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In the area, there are "three" Aruba125 APs (2.4G/5G dual-band radios enabled) with non-overlapping channels connect to Aruba6000 controller, and the profile with ONE SSID applied on them. What is the mechanism for ipad to choose 2.4G or 5G connection for this SSID? Assume in the area, there are different STAs (some notebook running b-only, b/g, IPAD-a/b/g, IPAD2-a/b/g/n) concurrently running.

Thanks a lot!

James

The easy response is "Whatever the proprietary Apple algorithm tells it to." I realize that is not a helpful response, but as the ipads and other i devices are all going to be running whatever Apple's software tells it to. I can't say I've seen anything specifying the roaming behaviors et al from Apple.

I'm not sure what the mechanism is but I can tell you the my iPad tends to prefer 2.4 GHz. In fact, I initially had my AP-125 set to only allow high-throughput in the 5 GHz range and had band-steering enabled but, I found that my iPad had a really hard time connecting and would still go to the 2.4 GHz band. Once I enabled high-throughput on 2.4 GHz the iPad seemed to connect without issue and would allow itself to be steered to 5 GHz. Really odd.

That being said, I haven't really spent any time looking into why since this was on my home network and I find my family is much more adverse to outages than most businesses are ;)

James, What Aruba Code version are you using?
[code]show switches[/code]

Can you post config of your VAP profile?
[code]show run[/code]

Try adding this:
[code]wlan virtual-ap "VAPProfileName"
band-steering
[/code]

It should encourage 5GHz capable devices to use 5GHz. But mainly all boils down to the client like Brad said. Try asking Apple. They might be able to tell you the specific mechanisms and algorithms used for the IPAD.

SimplyWifi.. IPad 1 or IPad 2? What Aruba Code version are you using?

Sean - running 5.0.3.3 right now. Haven't bothered to update to 5.0.4.1 yet. It's just my old 'free demo' a200 controller so I can't put 6.x on it. It does the trick for home though. iPad 1.

I feel ya. I have a 200, 800 and 2400... All are end of life and can not run the 6.1 code.
I researched and IPAD 1 does support HT (802.11n) http://support.apple.com/kb/SP580

This site states some issues with 802.11n 5GHz and IPAD 1.
http://www.ipadforums.net/ipad-help/23093-ipad-1-wifi-g-n-connection-belkin-router-problem.html
[quote]iPad1 was 802.11n compliant but there were issues because some chipsets used in early 802.11n devices were compliant with the Draft Standard issued by the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers). As a result, there were some incompatibilities between devices sold that were based on this draft standard. Although the standard is now finalized there are certain to be products out there that are still Draft 802.11n compliant. Most manufacturers who sold Draft Standard products undertook to make firmware upgrades available to consumers should the finally published standard differ from the draft one.[/quote]

What model number is your IPad and what iOS are you running?

Model: MB292C. Version: 4.3.5 (8L1). It definitely supports HT as mine is showing 5 GHz-HT right now. It's just odd that it doesn't accept band-steering unless I have HT enabled on 2.4 GHz as well.

I've also run into some Motorola mobile data terminals running Intel Proset supplicants ( didn't note the versions) that seriously disagreed with Aruba's band steering. Didn't have the time to investigate at the time but my guess is it was an old supplicant/driver combo. Gotta love client quirkiness!

True true . Gotta love the clients lol