claudetools/clients/cascades-tucson/session-logs/2026-06/2026-06-18-howard-cascades-rf-voice-optimization-plan.md

Cascades — voice-quality diagnostic + holistic RF/QoS optimization master plan

User

• User: Howard Enos (howard)
• Machine: Howard-Home
• Role: tech

NOTE: written in the OLD clone after the 2026-06-19 claudetools restructure coord message arrived. NOT synced from here. Recover into the fresh re-clone (see Pending tasks).

Session Summary

Continuation of the VLAN 30 voice cutover. First, completed the AudioCodes migration: the 8 wired AudioCodes would not pick up VLAN 30 addresses via port re-VLAN + UniFi PoE power-cycle (PoE is OFF on those ports — they run on external power bricks, so a UniFi power-cycle is a no-op; a UI port disable/enable didn't reset their uptime either). Root cause confirmed: they held their old main-LAN DHCP leases and never re-DHCP'd. Howard fully powered them off/on, after which all 8 pulled VOICE leases (10.0.30.224-231). Final state: 31 devices on VOICE (8 AudioCodes + 22 Poly + Vertical desktop).

Second, diagnosed voice quality (dropped calls / voice breaks). Wired AudioCodes: all 8 ports clean (100M full-duplex, zero errors). The problem is RF on the WiFi Poly phones: 14 flagged, worst = Lauren/.202 (2.4 GHz, 50% retry, on the CC Bridge wireless-MESH AP) and Shelby/.218 (2.4 GHz, 53% retry, MemCare). Coverage gaps in rooms 515/210/204 (RSSI -72 to -82). AP 103 5 GHz saturated (75% airtime, ~25,900 retries). Also found 6 Poly phones NOT migrated (still on VLAN 20/Default) — fleet is 28 Poly, not 22; verified they are distinct active MACs, not ghosts. Howard locked Lauren's phone to AP 103 (off the mesh AP).

Third, built a holistic, all-device network optimization master plan grounded in the existing 2026-06-16 audit + 2.4 GHz runbook + the over-thinning re-check. Key current-state fact: the network is OVER-THINNED on 2.4 GHz (overnight 6/17: 24 radios disabled + 42 at Low/6 dBm -> interference down but retry 17->23%, satisfaction 39->30). The plan's central principle: open relief valves (6 GHz + correct 2.4 power) BEFORE constraining (5 GHz 40 MHz), to avoid relocating congestion. Sequenced phases: (1) QoS, (2a) enable 6 GHz on CSCNet + 2b correct 2.4 Low->Medium, (3) 5 GHz 80->40 MHz + non-DFS channel plan + relieve AP 103, (4) fine-tune, (5) physical. With an interdependency map and per-phase gates.

Fourth, verified DFS rigorously (Howard's concern re: Davis-Monthan AFB + TUS ~10 mi). The skill's dfs-check flagged 3 APs, but on inspection all were benign (CAC timers + DFS-control toggles on a non-DFS channel, not radar). A precise radar-detection-only sweep found ZERO genuine hits across all 53 DFS APs — but only over a ~21-23h window (APs rebooted in the 6/17 outage). DECISION: go NON-DFS only (UNII-1 36-48 + UNII-3 149-165) — a radar vacate = dropped calls; resilience > diversity; 6 GHz covers the capacity gap.

Fifth, designed Phase 1 QoS (pfSense + UniFi). Measured WAN: WAN1 fiber upload ~522 Mbps (vs ~98 Mbps peak usage) -> the WAN is NOT the everyday voice bottleneck, so QoS is INSURANCE (WAN2 coax failover + rare saturation), not the everyday fix — RF is the substance. Match voice by source subnet 10.0.30.0/24 (the VLAN move's payoff). Phones confirmed to support DSCP EF. Determined a dedicated voice SSID is NOT viable (UniFi 3-SSID cap; CSC ENT still has 131 clients, not retireable) and NOT needed (QoS is VLAN/DSCP-based, SSID-independent; band preference is phone-side). Added an all-devices impact + data-driven decision framework: every change gated on fleet-wide metrics (measure -> decide -> adjust), with the trade-offs to watch (non-DFS + 5GHz-only DirecTV fleet; min-RSSI orphaning; 40 MHz peak).

Key Decisions

• AudioCodes need a full power-cycle (off/on), not a UniFi PoE cycle — they're externally powered (PoE off on the ports); a UI port bounce doesn't reset them.
• 5 GHz: NON-DFS ONLY. DFS sweep clean but only ~1-day window near a military base/airport; a radar vacate drops calls. Resilience over channel diversity; lean on 6 GHz for capacity.
• QoS reframed to INSURANCE, not the everyday fix — WAN1 fiber has ~522 Mbps up vs 98 Mbps peak use; the everyday dropped-calls cause is RF. QoS matters on WAN2 (coax) failover + rare WAN1 saturation.
• No dedicated voice SSID — 3-SSID cap is sound RF hygiene; CSC ENT (the only retirement candidate) still has 131 clients; and voice doesn't need a dedicated SSID (QoS is SSID-independent, band-pref is phone-side).
• Open relief valves before constraining — 6 GHz + 2.4 Low->Medium BEFORE 5 GHz 40 MHz, or congestion just relocates.
• 2.4 power Low->Medium, not lower — Low already over-thinned (retry up, satisfaction down).
• Data-driven gates (Howard) — base every choice on measured fleet-wide metrics; one lever per zone; keep/hold/rollback per the gate rule; validation measures ALL devices, not just voice.
• Phones are 5 GHz (not 6E) — 6 GHz helps voice indirectly by clearing 5 GHz of resident devices.

Problems Encountered

• AudioCodes wouldn't move to VLAN 30 — root-caused to held DHCP leases + PoE-off ports (power-cycle no-op); resolved by full power-off/on.
• UniFi controller PUT 403s — CSRF token extraction flaky; fixed by reading x-updated-csrf-token (with a TOKEN-cookie JWT fallback).
• pfSense SSH rate-limiting + controller throttling after many rapid queries — switched between controller API and pfSense SSH as needed; one fleet pull hung in the background.
• Temp-file/sync friction (RECURRED 3x) — controller-scratch files (.sta.json, .fleet325.dev) written CWD-relative got swept into commits by git add -A and blocked rebases (stray locked curl.exe held them). Fixed: killed the procs, untracked, broadened .gitignore (.fleet*, .ap[0-9], .vq[0-9], .q[0-9]*). Real fix: write API scratch OUTSIDE the repo (used mktemp -d for the DFS sweep).
• Cloudflare __down / WAN2-bound speedtests returned 0.0 — only WAN1 upload (522 Mbps) measured cleanly; WAN2 (coax) upload still unknown (needs a WAN2-routed host or Cox bill).

Configuration Changes (all in clients/cascades-tucson/, committed up through 2b2d094 BEFORE the restructure)

• Created docs/network/network-optimization-master-plan.md — holistic all-device plan (sequencing, interdependency map, data-driven decision framework, DFS non-DFS decision, SSID decision).
• Created docs/network/phase1-voice-qos-design.md — pfSense HFSC + UniFi WMM/switch QoS design.
• Created reports/2026-06-18-voice-quality-diagnostic.md — per-phone RF findings + fixes.
• Updated reports/2026-06-16-voice-quality-diagnostic.md? (no) — voice-quality report Lauren->103 note.
• No live network changes applied (Cascades rule: explicit per-change go). UniFi port bounces were temporary (restored). DFS/WAN tests were read-only/bounded.

Credentials & Secrets

• No new credentials. Used existing: infrastructure/uos-server-network-api-rw (controller), clients/cascades-tucson/unifi-ap-ssh (AP SSH for DFS sweep), clients/cascades-tucson/pfsense-firewall, clients/cascades-tucson/wifi-voice-ppsk (key V0!c38863171).

Infrastructure & Servers

• VOICE VLAN 30 10.0.30.0/24: 8 AudioCodes .224-.231, 22 Poly .202-.223, desktop .201.
• WAN1 fiber igc0 (522 Mbps up measured; RRD peaks 680 down/98 up). WAN2 coax igc3 (72.211.21.217, upload unmeasured). pfSense 192.168.0.1 Plus 25.07, no existing shaper.
• UniFi UOS 172.16.3.29:11443 site va6iba3v. USW-16-PoE mac d8:b3:70:21:94:5f dev_id 685f39078e65331c46ef7e90.
• SSIDs: CSCNet (427 clients, PPSK, 2g+5g), CSC ENT (131 clients, legacy, 2g+5g), Guest (13, 2g+5g+6g).
• DFS: 53 APs on DFS, 0 genuine radar over ~21-23h.

Pending / Incomplete Tasks

• RE-CLONE claudetools (coord message 2026-06-19): old clone incompatible after history rewrite. Steps below.
• Verify this session's Cascades docs (master plan, QoS design, voice-quality + diagnostic reports, voice inventory, logging plan) survived the rewrite into the new repo; if missing, recover from this .old working tree.
• Recover this session log into the new clone (it's uncommitted here).
• WAN2 (coax) upload number — measure from a WAN2-routed host / Cox bill (sizes the failover shaper).
• 6 straggler Poly phones (10.0.20.64/65/66/67/195, 192.168.1.126) — re-key to voice PPSK.
• Floors 5/6 (MemCare) RF + phones — deferred.
• Execute the optimization plan (start Phase 2b 2.4 Low->Medium with baseline capture) — pending Howard's go.
• Hand Vertical the phone-side config list (band 5GHz lock, DSCP-on, k/v roaming, U-APSD, firmware).

Re-clone steps (Windows / C:\claudetools)

# from C:\
mv claudetools claudetools.old   # or rename in Explorer
git clone https://git.azcomputerguru.com/azcomputerguru/claudetools.git claudetools
cp claudetools.old/.claude/identity.json claudetools/.claude/
cd claudetools && git submodule update --init --recursive
# then: diff clients/cascades-tucson against claudetools.old; cp any missing files (esp. this session's docs)
# recover this session log from claudetools.old/clients/cascades-tucson/session-logs/2026-06/
# verify, then delete claudetools.old

See RECLONE.md in the new repo. Pre-split backup bundle: Jupiter share Backups/Gitea-Storage.

Reference Information

• Last pushed commit (old history): 2b2d094 (2026-06-18 19:16). Restructure force-push: ~2026-06-19 02:41 UTC.
• Master plan: clients/cascades-tucson/docs/network/network-optimization-master-plan.md
• QoS design: clients/cascades-tucson/docs/network/phase1-voice-qos-design.md
• Voice-quality diagnostic: clients/cascades-tucson/reports/2026-06-18-voice-quality-diagnostic.md
• Existing RF audit + 2.4 runbook: reports/2026-06-16-unifi-full-audit.md, reports/2026-06-16-2.4ghz-remediation-runbook.md