EAP615-Wall txpower on 5GHz limited to 21dBm

Installing and Using OpenWrt
1

Upon configuring OpenWrt 22.03.0-rc3 in EAP615-Wall I notice that max txpower on 5GHz is limited to 21dBm while 23dBm should in theory be possible (in stock firmware I could set 23dBm, see also the datasheet )

root@ap1:~# iw reg get
global
country NL: DFS-ETSI
        (2400 - 2483 @ 40), (N/A, 20), (N/A)
        (5150 - 5250 @ 80), (N/A, 23), (N/A), NO-OUTDOOR, AUTO-BW
        (5250 - 5350 @ 80), (N/A, 20), (0 ms), NO-OUTDOOR, DFS, AUTO-BW
        (5470 - 5725 @ 160), (N/A, 26), (0 ms), DFS
        (5725 - 5875 @ 80), (N/A, 13), (N/A)
        (5945 - 6425 @ 160), (N/A, 23), (N/A), NO-OUTDOOR, AUTO-BW
        (57000 - 66000 @ 2160), (N/A, 40), (N/A)

root@ap1:/# iwinfo wlan1 txpowerlist
   0 dBm (   1 mW)
   1 dBm (   1 mW)
   2 dBm (   1 mW)
   3 dBm (   1 mW)
   4 dBm (   2 mW)
   5 dBm (   3 mW)
   6 dBm (   3 mW)
   7 dBm (   5 mW)
   8 dBm (   6 mW)
   9 dBm (   7 mW)
  10 dBm (  10 mW)
  11 dBm (  12 mW)
  12 dBm (  15 mW)
  13 dBm (  19 mW)
  14 dBm (  25 mW)
  15 dBm (  31 mW)
  16 dBm (  39 mW)
  17 dBm (  50 mW)
  18 dBm (  63 mW)
  19 dBm (  79 mW)
  20 dBm ( 100 mW)
* 21 dBm ( 125 mW)

root@ap1:/# iwinfo wlan1 info
wlan1     ESSID: "xxxxx"
          Access Point: xxxxxxxxxxxxx
          Mode: Master  Channel: 36 (5.180 GHz)
          Center Channel 1: 38 2: unknown
          Tx-Power: 21 dBm  Link Quality: unknown/70
          Signal: unknown  Noise: -92 dBm
          Bit Rate: unknown
          Encryption: mixed WPA2/WPA3 PSK/SAE (CCMP)
          Type: nl80211  HW Mode(s): 802.11nacax
          Hardware: 14C3:7915 14C3:7915 [MediaTek MT7915E]
          TX power offset: none
          Frequency offset: none
          Supports VAPs: yes  PHY name: phy1

Since I have two EAP615 devices I compared the one with stock- and OpenWrt 22.03.0-rc3 firmware with https://vremsoftwaredevelopment.github.io/WiFiAnalyzer/ and signal strength is comparable so I am wondering if this is perhaps only a display issue?

2 Likes
2

Is this a US model ? TP-Link website says

FCC < 21 dBm (5 GHz)

3

I have the exact same issue. Flashed my EAP615 yesterday and I noticed the lower TX power of 21dBm.

It’s an EU model. By default the regulatory country was set to global, and the TX power was 20dBm. After changing it to NL, the value increased to 21dBm.

I also remember the value being 23dBm on the default firmware. But now I start to also doubt myself.

Is there any obvious way do debug this behavior?

4

I checked https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/sforshee/wireless-regdb.git/log/?qt=grep&q=netherland

And in one of the commits found the source: apparently the law for netherland

I can't read it though, so yeah :smiley:

5

I looked at the info: the Dutch law mentions 200 mW e.i.r.p. for 5150 – 5250 MHz