Question

802.11ac Wifi and SonosNet co-existance

  • 6 February 2018
  • 2 replies
  • 1134 views

Userlevel 2
Sonos compatriots,

I set up a lot of Sonos systems for my clients and want to maximize their WiFi speed as well as provide for a reliable Sonos System operation.

I always make sure the WiFi is operating in channels that don't interfere with the Sonos. So... typically with 802.11ac WiFi networks, I will setup the Sonos on SonosNet channel 11 (aka NOT using WiFi at all), and set the WiFi on channel 1 Wide-channel (20/40Mhz on the 2.4GHz band) and channel 153 (20/40/80Mhz on the 5GHz band).

With this setup, I am confident that in the 2.4GHz I have minimized the chance of interference between the Sonos and WiFi, but on the 5GHz band, I don't know what frequencies SonosNet operates in. So..., when I have a "bonded" system setup with a Playbar and Sub/surrounds, what actual frequencies does SonosNet use? I am interested in the best possible WiFi speed and the least inteference and what frequencies to set the WiFi to operate in.

Thanks,

Carl

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2 replies

Userlevel 7
Badge +22
I have heard that Sonos searches once an hour for the clearest channel to use on 5ghz. So you should have no issues in that band.
PLAYBAR et al do indeed dynamically scan for the best 5GHz channel when they're idle. The available 5GHz channels are constrained by the region setting, accessible only to Sonos. 802.11ac employs per-frame bandwidth control anyway, so will tend to avoid messing things up.

As a passing comment, choosing to use 40MHz in the 2.4GHz band will work so long as WiFi and SonosNet are on channels 1 and 11 respectively. However it's antisocial to someone nearby who's attempting to use WiFi channel 6, which could suffer significant interference. Being greedy cuts both ways too: anyone nearby using ch 6 will affect throughput of the local 40MHz ch 1.