fix.
    2. Double check if your Smart Queues are enabled and upload (Up Rate) and download (Down Rate) values of the Smart Queues are configured accurately to match your ISP rates

    

    If your wired problem still exist – call your Internet Service Provider. You can also ask for help in the UniFi Community.

    Now let’s continue to optimize and troubleshoot UniFi Wi-Fi.

    Access Point Proximity

    Another trivial, but must do and check thing is the Access Point Proximity.

    Just try moving closer to the UniFi Access Point or the UniFi Dream Machine and verify if the things get a lot better.

    If that is the case evaluate again the locations and count of the Access Points in your home.

    Set Transmit or TX Power

    The next thing that you can try, especially if you have more than one Access Points (or Access Point and UniFi Dream Machine like me) is to set a custom transmit power or TX power – here is how:

    Go to Devices select an UniFi AP or UDM and click on the Configuration tab. Then click on Radios menu and set Transmit Power to Custom under Radio 2G and Radio 5G.

    

    dBm is decibels (dB) with reference to one milliwatt

    Have in mind that most mobile devices have a TX power between 14 and 18 dBm, so you can experiment with this setting for best results.

    Good starting point is 18 dBm!

    And don’t forget to apply your changes.

    Change DTIM

    We will continue to optimize and troubleshoot UniFi network and the next thing to change is the DTIM (Delivery Traffic Indication Message or Map).

    A default DTIM period of 1 is used for compatibility and legacy reasons. However, many recent iOS and Android mobile devices, will perform better and save up to 66% of their WiFi battery consumption if the DTIM period is set to 3. This is where you can change this:

    Open your UniFi Controller interface and go to Settings > Wireless Networks and click on Edit button next to the network where your modern devices usually connect.

    Go to Advanced Options and scroll down until you see the 802.11 Rate and Beacon Controls then click on it.

    Uncheck the Use default values and then modify the DTIM period for your 2G and 5G.

    

    For networks where nearly all connected devices are modern, it is recommended to use a DTIM period of 3.

    Save your changes and enjoy your mobile device long lasting battery!

    TIP: If you have legacy devices, separate them in different Wi-FI SSID and leave the DTIM to the default value of 1 for this “legacy” network.

    Question for You, dear reader!

    How is your WiFi? I mean is your speed and coverage ok or not?

    Share me your experience I will love to read it and it can be helpful to others as well.

    Uptime of the UniFi Devices

    Another good check for your network health is the uptime of the UniFi Access Points and all devices as a whole. Here is where you can check it.

    Simply go to Devices section and search for the Uptime column.

    

    Watch this for the next couple of days/weeks and if there are strange resets without a good reason for any of your devices, then you have a problematic device/configuration and you can deep dive into this device.

    Auto-Optimize Network feature

    Auto doesn’t mean Best in most cases! And this is valid for here as well.

    In this regard to optimize and troubleshoot UniFi networks better it is a good idea to disable the Auto-Optimize Network feature.

    To do that go to Settings > Site and scroll down until you see the Auto-Optimize Network feature. Then turn it off!

    

    Save your changes and enjoy your not auto optimized network and tell me if it is better than before or not!

    AirTime-Fairness feature

    Warning: Do the next thing only if you have wireless issues and you want to troubleshoot!

    Try to enable the AirTime-Fairness feature. That way you will bring base functionality to the bare minimum. Here is how

    Go to Settings > Site and check the Enable Advanced Features under Services section.

    

    Then go to Devices and click on the device that you want to edit (must be wireless capable device).

    

    Click on the Config and scroll down until you see the AIRTIME FAIRNESS drop down menu.

    

    Click on it and turn it on to see if the things will get better.

    This will put some fair limits to your clients connected to this AP and it may help you.

    If all fails…

    If everything until now fails, feel free to post your symptoms and configuration In the UniFi community.

    Surprise, surprise…

    I’m thrilled to announce you something! And I waited to tell you about it at the very end of this article. That way only You who read all of this will know about it 😉

    And first doesn’t mean bad or low quality!

    On the contrary, I manage to gain a lot of Smart Home experience and I put a lot, a lot of efforts in the Guide – the result is just great!

    But why don’t you check it out by yourself ➡️ link

    Hope you will like it as much as I do.

    Support my Work!

    If you like what you see so far and you want more content like this you may want to become one of my supporters. Check exactly how on my support page!

    Any other sort of engagement on this site and my YouTube channel does really help out a lot with the Google & YouTube algorithms, so make sure you hit the subscribe, as well as the Like and Bell buttons If you enjoy this Optimize and Troubleshoot UniFi Wireless Connections video article.

    Also feel free to add me on Twitter by searching for @KPeyanski. You can find me on my Discord server as well.

    I really hope that you find this information useful and you now know how to optimize and troubleshoot UniFi Access Points, including the UniFI Dream Machine which have integrated Access point in it.

    Stay safe and don’t forget – Home Smart, But Not Hard!

    Thank you for reading, I will see YOU in the next article 😎

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