Recently, I noticed something at the template level for RF-Profiles UNII-3 is not available for use in the Meraki portal.
This seemed off to me because I was sure , I’ve been able to enable UNII-3 channels in the past.
I went into a site I knew we enabled UNII-3 at and I saw the difference.
From a top level template we are unable to use UNII-3 but if I create a local RF Profile suddenly I can enable UNII-3. I thought this was strange so naturally I opened up a ticket with Meraki.
Here is the reply I got.
“The Meraki devices are not certified for U-NII-3 bands in all regions and in fact in some regions they are not even allowed. A template allows networks from different regions to be bound and thus that setting is now available on the template and instead is pushed down to each network based on which region the network is set to.“
So I asked ” Is there any way to set the parent template in a region and does this differ by AP type? Also, is there a Meraki doc that explains this?”
and the reply
“Unfortunately we cannot set a region for template and no it does not differ by AP the regional restrictions are for specific channels and apply to all AP models. We do not have document for this specific template behavior but more information about regulatory domain can be found below. https://documentation.meraki.com/MR/Radio_Settings/MR_Wireless_Regulatory_Domains”
This brought up a major design issue with me using parent templates for Meraki wireless. If I use the default Meraki options I can use UNII-1, UNII-2, and UNII-2 Extended.
Depending on the devices I am using and where I am located , there is a possibility I could get locked into only using UNII-1. Four Channels at 20MHZ , Two at 40MHZ and One at 80 MHZ. Best Worst case scenario I use 20MHZ and pray the environment won’t be a large dense one. Otherwise I am going to need to make some tough decisions.
So here is where I play devils advocate. From a business standpoint the big “win” with Meraki is everything streamlined cloud. Meraki sells this solution like Ron Popeil ” Set it and forget it !”, we all know that is definitely not the case.
Now from a tech standpoint for every site to have a unique RF profile makes perfect sense as for the most part no two RF environments are the same. When this needs to be scaled to 1000+ sites is that reasonable to manage 1000+ different RF profiles?
Yes we probably could build a script and manage it via the API. I really would like to know how others are currently managing this?