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Enter the AP count for this band; plan one band at a time when radios differ by floor or area.
APs
Use the same band, width, and regulatory domain that will be configured on the WLAN controller.
Choose FCC/US, ETSI/EU, or a conservative world-safe indoor pool.
Start narrow for dense designs; 2.4 GHz is planned as 20 MHz even if a wider width is selected.
Set whether 5 GHz radar-sharing channels are excluded, allowed, or deliberately preferred.
Pick row for a corridor, grid for a floor plate, or floors for a stacked multi-floor plan.
Use the naming prefix from your controller or survey notes, such as AP, Floor2, or WingA.
Keep 1 for a new plan or match an existing controller naming sequence.
Set the number of stacked floors or zones to offset when Reuse pattern is Floors.
floors
Use this for known radar hits, neighbor conflicts, controller restrictions, or vendor-specific exclusions.
When a bonded 6 GHz block contains a Preferred Scanning Channel, use it as the primary channel.
Channel 165 is a 20 MHz-only option; it is ignored for bonded 5 GHz widths.
AP Position Primary Block Width Center Flag Reuse Copy
No AP assignments are available until the channel pool has at least one usable block.
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Checkpoint Status Recommendation Detail Copy
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No candidate channel blocks remain after width, regulatory, DFS, and exclusion filters.
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Wi-Fi channel planning assigns access point radios to channel blocks so nearby cells share airtime as cleanly as the building allows. The goal is not to find a magic channel for every AP. It is to keep co-channel reuse predictable, avoid adjacent-channel overlap, and leave enough spectrum for clients to roam without every radio fighting the same crowded block.

The available choices change sharply by band. A practical 2.4 GHz plan usually has only channels 1, 6, and 11 at 20 MHz, so dense deployments run out of separation quickly. The 5 GHz band offers more blocks, but some of them are Dynamic Frequency Selection channels that must yield to radar. The 6 GHz band adds the largest pool where local rules and client support allow it, and wider 160 MHz or 320 MHz channels can still shrink that pool fast.

A channel plan is a starting point for configuration, not a substitute for an RF survey. Walls, floor stacking, AP transmit power, antenna pattern, client mix, neighboring WLANs, and non-Wi-Fi interference can all change the final answer. A good plan makes those tradeoffs visible before controller setup, then site validation decides what survives production tuning.

The most useful result is the one that names both the candidate channel pool and the reuse pressure. A wide channel can look attractive on paper while leaving too few blocks for the AP count. A narrower plan may produce lower peak rates, but it can give the network more places to reuse airtime without turning every nearby cell into the same contention domain.

Technical Details:

Wi-Fi channels are numbered references to center frequencies. A 20 MHz channel uses one primary channel. Wider channels bond neighboring 20 MHz channels into a larger block, so one 80 MHz assignment consumes four 20 MHz slots and one 160 MHz assignment consumes eight. The block can carry a primary channel for control traffic and a center channel for the bonded channel group.

Channel width is the main capacity tradeoff. Wider channels can raise peak throughput for capable clients in clean spectrum, but they reduce the number of non-overlapping blocks available for reuse. Narrower channels leave more blocks for a dense floor, a school wing, a hotel corridor, or a multi-floor office where APs hear one another through walls and slabs.

Diagram showing Wi-Fi band choice becoming grouped channel blocks, a filtered candidate pool, AP rotation, reuse pressure, and plan handoff.
Channel planning starts with usable 20 MHz blocks, filters that pool, and then rotates APs through the remaining blocks.

Formula Core

The frequency calculation is simple once the band and channel number are known. The main exception is 2.4 GHz channel 14, which uses 2484 MHz and is outside this planner's practical 1, 6, 11 set.

f=2407+5c for 2.4 GHz channels other than 14 f=5000+5c for 5 GHz f=5950+5c for 6 GHz

In these formulas, f is center frequency in MHz and c is the Wi-Fi channel number. A 5 GHz block labeled 38[36] means center channel 38 with primary channel 36. Its center frequency is 5000 + 5 x 38 = 5190 MHz.

Band Pool construction Important boundaries
2.4 GHz Uses channels 1, 6, and 11 as 20 MHz blocks. Any requested wider width is normalized to 20 MHz and a planning note explains the change.
5 GHz Builds 20, 40, 80, or 160 MHz blocks from practical indoor U-NII channel groups. DFS channels are 52 through 144. The 320 MHz width leaves no practical 5 GHz block in this planner.
6 GHz Groups 20 MHz channel numbers spaced by four into 20, 40, 80, 160, or 320 MHz blocks. FCC / US uses 59 20 MHz channels. ETSI / EU and world-safe profiles use a 24-channel lower-band pool.

Regulatory domain is treated as a practical indoor planning profile, not a legal certification engine. The selected AP country code, firmware, antenna, power class, and indoor or outdoor mode still govern what the real controller can use. Manual exclusions then remove any block whose primary channel, center channel, or bonded 20 MHz member matches the entered channel list or range.

Filter or label Rule used here Planning meaning
DFS avoided Removes any 5 GHz block containing channels 52 through 144. Useful when radar events, voice stability, or client behavior make DFS dependence risky.
DFS allowed Keeps both DFS and non-DFS 5 GHz blocks. Adds capacity where survey data and operational policy support it.
DFS only Keeps only 5 GHz blocks that include DFS channels. Useful for testing or deliberate DFS capacity planning, but empty pools are possible.
PSC On 6 GHz, a bonded block uses a Preferred Scanning Channel as primary when the option is enabled and the block contains one. Helps 6 GHz clients discover APs faster when the channel block supports a PSC primary.
Channel 165 Can be included as a 20 MHz 5 GHz channel but is ignored for bonded 5 GHz widths. Useful only when the design actually permits 20 MHz use at the top of U-NII-3.

The reuse pressure label is based on the heaviest loaded channel block after APs are assigned. Unique assignment means no block is reused. Light reuse means the busiest block has two APs. Managed reuse covers three or four APs on the busiest block. Heavy reuse starts above four APs on one block. These labels describe the channel rotation only; they do not measure signal strength, airtime utilization, or roaming quality.

The row, grid, and stacked-floor patterns change the assignment offset. Row mode cycles through the pool in order. Grid mode estimates columns from the square root of the AP count and offsets each row. Stacked floors split APs across the selected number of floors and offsets each floor. Those patterns create a deterministic first pass that is easy to review before survey data or controller radio resource management takes over.

Everyday Use & Decision Guide:

Start with one band at a time. Enter the Access points count for the radios you are planning, then set Band, Regulatory domain, and Channel width to match the controller profile you expect to use. If the AP count differs by floor or area, plan those slices separately instead of forcing one channel rotation to cover unlike spaces.

For dense 5 GHz designs, begin with 20 or 40 MHz and Avoid DFS when possible. That keeps the first pass conservative and makes the Planning Brief easier to review. If the channel pool is too small, switch DFS to allow capacity, lower the width, remove stale exclusions, or split the area into a more realistic zone.

For 6 GHz, keep Prefer 6 GHz PSC primaries enabled unless your vendor guidance says otherwise. The planner will still build wider bonded blocks, but it chooses a PSC primary inside the block where it can. Treat 320 MHz plans as special cases. They can be valid in full 6 GHz domains, yet they leave very few blocks for reuse and need strong client support.

  • Use Grid / open floor for office plates, classrooms, retail floors, and other spaces where APs sit in rough rows and columns.
  • Use Row / corridor for hallways, long wings, warehouses with aisle patterns, or any simple line of APs.
  • Use Stacked floors when the same channel can bleed vertically and you want the rotation offset between floors.
  • Use Excluded channels for known radar hits, neighbor conflicts, vendor restrictions, or controller channels you already ruled out.

The main wrong assumption is that a ready plan means the RF work is finished. A Wi-Fi channel plan ready summary only means the selected settings produced an assignable pool. Read Reuse pressure, Channel pool, and the Survey validation row before copying channels into a controller.

After the first pass, compare the Candidate Channel Pool with your actual controller country code and AP model. Then review the Channel Load Chart for overloaded blocks and use the AP assignment table as a handoff draft for the site survey or controller configuration review.

Step-by-Step Guide:

Use the fields from top to bottom, then verify the summary and planning notes before using the assignments.

  1. Set Access points. The planner limits the table to 1 through 500 APs and shows a planning note if the entered count has to be clamped.
  2. Choose Band. The summary badge changes to 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, or 6 GHz, and the candidate pool is rebuilt for that band.
  3. Choose Regulatory domain and Channel width. Check effective width in the summary because 2.4 GHz is normalized to 20 MHz and 5 GHz cannot produce a 320 MHz pool.
  4. For 5 GHz, set DFS policy. If the warning box says DFS blocks were removed or no DFS-only blocks remain, review the Channel pool checkpoint before continuing.
  5. Choose Reuse pattern. Use Floors in Advanced when the stacked-floor pattern needs a specific floor count.
  6. Open Advanced if you need AP naming, a custom first number, manual channel exclusions, 6 GHz PSC preference, or 5 GHz channel 165 control.
  7. Read the warning box and Planning Brief. Invalid exclusion tokens are ignored, and an empty pool means you need to lower width, allow DFS, or remove exclusions.
  8. Review AP Channel Assignments for primary channel, block, width, center frequency, flag, and reuse group on each AP.
  9. Use Candidate Channel Pool, Channel Load Chart, and JSON when you need the candidate set, load distribution, or a machine-readable handoff record.

Interpreting Results:

Read the summary first. Wi-Fi channel plan ready means at least one usable channel block remains after width, regulatory, DFS, and exclusion filters. Wi-Fi channel plan blocked means the pool is empty, so no AP assignments can be trusted until the filters change.

  • Channel pool tells you how many usable blocks remain and which band, domain, and effective width produced them.
  • Reuse pressure is the fastest load warning because it names the busiest block after assignment.
  • Width choice is a sanity check. Wider than 40 MHz gets a caution because it needs clean spectrum and client support.
  • DFS stance matters only for 5 GHz and explains whether DFS capacity was avoided, allowed, or required.
  • 6 GHz PSC primaries matters only for 6 GHz and reports how many remaining blocks use PSC primary channels.

The AP Channel Assignments table is a deterministic rotation, not a final RF design. Two APs sharing a block might be acceptable if they are far apart or separated by attenuation. The same two APs might be a problem if they hear each other strongly across an open area. Use the table to make the planned reuse visible, then confirm with neighbor AP scans, co-channel utilization, adjacent-channel noise, radar history, and client capability.

Do not overread the Channel Load Chart. Equal bar heights mean the rotation distributed APs evenly across the available blocks. They do not mean airtime demand is equal, coverage is balanced, or the controller will keep those exact channels after automatic radio management is enabled.

Worked Examples:

Twelve 5 GHz APs on a dense office floor

Enter 12 APs, choose 5 GHz, FCC / US indoor, 40 MHz, Avoid DFS when possible, and Grid / open floor. The candidate pool keeps four non-DFS 40 MHz blocks after removing eight DFS blocks. Reuse pressure becomes Managed reuse because the busiest block carries three APs. That is a workable first-pass plan, but the Survey validation row still matters before production.

A small 2.4 GHz legacy slice

Enter 6 APs, choose 2.4 GHz, and leave a wider width selected by mistake. The planner normalizes the effective width to 20 MHz, keeps channels 1, 6, and 11, and shows a planning note explaining the change. With a simple row rotation, Reuse pressure is Light reuse because each channel lands on two APs.

Twelve 6 GHz APs in a lower-band domain

Enter 12 APs, choose 6 GHz, ETSI / EU indoor, 80 MHz, keep PSC preference enabled, and use Grid / open floor. The lower 6 GHz pool produces six 80 MHz blocks, and the PSC row reports PSC primaries where the blocks support them. The load chart should show two APs per block, so the headline status is Light reuse.

A blocked 5 GHz width choice

Choose 5 GHz with 320 MHz. The summary changes to Wi-Fi channel plan blocked, the primary display says Adjust channel filters, and the planning notes explain that 5 GHz has no practical 320 MHz Wi-Fi channel block here. The corrective path is to choose 20, 40, 80, or 160 MHz, then recheck Channel pool and Reuse pressure.

FAQ:

Why does 2.4 GHz always end up at 20 MHz?

The planner uses the practical 1, 6, 11 set for 2.4 GHz and normalizes wider requests to 20 MHz because bonding would consume too much of the band for a normal reuse plan.

Does a ready plan mean these channels are legal for my site?

No. The regulatory domain field is a planning profile. Your AP firmware, country code, antenna, power class, and indoor or outdoor mode remain authoritative for final channel availability.

Why did my exclusion list remove more blocks than expected?

An excluded channel can match the primary channel, center channel, or any bonded 20 MHz member. A range such as 52-64 can therefore remove several 40, 80, or 160 MHz blocks at once.

Why does channel 165 disappear when I choose a bonded 5 GHz width?

Channel 165 is treated as a 20 MHz-only option. The planner can include it for 20 MHz 5 GHz plans, but it is not used inside bonded 40, 80, or 160 MHz blocks.

What should I do when the plan is blocked?

Read the planning notes first. Common fixes are lowering channel width, allowing DFS on 5 GHz, removing stale excluded channels, changing the regulatory domain only if the site actually uses that domain, or planning the area in smaller AP groups.

Where do the planning values go?

The channel calculations run in the browser and there is no dedicated server-side channel-planning lookup. Saved exports and populated links can still preserve settings, so treat handoff files and shared URLs as network-design notes.

Glossary:

Channel block
A usable Wi-Fi channel assignment, either one 20 MHz channel or a bonded group such as 40, 80, 160, or 320 MHz.
Primary channel
The 20 MHz channel inside a wider block that carries primary control and compatibility traffic.
Center channel
The channel number used to label the center of a bonded channel block.
DFS
Dynamic Frequency Selection, a radar-protection requirement that can force 5 GHz APs to leave affected channels.
PSC
Preferred Scanning Channel, a 6 GHz primary channel used to make AP discovery faster for client devices.
Co-channel reuse
More than one AP using the same channel block in different parts of the site.
Regulatory domain
The country or regional channel profile that limits which bands and channels are available to AP firmware.

References: