Release Notes Alvarion Breezenet B v6.0 100126

BreezeNET B Ver. 6.0 GA Release Notes Page 1 of 11

BreezeNET® B

BreezeNET B Version 6.0 GA Release Note

January 2010

© Alvarion Ltd. All rights reserved.

The material contained herein is proprietary, privileged, and confidential. No disclosure thereof shall be made to third parties without the express written permission of Alvarion. Alvarion reserves the right to alter the specifications in this publication without prior notice.


General This document details the main features, known limitations, and other important notifications with respect to BreezeNET B product Release 6.0. It corresponds to software version 6.0.21.

BreezeNET B Release 6.0 is supported starting from Device Driver version 3.0.0.27 of AlvariSTAR and AlvariCRAFT.

AlvariSTAR DD 3.0.0.27 version has to be installed on AlvariSTAR Infrastructure platform version 3.2.2.22.

Release 6.0 Introduction BreezeNET B Release 6.0 enhances the capabilities of:

• BreezeNET B 10 as "Air Wire", simplifying the product installation and configuration by using "four simple mouse clicks" method

• BreezeNET B14 2.4 GHz band is now extended with the enabling of channel 14, which allows the BreezeNET B14 unit to operate on the central frequency of 2484 MHz using 10 / 20 MHz channels.

Frequency Bands The currently supported frequency bands:

• 5.8 GHz Band: 5.725–5.875 GHz (Universal Country Code with HW Revision C)

5.725–5.850 GHz (all other Country Codes)

• 5.4 GHz Band: 5.470–5.725 GHz

• 5.2 GHz Band: 5.150–5.350 GHz

• 5.3 GHz Band: 5.250–5.350 GHz

• 2.4 GHz Band: 2.402-2.494 GHz (Universal Country Code)

2.402-2.482 GHz (all other Country Codes)

Release 6.0 Key New Features

Extended VLAN Access Release 6.0 introduces a new VLAN operation mode for the RB side named "VLAN Extended Access". The behavior is similar with VLAN Access, with an extended set of rules to insert up to 8 VLAN tag and VID in the frame. For each of the VIDs user needs to establish a rule and a priority.


The classifiers includes src/dst MAC, src/dst IP, src/dst UDP port, src/dst TCP port, or IP protocol.

Feature is allowing also setting the forwarding rules for the L2 multicast packets, while all L2 broadcast packets will be forwarded on all VLANs.

Extended Trunk VLAN Extended Trunk is a new VLAN operation mode for the RB side. The main difference between VLAN Extended Trunk and VLAN Trunk is the possibility to accept untagged frames from Ethernet port. All these frames are sent on WLAN port as tagged frames and the VID is chosen by the user. This VID is named native VID. All frames with native VID coming from wireless are sent to Ethernet port without VLAN tag.

Statistics-Based Rate Control Release 6.0 introduces an alternative mechanism for Adaptive Modulation. The user can select between the new Statistics-Based Rate Control and the previous Adaptive Modulation mechanisms. In general, the Statistics-Based Rate Control algorithm provides an overall better performance in case of interference and a decrease in the retransmissions and drops percentage over the original Adaptive Modulation algorithm.

The Statistics-Based Rate Control algorithm uses statistics measurement attempting to achieve the highest throughput possible under the current link conditions on the selected channel.

By doing statistical analysis based on the time it takes to transmit each packet successfully, the algorithm calculates the achievable throughput on every modulation. The transmit time can be influenced by several factors, such as the number of retransmissions until a successful transmission is achieved, the occupancy of the wireless medium, the duration of each contention window selected by the backoff algorithm. The number of dropped packets is also taken into consideration when calculating achievable throughput. Transmit time depends on the modulation being used; lower modulations provide longer transmit durations, therefore making higher modulations more desirable. Also, because a frame on higher modulations occupies less time, it has a better chance to avoid interfering pulses which may be present on the channel.However, higher modulations are more susceptible to link quality degradation (e.g. fading). Transmitting on high modulation when the link conditions are bad leads to high number of retransmissions and dropped frames, hence increasing the total transmit time. The Statistics-Based Rate Control algorithm takes into account all these inputs in order to decide the best performing modulation level. The right decision usually implies a compromise between the increased data rate of higher modulations and the robustness of lower ones.

The Statistics-Based Rate Control feature has several parameters which can be tuned for increased adaptation speed or optimized stability.

Retries on Lower Modulations Starting with hardware revision C, BNB units are able to retransmit frames at different modulation levels for improved reliability. The maximum number of rates used for retransmissions is 4.

Balanced MIR for BreezeNET B10 Until now, the maximum configurable MIR in BNB10 has been limited to 5 Mbps per direction. Starting with Release 6.0, the MIR can be configured to any value, provided that the sum of MIR for Uplink and Downlink does not exceed 10 Mbps, which is the maximum aggregated data rate of BNB10.

This change allows to the user to balance the traffic. As an example, if most of the traffic is for uplink, such as the case of video surveillance, then, in RB, the values for MIR can be 8 for MIR Uplink and 2 for MIR Downlink.

Installation Friendly Release 6.0 introduces new modes of operation for the SNR LED bar. The user will be able to choose between 2 LED modes:


Normal Mode

Normal Mode is the current LED mode. If the user chooses this mode, all LED functions remain unchanged.

Counters Debug File

Threshold Mode

Threshold Mode is designed for installers who use specific pass/fail criteria in the site acceptance.

The user can decide, for every LED from the LED bar, when the LED is on or off.

There are 5 functions which can be assigned for every LED: “RSSI”, “CRC %”, “SNR”, “Average modulation” and “Disable”.

For every function, except “Disable”, the user is allowed to choose one of the following 3 criteria: “Equal or lower than”, “Equal or higher than”, and “Equal to”. Also, for every function, the user will be able to set a threshold value.

Using TFTP, the user can download a file containing all available counters and the time since last reset. The name of this file is the write community (or administrator password) and the file extension is “cdf”.

Configurable Ethernet Frame Size Starting Release 6.0, the maximum frame size for BNB10 is 2000 bytes and the user will be able to configure the maximum Ethernet frame size to either 1600 or 2000.

The maximum Ethernet frame size used by the units can be 2000 bytes only when both units are configured to work with this size. If one of the units (BU or RB) uses 1600 bytes or the feature is not implemented, the maximum size used on the link is 1600 bytes.

In order to know the maximum size of Ethernet frame, both units will advertise their Ethernet frame size as elements in association frames (Association Request & Association Response).

Interference Mitigation (Clear Channel Selection and Noise Floor Selection) With Release 6.0 a new channel selection and noise floor selection mechanism is implemented in BNB 10 and BNB 2.4GHz. The mechanism is designed to offer the user the capability of selecting the right operating channel and to set the right noise floor, hence simplifying significantly the installation process experience (previously based only on spectrum analyzer). The new feature is collecting the channel occupancy and the interference level for each channel and selects the optimal solution based on two criteria: • Optimizing the Performance for a given distance

• Optimizing the Distance for a given throughput

Optimization process is using a basic default configuration which is generating either the maximum performance at required distance or the longest possible distance for the required performance.

For normal operation of the feature, the user is required to configure the deployment scenario:

Non Line Of Sight (NLOS) When there is no direct visibility between the BU and RB

Near Line Of Sight (nLOS) When visibility between the BU and RU is partially blocked.

Line Of Sight (LOS) When there is clear visibility between the BU and RB. As a result, the feature will choose one channel and a matching value of the Noise Floor which meets the desired criteria. Additionally the unit will report recommended values for all other channels.


Advanced configuration is available for expert control over these values, it is recommended to practice caution when altering the advanced configuration as manipulation of advance settings may resolve in non-optimal conditions.

On RB side the same mechanism will generate only recommended Noise Floor values on all available channels.

Enhanced Classifier for Traffic Prioritization Beside VLAN priority, source and destination UDP/TCP ports and IP TOS information, starting Release 6.0 the frames can be prioritized also taking into account source and/or destination IP addresses, using configurable options.

Control Modulation Level This feature controls the modulation for ACK frames sent by the unit. The ACK modulation can either be set dynamically based on the modulation of the frame it acknowledges or it can be enforced to modulation level 1. The latter is particularly useful for asymmetric links with a high SNR on one side and a low SNR on the other.

Support for New Wireless Counters To assist in easier installation and link quality evaluation, starting Release 6.0, AU-VL and SU-VL implement counters for TX Retransmission and RX CRC as % of total transmitted / received packets.

SU-L units support display of new counters for RX CRC and CRC %.

BreezeNET B HW Revision C Tilting Kit For better antenna alignment of the BreezeNET B devices with the integral antenna Release 6.0 introducing new tilting kit


Product Description P/N

BreezeNET B Rev. C Pole Mount Tilting Kit BreezeNET B Hardware revision C tilting kit for any pole installation 732105

Important Notes • The Outdoor Units must be grounded properly. In addition to potential hazards due to lightning

strikes, a failure to properly ground the ODU may cause communication problems on the local Ethernet interface.

• Although minimum output power is defined as -10 dBm when configuring the TX Power manually, when ATPC is enabled the RB’s output power may be less than this minimum.

• Extra care should be taken when configuring VLAN management and management IP filtering in order not to lose connectivity with unit. In case of connectivity loss, use the “restore default parameters” application to reset to factory values.

• Upon downgrade from version 5.0 and higher to version 3.0 or lower, all the information in the new Network Management IP Address Ranges table will be lost. Hence, management access may be lost if the unit was managed from an IP address that is on a subnet defined in the new tables.

• When upgrading from version 3.0 or lower to version 5.0, the high/low packet classification settings according to the old VLAN Priority Threshold or IP Precedence Threshold parameters will be lost. The new parameters are forced to the default value of 7, meaning no prioritization.

• When Wireless Link Prioritization feature is enabled, the prevention of Low Priority Traffic Starvation is automatically disabled.

• Remote changes of the Maximum Modulation Level in an RB while Adaptive Modulation is disabled may lead to loss of connectivity with the unit. The recommended workaround is to enable Adaptive Modulation, reset the unit to apply the change, and then change the Maximum Modulation Level.

• Adaptive Modulation may not converge to best modulation in some setups with high variance in noise levels. In these cases better performances may be achieved with manual modulation settings (Adaptive Modulation Disabled).

• Upon upgrade to SW version 5.0 or higher from version 3.1 or lower, the FTP Client IP Address and Subnet Mask no longer exist as configurable parameters and the unit's IP parameters are used instead. Upon downgrade from SW version 5.0 or higher to version 3.1 or lower, the FTP Client IP Address of the unit is automatically set to the same value as the IP Address of the device. In this case, the following warning message appears:

*** WARNING: Same 'Unit IP Address' and 'FTP Client IP Address'! ***

*** 'FTP Client IP Address' ignored until change and reset! ***

After downgrade it is recommended to change the FTP Client IP Address to 1.1.1.3 and the FTP Server IP Address to 1.1.1.4.

• Using FTP to put/get some files into/from the units might fail. However, the operation will succeed after several trials. In such cases it is recommended to perform the file transfer using TFTP.

• When an RB with SW version 3.x is upgraded to version 5.0 or later and the ATPC is enabled, the TX Power of the RB will be modified to the maximum value allowed by HW revision and regulatory domain used (Country Code). ATPC will later adjust it to the optimal level.


• The operation of “Reset and boot from shadow” executed from SW version 5.0 and higher may take up to 2 seconds longer when the shadow version is lower than 5.0.

• With respect to the ETSI DFS functionality in 5.4 GHz:

o When upgrading the installed RB units to version 5.5.27 or higher, the DFS feature will not be enabled. However a Country Code change, a Country Code re-apply or factory default will force the DFS mechanism to be enabled

o When upgrading the installed BU units to version 5.5.27 or higher, the DFS parameter called “Minimum Pulses to Detect” will not be changed. However a Country Code change, a Country Code re-apply or factory default will force the “Minimum Pulses to Detect” parameter to be set to a new value

o When units operate in 5600-5650 MHz, with ETSI DFS enabled, please note that because CAC=10 minutes for each unit in this band, it is possible to have the link established only after 10 up to 20 minutes, after radar detection/system reset/power up.

• With respect to the ETSI DFS functionality in 5.8 GHz, when upgrading the installed RB units to version 5.5.27 or higher, DFS will be automatically enabled.

• With respect to the ETSI DFS regulation in the 5.4 -5.8 GHz, the updated standard mandates RB units capability of DFS sequences detection similar to the BU units – the DFS detection mechanism on both ends (BU and RB) can lead to slight throughput degradation compared to old version performance in which detection of DFS was not required on the RB.

• Interference Mitigation (automatic noise floor and channel selection) introduced with Release 6.0 may result in suboptimal results as per the selected optimization parameters and their match to actual deployment scenario. Therefore, the algorithm, while it offers good results in most setups, is not guaranteed to make the best decision in each and every condition. It is recommended to use the Interference Mitigation results as a good starting point, but subsequent tuning may be necessary to achieve the maximum possible performance.

• Interference Mitigation default values are selected in order to give optimal results in typical setups. Therefore, it is recommended to run Clear Channel Select and/or Noise Floor Select using the default values. Proceed with care if modifying any of the values and make sure the affect of the change is well understood.

• It is not recommended to use either very high or very low values for Minimum Desired Performance or Minimum Desired Distance, as this can result in suboptimal results or no suitable solution.

• Reading the Event Log after each Interference Mitigation run can be useful, because it displays the details and conclusion of the CCS/NFS process.

• Interference Mitigation should not be activated on the BU when Active Scanning is enabled on the RB. Otherwise, this will generate unwanted interference to the BU performing the scan, resulting in lower estimated performance and distance.

• Certain parameters, which are included in menus other than Interference Mitigation, are also taken into account by the CCS and NFS mechanisms. Such parameters are: TX Power, Maximum TX Power, Antenna Gain, Country Code and Sub-band. It is recommended to verify that these parameters are properly configured before activating Interference Mitigation.

• It is not recommended to use channel 2477 or 2484 in BNB 2.4GHz when downgrading from SW version 6.0 or higher to previous versions, because these channels are not supported in earlier releases and unexpected unit behavior can occur.


Limitations & Known Issues • When operating in very noisy environments, the Automatic Noise Immunity mechanism (ANI) can

force the OFDM Weak Signal (OWS) to a level of '1'. In the event that this happens (on the BU side), if the RB has SNR below 25, it can disassociate without being able to re-associate. In such cases (very noisy environments) the ANI must be set to 'Manual' and the OWS value must never be set to '1'.

• Units running SW version 4.5 or later with Country Code 1044 (Australia) should not be downgraded to 4.0 or earlier; this can be performed only after changing the Country Code. The above mentioned Country Code is supported only by version 4.5 and later.

• Prior to changing the Country Code, the user should verify that under the new EIRP conditions, imposed by the new Country Code, it is still possible to maintain the link (relevant in cases where the new CC EIRP value is lower than the original EIRP value).

• When downgrading to previously released versions, the operator defaults might be corrupted. To avoid this, the recommended downgrade procedure is:

1. Download the operator defaults (.cmr file)

2. Downgrade from current SW

3. Load the operator defaults

• Sensitivity may change slightly as a function of frequency (+/-2dB).

• Transmission power accuracy is +/-1dB above 8dBm @ antenna port (typical condition). At lower levels the accuracy is +/-3dBm, never contradicting regulations. At very low levels the use of ATPC may cause significant fluctuations in the power level of the transmitted signal. When operating at such low levels, it is recommended to disable the ATPC Option in the RB and to set the Transmit Power parameter to the average TX Power level before the ATPC was disabled.

• For full compliance with FCC regulations, the following requirements should be followed in units using a 20 MHz bandwidth:

o In units HW Revision B, if you wish to include frequency channel 5270 MHz in the set of frequencies to be used, then the Transmit Power parameter in the BU, and the Maximum TX Power parameter in the RB, should not be set to a value above “17-Antenna Gain”. If there is a need to use a higher value for these parameters, this frequency should not be used.

o In units with HW Revision C, if you wish to include one or more of frequency channels 5270, 5275 and 5330 MHz in the set of frequencies to be used, then the Transmit Power parameter in the BU, and the Maximum TX Power parameter in the RB, should not be set to a value above “20-Antenna Gain”. If there is a need to use a higher value for these parameters, this frequency should not be used.

• For full compliance with FCC regulations, the following requirements should be followed in units using a 40 MHz bandwidth (Turbo Mode):

o In units with HW Revision B, Frequency channels 5270 and 5280 MHz should not be used.

o In units with HW rev C, if you wish to include frequency channel 5290 MHz in the set of frequencies to be used, then the Transmit Power parameter in the BU, and the Maximum TX Power parameter in the RB, should not be set to a value above “25-Antenna Gain”. If there is a need to use a higher value for these parameters, this frequency should not be used. If you wish to include frequency channel 5310 MHz in the set of frequencies to be


used, then the Transmit Power parameter in the BU, and the Maximum TX Power parameter in the RB, should not be set to a value above “29-Antenna Gain”. If there is a need to use a higher value for these parameters, this frequency should not be used.

• For full compliance with FCC regulations for units using 10 MHz bandwidth, frequency 5265 MHz should not be used. For these units, the Transmit Power parameter in the BU, and the Maximum TX Power parameter in the RB connected to this BU, should not be set to a value above “25-Antenna Gain”.

• The maximum Transmit Power (at antenna port) of units using FCC 5.3 GHz and FCC 5.4 GHz Country Codes is 9 dBm.

• In units with HW Revision B, Burst Mode cannot be enabled when using WEP for Data Encryption. In units with HW Revision B, the Burst Mode option will be “blocked” upon trying to enable it when using WEP for Data Encryption. This limitation does not apply to units with HW Revision C. Note that the Burst Mode parameter may be wrongly displayed on HW Revision B units as Enabled instead of Blocked, when DFS or Data Encryption is enabled. However, the behavior of the Burst Mode is as expected (blocked).

• The character “;” (semicolon) is a reserved character. It should not be used in defining any string parameters (unit name, ESSID, etc) since the string will be cut before the semicolon.

• If you are using the Feature Upgrade option in Telnet to enter a license string using copy and paste operation, check carefully that the string is copied properly. You may have to enter it manually due to potential problems in performing copy/paste in Telnet.

• When an RB running SW version lower than 5.0 is associated with a BU running SW version 5.0 or later:

o A special warning messages might be displayed in the log file:

WRN: Unknown vendor private element code: 15



o Parameters that are not included in the old ADB table will be either not available (unknown) or with wrong values.

• When DFS is enabled, ANI “Pulse Detection Sensitivity” parameter, although configurable, is not significant. In this case an equivalent value of High will be automatically assigned to this parameter.

• When using 40MHz channels, the maximum range of the link can be 27 km. For 20 MHz channels, the maximum range is 54 km.

• It is recommended to use TFTP, as opposed to FTP, in all cases when files need to be transferred from/to the unit.

• It is not recommended to force the Noise Floor to more than 15-20dB above the measured value. This might affect the SNR calculation (showing much higher values) for signals that are up to 10dB above the new Noise Floor Forced Value.

• When DFS option is enabled, the Noise Floor Value cannot be higher than -90dBm.

• RSSI reading feature requires a field calibration of the Noise Floor. Without this calibration the RSSI value read may have less accuracy (7-10dB). It is recommended to run the Calibration of Noise Floor at least once before using the RSSI readings.

• The Noise Floor Calibration might fail in case of heavy interference present on more than 50% of the available RF channels.


• Changing the Fairness Factor will produce changes also in total distance reported by the RB units.

• Spectrum Analysis might display NF values of 0 on channels with very high continuous interference, because the unit is not able to calibrate the NF. This might occur together with unusually high values of Signal Width (over 200 microseconds).

• If Noise Floor Level setting on the BU is high, the RB might not be able to associate even if the downlink SNR is good. This is because higher the NF value in the AU will result in shorter coverage distance. (RSSI=SNR+NF)

• In the current version, Extended VLAN rules do not apply to PPPoE encapsulated traffic (the algorithm does not look inside PPPoE frames).

• In case of “Statistics-Based Rate Control” feature, when a transmitted packet doesn't arrive successfully from the first try, sometimes it is dropped without 10 attempts of re-transmitting. Also, sometimes the retransmissions are performed only on the same modulation even if Retries on Lower Modulations are enabled and possible.

• In case of using Statistics-Based Rate Control mechanism, with Retries on Lower Modulations enabled, dropped frames on modulation 8 can still occur, either because of short retries (RTS dropped) or trials on higher modulations from modulation levels lower than 8.

• The maximum recommended Multicast Modulation Level to be configured in the BU is 6. Configuring a higher value might lead to increased amounts of CRC at the receiving RB.

• Packets received from Ethernet and dropped at the Ethernet port are not reported in Traffic Statistics counters.

• With respect to system performance with small packets (e.g. 64 bytes):

o For high MIR values, MIR might not be reachable with small packets.

o Small packets expected maximum throughput with Release 6.0 is below 40.000pps – around 33000pps for uplink unidirectional only.

o Small packets maximum throughput with Release 6.0 is asymmetric: around 44000pps downlink and 33000pps uplink.

• Combining Best BU and Automatic Noise Floor Selection should be done cautiously since Best BU selected (max RSSI) may not be in the SNR range as implied by the Automatic CCS/NFS Noise Floor level.

• When running Clear Channel Selection on BU units with values other than Default, the result may be picking a channel with very low noise floor or one with very high noise floor depending on the parameters configured.

• While Interference Mitigation is active, the Spectrum Analysis results table in AlvariCRAFT starts displaying irrelevant values. This behavior ends once the Interference Mitigation process is over, after which Spectrum Analysis in AlvariCRAFT resumes display of the values stored in the results table prior to running Interference Mitigation. This behavior is only present in AlvariCRAFT and it does not occur when accessing via telnet.

• For channels where no suitable solution was found because of high noise levels, the displayed values for NF, Distance and Performance will be 0.

• During Interference Mitigation, if more than 100.000 events are picked up on one channel, the scanning process will automatically move to the next channel in the Frequency Subset list, regardless of the duration configured in Channel Scan Period option.


• If the unit finds over 100.000 events on most or all channels, the outcome might be unreliable, because it does not perform a fair comparison between different channels. This means that the entire spectrum is heavily interfered. In this case, it is recommended to decrease the Channel Scan Period and re-run Interference Mitigation.

• ’Ethernet Frame Size’ settings (e.g. changing frame size from 1600B to 2000B) are applied only after unit restart, although the new setting is shown on the unit.

• Changing Threshold Type (e.g. from RSSI to SNR) for a selected LED keeps the current values for Mode and Target, which might cause them to be out of range for the new threshold type.

• BU SNR LED Bar indicates SNR only after data traffic is received from the RB.

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Release Notes Alvarion Breezenet B v6.0 100126