Increase 5ghz Tx power of WDS client above 20 dBm?

Installing and Using OpenWrt
#1

I am using an Archer C7 v2 as a WDS client. Everything is working OK but throughput is very low and my WDS server is reporting a very low signal from the Archer (-83 dBm); conversely, the signal from my server to the Archer is great (-56 dBm). I thought that this was super strange as the Archer typically has very decent wifi performance, but it turns out that it seems to be locked at a maximum of 20 dBm Tx power when in WDS client mode. The server is using 23 dBm (as I believe is the true maximum for the US region).

Is this really the driver default maximum Tx power or a firmware bug? It seems awfully low. I'm using channel 36. I've tried using ath10k-firmware-qca988x-ct-full-htt in addition to the stock ath10k-firmware-qca988x-ct with no difference (slightly better throughput but no ability to increase the Tx power).

#2

Have you set your country correctly to "US"?
20 is the limitation for the default "00" or "world" setting.
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/sforshee/wireless-regdb.git/tree/db.txt#n19

https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/sforshee/wireless-regdb.git/tree/db.txt#n1596

1 Like
#3

Thanks, I had always been under the impression that the driver default was tied to the region of manufacturing. Now I can set it to 23 dBm and my throughput is about 20% better!

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#4

That is highly dependent on the device you're using.
Some devices (like yours) follow what the OS sets (via the country setting).
Others have a built in power table but can be lowered only (not raised) by the OS.
Others just follow a built in power table no matter what you do.

#5

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