Superchannel Mikrotik

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Jacquelyne Betance

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Aug 3, 2024, 5:53:50 PM8/3/24

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When a wireless 5Ghz station can not discover a Mikrotik AP during signal scan, there are a few troubleshooting steps that can be taken to resolve this issue. Though common and sometimes frustrating, this is usually caused by mismatched attributes in the wireless settings on both Mikrotik devices (AP and station)

Wireless connectivity involves connecting a wireless client to an access point popularly referred to as AP. Before connection can be established, there must be a line of sight (LOS) and the AP must be visible on the station when a signal scan is performed. With LOS already established, the challenge arises when a wireless 5Ghz station can not discover a Mikrotik AP during link installation.

Frequency Mode: the three frequency modes available on a wireless Mikrotik 5Ghz radio are manual txpower, regulatory doamin, and superchannel. By default, a wireless Mikrotik device has its frequency mode set to manual txpower. This means that only default frequencies will be used. However, in a bid to make use of less noisy frequencies and boost throughput, some users change this attribute to superchannel. The superchannel frequency mode permits the use of lower frequencies like the 5020 up to 5600.

When the frequency mode of the AP is changed to superchannel, the frequency mode on the station must also be changed to superchannel. Otherwise, the ssid on the AP will not be discovered on the station during signal scan, even if they are directly facing each other.

Band: depending on the model of Mikrotik device and routerOS version in use, the different bands available on a 5Ghz Mikrotik device include 5Ghz-A, 5Ghz-only-N, 5Ghz-A/N, 5Ghz-only-AC, 5Ghz-A/N/AC.
To establish a wireless link, the AP and the station must be able to run the same frequency band. The following combinations on both AP and station will establish connectivity:

Summary: in summary, if your wireless 5Ghz station can not discover a Mikrotik AP, make sure that your band is the same on both the AP and station, if the frequency mode on the AP is set to superchannel, do same on the station, and finally, ensure that the superchannel frequency used on the AP is listed in the frequency scan-list of the station.

As a result of the release of ISM 2.4 GHz frequency for use in the field of wireless data communication through the media and the lack of clarity about the rules in the use of a frequency of 2.4 GHz to be one factor interference in wireless communication. Interference generally occurs in urban areas the level of use of wireless data communication through the media is very high. Wireless devices 2.4 GHz are easily available and inexpensive, making the user media data communications using wireless LAN as a cheap alternative compared to other data communication media, such as Fiber Optic, Radio Microwave Link.

It is in fact the channel that is used in 2.4 GHz wireless communication is permitted only 11 channels starting from 2412Mhz-2462Mhz frequency, as more users make a frequency of 2.4 GHz increasingly crowded existing channels, resulting in wide bandwidth of each channel is also increasingly cramped. The width of the narrow bandwidth that clearly affects the quality of the process data communication, data sent or received experienced loss.

One quick method to overcome these problems is to utilize the capabilities of wireless devices Superchannel. One of the wireless devices with Atheros AR5413 chipset which has a mini-PCI Superchannel is R52H which is the product of mikrotik. Superchannel frequency range starting from 2192Mhz - 2539Mhz. Indeed, in the frequency range is still illegal superchannel for some countries, like Indonesia, but many Internet access providers, or ISPs use this superchannel capabilities for data communication media, both for distribution to customers or to the ISP backbone network, although not used permanently.

in this webinar, we were discussing about an introduction to mikrotik, network management, and the dude.There are some demos of installing the dude on mikrotik, as well as some the dude features to manage several aspects of network elements.the recording of this webinar will be uploaded on youtube: _IIkQC0rsLWIFIx_ygRead less

Atheros 10MHz and 5 Mhz modes.. (especially 5MHz) what modulation dothey use, and what is the speed/ rx sensitivity in 5MHz channel mode/rate?compared to the published -95 or -97 dBm for 1Mbps (b) mode or the -92dBm forOFDM 6Mbps mode?

The Atheros chips have quite a bit of capability beyond the 802.11a/b/g bandsand bandwidths. Around 2006 narrow channel 20/10/5MHz channel width cloakingoptions started to be discussed on the madwifi development lists. Thesecapablies are used to reduce the channel spacing to produce more usablechannels, at a cost of throughput. In typical 2.4GHz wireless AP, there are only3 non-overlapping channels available but with cloakingwe can use all 14 channels without interference. This is done by reducing thechannel bandwidth spacing down to as low as 5 MHz per channel instead of 20 innormal mode. These adjustable channels widths are now part of the standardAtheros/Madwifi HAL.

Atheros obviously understands that a blob does not help to prevent peoplefrom tuning the radio to frequencies they are not allowed to use. Luis Rodriguez is working on a in-kernel framework called "Central Regulatory DomainAgent" (CRDA) which will take care of the regulatory issues involved inrunning a WLAN device. He has been hired by Atheros as they are now issponsoring his work.

July 2008:
ath9k is the youngest of the three (completely FOSS) drivers. Initialdevelopment was done by Atheros, who then released the complete source code tothe community. ath9k supports all currently available 802.11n chipsets fromAtheros, where-as ath5k just supports a/b/g.

This firmware build came into being stemming from the Linksys WRT54G GPLdiscovery. Many other firmware builds use the OpenWrt code as a base andreference. It originally had no web interface, and around 2008 a verybasic one was added. Since then it has matured significantly. Whatsets this firmware build apart aside from being the most open, is the numerousoptional software packages available to add further features, most of which canbe installed from the web interface.

It's worth looking at the Openwrt and Cerowrt projects. Cerowrt is based on openwrt and is developing support for mesh networks. Instead of building your own WRT package, use what exists and add resources to agreat project.

MikroTik is a Latvian manufacturer of computer networkingequipment, founded in 1995. The mainproduct of MikroTik is a Linux-based operating systems known as MikroTikRouterOS The RouterOS, combined with their hardware product line, known as MikroTikRouterBOARD, is marketed at small to medium sized wireless Internet service providers, typically providing broadband wireless access in remote areas. It was one of the first combinations of hardware and software able to use Atheroschannels/frequencies outside the Part 15band. All one needed was a superchannel license.

So the members of the BBHN Dev Team responsible for producing and testing versions of BBHN from version 1.0.1 thru version 3.0.1,that extended support to Ubiquiti hardware split off and forked the project. Their May 2015 beta firmware release was the first to have expanded channelsupport. 2.4 GHz now offers channels 0, -1, and -2. 3.4 GHz offers 24 new channels from 3.380 to 3.495 GHz,as well as 802.11n support.

The Ubiquiti extreme range mini PCI modules are meant to be used with arouter board / station. (MikroTik networking equipment works similarly.) These boards have multipleslots to support multiple radio modules. For instance you could have a 900MHz user LAN module and a 5.8 GHz backbone module. The router stationcomes preloaded with Open-WRT Standard. Open WRT is a Linux-based firmware program that primarily uses acommand-line interface, but also features an optional web-based GUI interface. The Open WRT distribution has all the necessary drivers to see the radio modulesand network routing and madwifi radio drivers. Optionally you can loadsomething like DD-WRT if you are more familiar with that.

To enable the ham radio channels on these mini PCI devices you can do thisfrom the linux command line if you are using Open WRT. It's very easy, allyou do is edit the /etc/modules.d/50-madwifi to include the countrycodeparameter, use country code XX to enable without regulatory constraints.

Embedded Atheros radio devices such as La Fonera, D-Link DIR-300 homegrade as well as Ubiquit Nano staiton, and Bullet professional grade productsall have firmware running onboard Flash ram to control the radio chipset. All you do is go into the graphical user interface with your web browser andchange the country code (or enable the super channel for DD-WRT). (Withhome grade Atheros routers such as the La Fonera, D-Link DIR-300, you willlikely need to load third party firmware such as DD-WRT to be able to enable outof band opperation. This is done via the web based firmware update box orusing TFTP)

Once you have done this a new channels list will be available. 2312-2484 MHz for 802.11g devices and 5160-5840 MHz for 802.11adevices. Expanded channel lists for proprietary radio modules such as the900 MHz and 3 GHz devices work similarly. They simply have integratedtranverters using a local oscillator that shift the frequency from the base802.11g or a chipset.

When considering taking a wireless devise far from is normal frequencyoperating range it is important to remember that a non-calibrated wifi signalmay lead to spurious emissions. The hardware may have serious troubledecoding the signal and essentially it is just putting high level noise on thebands (if it is even transmitting at full power), and keep in mind we aresecondary users of these bands. Part 15 users are required to employ DynamicFrequency Selection (DFS) for all devices due to potential interferencewith government weather radar systems.