Aruba Airwave - Configuring Origin when adding Floorplan to VisualRF

Airwave is the network management platform from Aruba for managing their (and other vendors) wired and wireless equipment. One key part are the live floor plans accessed via the VisualRF menu. These show when APs are up or down, the clients connected to them and can also show heat maps and AP relationships.
When adding floor plans and setting up buildings in Aruba Airwave, there are several important factors to ensure are correct. One is that the scale of the plan is correctly set and the second is the location of the origin. The origin controls the alignment of floors so that VisualRF knows where floors above and below are located relative to one another. Without this the client location will not be correct and the heat maps inaccurate.

In these screen captures the origin is in the default location at the top left of the imported floor plans of the ground and first floors. However the amount of white space around each plan is different.

By enabling the heat map showing the signal from APs on the floor above the misalignment between floors is clear as the APs are offset to the left of their real locations.

To correct this unlock the floor plan by clicking on the padlock and then drag the origin marker to a point that is common to both floors, an elevator is ideal but a common corner of a building can also be used. Now looking at the same heat map the signal from the APs above are correctly located.

Aruba Wireless and 5.8GHz Band C in UK

On 13 July 2017 Ofcom announced that from 7th August 2017 the regulations governing the 5.8GHz Band C in the UK would be changed to allow Wi-Fi use. This meant that an additional 125MHz of spectrum would now be available without requiring a license.
The decision is available here.

In summary the change specified in IR2030/1/23 is:

• 5 new 20Mhz Channels: 149, 153, 157, 161 and 165
• 200mW (23dBm) max EIRP
• Requires DFS and TPC
• Can be used indoor and outdoor

On Aruba controllers and Instant APs the channels and powers are controlled by the DRT (Downloadable Regulatory Table) and it was with some expectation that following the Ofcom ruling Aruba would now allow these. And lo and behold channels 149-161 are now allowed.

7c:57:3c:xx:xx:xx# show ap allowed-channels

Allowed Channels for AP Type 303 Country Code GB

------------------------------------------------

PHY Type                   Allowed Channels

--------                   ----------------

802.11g (indoor)           1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

802.11a (indoor)           36 40 44 48 52 56 60 64 100 104 108 112 116 120 124 128 132 136 140 149 153 157 161 165

802.11g (outdoor)          1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

802.11a (outdoor)          100 104 108 112 116 120 124 128 132 136 140 149 153 157 161 165

802.11g 40MHz (indoor)     1-5 2-6 3-7 4-8 5-9 6-10 7-11 8-12 9-13

802.11a 40MHz (indoor)     36-40 44-48 52-56 60-64 100-104 108-112 116-120 124-128 132-136 149-153 157-161

802.11g 40MHz (outdoor)    1-5 2-6 3-7 4-8 5-9 6-10 7-11 8-12 9-13

802.11a 40MHz (outdoor)    100-104 108-112 116-120 124-128 132-136 149-153 157-161

802.11a 80MHz (indoor)     36-48 52-64 100-112 116-128 149-161

802.11a 80MHz (outdoor)    100-112 116-128 149-161

802.11a 160MHz (indoor)    None

802.11a 160MHz (outdoor)   None

802.11a (DFS)              52 56 60 64 100 104 108 112 116 120 124 128 132 136 140

However, on closer inspection of the last line (802.11a (DFS)) it seems that channels 149-161 are not listed. Also the max allowed EIRP is not 23dBm as expected (I don't know why the command says it has been deprecated as it still shows the information and I couldn't find this elsewhere):

7c:57:3c:xx:xx:xx# show ap allowed-max-EIRP

Warning: This command has been deprecated.

Max EIRP setting for AP-303

---------------------------

Channel ... 144  149   153   157   161   165

------- ... ---  ---   ---   ---   ---   ---

b       ... *    *     *     *     *     *

g/a     ... *    13.4  13.4  13.6  13.5  13.5

HT 20   ... *    13.4  13.4  13.6  13.5  13.5

HT 40   ... *    13.5  13.5  13.6  13.6  *

VHT 80  ... *    13.4  13.4  13.4  13.4  *

Note: Output truncated to for easier display

Following discussions with Aruba support it appears that rather than implement DFS and TPC in Band C they have chosen to cap the EIRP to 14dBm.

The relevent part of the regulation IR2030 is IR2030/8/3 for "Non-specific short-range devices" that permits a maximum EIRP of 25mW (14dBm) and for which interference mitigation techniques are not required.

This is the same as the harmonized ETSI specification of 25mW max EIRP as given here.

It will have to be seen whether the benefit of not requiring DFS and TPC is worth the reduction in available transmit power. In my typical campus deployment we use EIRP upto 18dBm and 15dBm for dense deployments letting ARM take care of channel assignment and power setting. Therefore it is conceivable that for certain circumstances 14dBm could be sufficient. 

Aruba Instant default password.

After upgrading an Aruba Instant AP to 8.6.0.0 from 8.3.0.0 and factory resetting I discovered that the previous default management credentials of admin, admin no longer worked. After some head-scratching I discovered this change from the the 8.5.0.0 quick start guide:

So Aruba have changed the default password to be the serial number rather than a generic string. This should be a step forward for the cases where we find unconfigured APs transmitting their default SetMeUp-xx:xx:xx SSID, for these unconfigured cases the curious or hackers with bad intentions will have to have physical access to the AP to discover the serial number.