Contents

• Guidelines and Limitations
• Guidelines and Limitations

Guidelines and Limitations

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This chapter describes the guidelines and limitations for configuring Cisco CleanAir.

• Guidelines and Limitations

Guidelines and Limitations

Only Cisco CleanAir-enabled access points using the following access point modes can perform Cisco CleanAir spectrum monitoring:

• Local—In this mode, each Cisco CleanAir-enabled access point radio provides air quality and interference detection reports for the current operating channel only.
• FlexConnect—When a FlexConnect access point is connected to the controller, its Cisco CleanAir functionality is identical to local mode.
• Monitor—When Cisco CleanAir is enabled in monitor mode, the access point provides air quality and interference detection reports for all monitored channels. The following options are available:
  • All— All channels
  • DCA—Channel selection governed by the DCA list
  • Country—All channel legal within a regulatory domain

    Note

    Suppose you have two APs, one in the FlexConnect mode and the other in the monitor mode. Also suppose that you have created a profile enabling EAP attack against 802.1x auth. The Airmagnet (AM) tool, which can generate different types of attacks, fails to generate any attack even if you have provided valid AP MAC and STA MAC addresses. But if the AP MAC and STA MAC addresses in the AM tool are swapped, that is, the AP MAC address is specified in the STA MAC field and the STA MAC address is specified in the AP MAC field, then the tool is able to generate attacks, which the AP in the Monitor mode is also able to detect.

    Note	The access point does not participate in AQ HeatMap in Prime Infrastructure.

• SE-Connect—This mode enables a user to connect a Spectrum Expert application running on an external Microsoft Windows XP or Vista PC to a Cisco CleanAir-enabled access point in order to display and analyze detailed spectrum data. The Spectrum Expert application connects directly to the access point, bypassing the controller. An access point in SE-Connect mode does not provide any Wi-Fi, RF, or spectrum data to the controller. In addition to performing spectrum intelligence, an access point can provide other.

• The Cisco 5500 Series Controllers support up to 2,500 device clusters and up to 10,000 device records.
• The amount of power required for processing spectrum data limits the number of monitor-mode access points that can be used for Cisco CleanAir monitoring. The number of supported monitor mode access points is equal to the maximum number of supported access points on the Cisco 5500 and Cisco Flex 7500 Series Controllers. This limitation affects only Cisco CleanAir functionality.
• Access points in monitor mode do not transmit Wi-Fi traffic or 802.11 packets. They are excluded from radio resource management (RRM) planning and are not included in the neighbor access point list. IDR clustering depends on the controller’s ability to detect neighboring in-network access points. Correlating interference device detections from multiple access points is limited between monitor-mode access points.
• Spectrum Expert (SE) Connect functionality is supported for local, FlexConnect, bridge, and monitor modes. The access point provides spectrum information to Spectrum Expert only for the current channel(s). For local, FlexConnect, and bridge modes, the spectrum data is available for the current active channel(s) and for the monitor mode, the common monitored channel list is available. The access point continues to send AQ (Air Quality) and IDR (Interference Device Reports) reports to the controller and perform normal activities according to the current mode. Sniffer and rogue detections access point modes are incompatible with all types of CleanAir spectrum monitoring.
• Controllers have limitations on the number of monitor mode AP’s that they can support. This is because, a monitor mode AP saves data for all the channels.
• Do not connect access points in SE connect mode directly to any physical port on Cisco 2500 Series Controllers.
• Spectrum Expert (Windows XP laptop client) and AP should be pingable, otherwise; it will not work.