iOS Devices Preferred Band on wireless?

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Level 1

4 points

iOS Devices Preferred Band on wireless?

Hi,

We have a pretty big wireless installation at my company. Recently we upgraded to a new wireless controller together with the new Cisco 3802i APs. Also we have done a lot of tweaking for Mac users both computers and cells.

I've been reading in an article that iOS 11 should prefer 5GHz over 2.4GHz, but the test I have been doing only let my Iphone 7 go back on 2.4 GHz every time I connect.

The setup we have now is that we have one corporate network and one guest network. The SSID is both on 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. For our main laptops which are windows 10 machines we don't encounter this problem with 5 to 2.4 GHz it always choose the preferred band 5 GHz.

Is this a bug or is there anything I could do to force those devices onto 5 GHz?

Regards,

Robin

iPhone 7, iOS 11.2

Posted on Dec 14, 2017 5:52 AM

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Answer 1

suat.cini

Level 2

201 points

Dec 14, 2017 7:21 AM in response to r0binr

Hi.

5 GHz has higher bandwidth but lower distance of coverage while 2.4 GHz has lower bandwidth but higher distance of coverage. Therefore, while you are on 5 GHz, your phone may switch to 2.4 GHz if the distance to the source of wi-fi signal increases.

When you turn on your iPhone, it also starts with 2.4 GHz even though 5 GHz signal is present.

The same is true of laptops. They behave the same way except that many laptops have preference setting of the frequency you like. So when you turn on your laptop, it tries your preferred setting first, let's say 5GHz. If the distance is not covered by 5 GHz, it switches to 2.4 GHz.

If you want to stay constantly on one frequency, delete the other wi-fi setting.

5 GHz has advantage because 5GHz space is not crowded, less prone to interference and higher bandwidth. You can watch 4K videos on it. But it has lower distance of coverage.

Hope this info helps.

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