Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201 constantly dropping over Cisco WLC

[GiovanniFgrd]

We've been experiencing major instability in the workplace where the wireless network is established through Cisco WLC. The connection is established briefly, intermittently or, sometimes, it never connects at all.

We've tried every driver, the board is OEM in a Lenovo X1 6th gen.

Important to note we've contacted Cisco support exhaustively and nothing seems to solve it.

From what I could google very briefly, this seems to be a known issue for at least 2 years, is there any correction in place?

Being two major global IT infrastructure providers, it sounds nuts that neither Intel nor Cisco have worked this out yet.

[DeividA_Intel]

Hello GiovanniFgrd,  

Thank you for posting on the Intel® communities. I am sorry to know that you are having issues with your Intel® Wi-Fi 6 AX201 (Gig+).  

In order to better assist you, please provide the following:  

1. Is this the original adapter that came pre-installed on your computer or did you change/install the adapter to this one?  

2. Did you notice the issue after a system update? Is it recent?

3. Does this only happen at work or also at home?

4. Is the issue present with both bands (2.4GHz and 5GHz)?

5. Are you using a WPA2-Enterprise security protocol?

6. Do you see any error code in the device manager?

7. What is the operating system installed as well as the version and build?

Regards,  

Deivid A. 

Intel Customer Support Technician 

[RafaelP]

Hello Deivid,

Giovanni and I work in the same company.

I have already run several wlan reports using netsh command.

At home, there is no issue, but with CISCO WLC in the office, disconnections behavior happens very often.

The AP device is CISCO AIRONET 2700 series(AIR-CAP2702I-Z-K9), and we have 2 devices.

The latest driver installed for Intel(R) Wi-Fi 6 AX201 160MHz is :

Driver date: 8/29/2022

Driver Version: 22.170.0.3

The tests performed for some test users were:

Roaming aggressiveness was set to low, but problem remains the same. 

The option for ipv6 has been disabled in network settings.

Sign in option is Microsoft: Protected EAP (PEAP)

Channel: 2.4GHZ

Protocol Wi-Fi 4 (802.11n)

Mobile phones connect successfully to Cisco WLC, which indicates something between the laptop network driver and the cisco wlc.

If you have something to add, I appreciate.

Thank you.

[GiovanniFgrd]

Hello Deivid, pls find the requested below.

1. Original, OEM as stated in the question.

2. No, right after starting using the Lenovo X1 6th gen machines equipped with AX201 board.

3. Only at the office, it happens with every machine with the board.

4. Absolutely, both frequencies.

5. Exactly, it is WPA-2.

6. No error message/code, it just disconnects.

7. Win 10 10.0.19044

Thanks!

Giovanni F.

[DeividA_Intel]

Hello GiovanniFgrd, 

Thanks for the confirmation as well as RafaelP for the report. Based on the information provided I would you GiovanniFgrd to try the following:

1. Celan installation of the latest driver:

• Driver: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/download/19351/windows-10-and-windows-11-wi-fi-drivers-for-intel-wireless-adapters.html
• Steps: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000022173.html

2. Update the WLC firmware.

3. Update Windows 10 to the latest version and build (not to Windows 11).

Regards,  

Deivid A. 

Intel Customer Support Technician 

[JPavonM]

Have you also opened a discussion on Cisco communities about this?

Please check whether all timeouts (EAP, GTK, PTK, session, idle, ...) in the WLAN configuration are set to a high value to avoid re-authentications happening all the time, and also disable DHCP required feature.

If you need additional information you can find me there also with username @JPavonM 

[DeividA_Intel]

Hello GiovanniFgrd, 

I would like to know if your issues persist or if you had the time to try the steps recommended. Please let me know if you need further support.

Best regards, 

Deivid A.  

Intel Customer Support Technician 

[GiovanniFgrd]

Dear Deivid,

We're trying to get to the bottom of this based on the suggestions, also been trying to liaise with Cisco Support on this (again).

In the meantime I think you can close the topic because I don't know when I'll have a definitive answer.

Thank you!

GF

[DeividA_Intel]

Hello GiovanniFgrd, 

Thanks for the reply. I understand that you will continue with Cisco support to troubleshoot this issue. As you mentioned, I will close this thread, however, you can open a new one in case that you need further support.

Thanks for your time and comprehension.

Regards,  

Deivid A.  

Intel Customer Support Technician  

[RafaelP]

Hi Deivid,

Thank you for the suggestions.

The WLC is managed by another team, but I will recommend it as soon as the new APs are installed in the current wireless network.

Despite of this problem, shadow area was found and following Cisco recommendation, those devices are going to be added, and site survey is about to be concluded.

Thank you for your assistance on it.

Rafael.

[ATP600]

Hi DeividA_Intel,

We are experiencing the same issue using AX.201 Wireless adapters and Cisco WLC
Reading your experience matches our case 100%
Out netwerk started a Cisco case, but no progress is made. 

Were you able to resolve this with Cisco? 

Your reply is much appreciated

[BRivera]

We're also experiencing the same issue.  Surface laptops with Intel AX201 wifi adapters and Cisco WLC.  Wireless properties are configured with WPA2-Enterprise AES and Microsoft PEAP.  Nothing really indicating in the wlan reports.  Per this article,  changing the TLS version for EAP does not improve the connection either.  Issue still occurs --> https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/windows-10-devices-can-t-connect-to-an-802-1x-environment-179ef277-e6ef-8ea3-cb0e-11a6b80fa955 

Symptoms: Laptops (stationary) are inadvertently bouncing its connection to multiple AP devices intermittently throughout the day. Each time this occurs, the laptop loses Internet connectivity for several minutes. For multiple users, this happens several times a day.

For us, this issue only occurs on the 5GHz wifi band.  Our workaround is to force the network adapter to connect using the 2.4GHz 802.11b/g band.

Can someone explain what the root cause of this issue is?  We have had negative results working with Cisco.