Configuring RF Profiles on CA

Prerequisites for RF Profile on CA

The latest RF Profile settings are applied to an AP group (new or modified). The rule of the same RF Profile to be applied on every controller of the AP group comes into effect or the activation fails for that controller.


Note

The same RF Profile can be assigned to multiple AP groups.


Restrictions for RF Profile on CA

  • When Centralized Mode is enabled, configuration is lost at reboot and must be reconfigured.

    Note

    Cisco Communications Media Module (CMM) feature is deprecated.


  • Configurations must be exactly the same at the MC and at all the MAs.

  • Custom power settings on an AP is not supported.

  • RF Profile is active only when channel and the transmit power (TPC) is managed by RRM on all APs.

  • An RF Profile which is applied to an AP group cannot be deleted.

  • You need to shutdown the RF profile which is assigned to an AP group to make any changes to its settings.

  • Changing the RF Profile assignment within the AP group on either of the bands causes the AP to reboot.

Information About RF Profile on CA

RF Profile on Converged Access (CA) (local mode only) allows customization to groups of APs that share a common radio configuration. Special RF profiles can be created per 802.11 band. These RF profiles have default settings for all the existing RF parameters and additional new configurations.

Newly installed APs are by default assigned to the 'default group' AP group. The radios are disabled to eliminate any RF interference. The new APs need to be manually added to an AP group if RF Profile configurations need to be applied to them.

RF profiles are applied to all APs that belong to an AP group, where all APs in that group have the same profile settings. The priority order of configurations for APs in an AP Group that has an RF Profile attached is as follows:
  1. AP specific.

  2. RF-Profile.

  3. Global.

The priorities of Rx-SOP and Multicast data rate do not follow the priority order. They follow the following rules:
  • If an AP is in an AP group with an RF profile attached, between RF profile configuration and AP specific configuration, the configuration done last takes precedence.

  • If the AP is not in an AP group, or the AP group does not have an RF profile, then between global configuration and AP specific configuration, the configuration done last takes precedence.

  • When an RF Profile is removed, the last RF Profile configuration is stored in the AP. This stored configuration gets applied when the AP is added back.

The RF Profile on CA feature allows customization of the following configurations:
  • Band Select Configurations.

  • Coverage Hole Mitigation Configurations.

  • Dynamic Channel Assignment (DCA) Configurations.

  • High Density Configurations.

  • Load Balancing Configurations.

  • Stadium Vision Configurations.

  • Transmit Power Control (TPC) Configurations.

RF Profile Customizations

Band Select Configurations

This configuration addresses client distribution between the 2.4-GHz and 5-GHz bands by identifying client capabilities. Enabling band select on a WLAN forces the AP to suppress 2.4-GHz band to move dual band clients to 5-GHz spectrum. The following band select parameters can be configured per AP Group:
  • Probe response—probe responses to clients. You can enable or disable this function.

  • Probe Cycle Count—probe cycle count for the RF profile. The cycle count sets the number of suppression cycles for a new client.

  • Cycle Threshold—time threshold for a new scanning RF Profile band select cycle period. This setting determines the time threshold during which new probe requests from a client come in a new scanning cycle.

  • Suppression Expire—expiration time for pruning previously known 802.11b/g clients. After this time elapses, clients become new and are subject to probe response suppression.

  • Dual Band Expire—expiration time for pruning previously known dual-band clients. After this time elapses, clients become new and are subject to probe response suppression.

  • Client RSSI—minimum RSSI for a client to respond to a probe.

Coverage Hole Mitigation Configurations

For Coverage Hole Mitigation, the following parameters can be configured under this feature:
  • Data RSSI—minimum receive signal strength indication (RSSI) value for data packets received by the access point. The value that you enter is used to identify coverage holes (or areas of poor coverage) within your network.

  • Voice RSSI—minimum receive signal strength indication (RSSI) value for voice packets received by the access point.

  • Coverage Exception—percentage of clients on an access point that are experiencing a low signal level but cannot roam to another access point. If an access point has more number of such clients than the configured coverage level it triggers a coverage hole event.

  • Coverage Level—minimum number of clients on an access point with an RSSI value at or below the data or voice RSSI threshold to trigger a coverage hole exception.

Dynamic Channel Assignment Configurations

For Dynamic Channel Assignment (DCA), the following parameters can be configured under this feature:
  • Avoid foreign AP interference—DCA algorithm bases its optimization on multiple sets of inputs, which include detected traffic and interference from foreign 802.11 traffic access points. Each access point periodically measures interference, noise level, foreign interference, and load and maintains a list of neighbor APs. Foreign AP interference is that which is received from 802.11 non-neighbors. This interference is measured using the same mechanism as the noise level.

  • Channel width—You can choose one of the following channel width options to specify the channel bandwidth supported for all 802.11n and 802.11ac radios in the 5-GHz band.
    • 20 MHz—20 MHz is also the maximum channel width allowed for 2.4 GHz. This is the default value for channel width.

    • 40 MHz—The 40-MHz channel bandwidth.

    • 80 MHz—The 80-MHz channel bandwidth.

  • DCA channel list—You can choose a channel set used by DCA to assign one of the channels to an access point radio. The channel set selected for an RF profile must be a subset of the DCA global channel list. The available channels are preselected based on the globally configured countries. DCA compares the metrics measured on these channels and selects the most suitable channel.

  • Trap thresholds—The profile threshold for the traps can be configured for the specific AP groups based on the RF profiles.

High Density Configurations

The following configurations are available to fine tune RF environments in a dense wireless network:
  • Client limit per WLAN or radio: maximum number of clients that can communicate with the AP in a high-density environment.

  • Client trap threshold: threshold value of the number of clients that associate with an access point, after which an SNMP trap is sent to the controller and Cisco Prime Infrastructure.

Load Balancing Configurations

Load balancing maintains fair distribution of clients across APs. You can configure the following parameters:
  • Window—load balancing sets client association limits by enforcing a client window size.

  • Denial—the denial count sets the maximum number of association denials during load balancing.

Stadium Vision Configurations

For Stadium Vision, the following parameters can be configured under this feature:
  • Multicast data rates—configurable data rate for multicast traffic based on the RF condition of an AP.

Transmit Power Control Configurations

For Transmit Power Control (TPC), the following parameters can be configured under this feature:
  • Minimum Power—minimum allowed power for the APs belonging to the AP group where the RF Profile is applied.

  • Maximum Power—maximum allowed power for the APs belonging to the AP group where the RF Profile is applied.

  • Threshold—if the power of the strongest neighbors is above the configured threshold, then the RRM runs for the APs in the AP group where the RF Profile is applied.

How to Configure RF Profile on CA

Configuring RF-Profile parameters

Procedure

  Command or Action Purpose
Step 1

ap dot11 24ghz rf-profile profile-name

Example:


Device(config)# ap dot11 24ghz rf-profile doctest

Configuring the RF profile for a selected Band.

Step 2

band-select client rssi value

Example:


Device(config-rf-profile)#band-select client rssi -50

Sets the Band Select client thresholds with minimum dBm for a client to start or respond to a probe.

Note 

This option is available only on 2.4GHz band.

Step 3

channel add channel#

Example:


Device(config-rf-profile)# channel add 2

This command adds non-default channels to the RF Profile DCA channel list.

Step 4

channel delete channel#

Example:


Device(config-rf-profile)# channel delete 2

The delete command removes the default channel from the RF Profile DCA channel list.

Step 5

channel width value

Example:


Device(config-rf-profile)# channel width 40

Configures the RF Profile DCA channel width.

Note 

This option is available only on 5GHz band.

Step 6

coverage voice rssi threshold value

Example:


Device(config-rf-profile)# coverage voice rssi threshold -50

Configures the RF Profile Coverage and the RSSI threshold for Coverage Hole Detection for voice packets.

Step 7

coverage exception value

Example:


Device(config-rf-profile)# coverage exception 60

Sets Cisco AP coverage exception level.

Step 8

dot11n-only

Example:


Device(config-rf-profile)# channel dot11n-only

Enable 802.11n client only mode of the RF Profile.

Step 9

load-balancing denial value

Example:


Device(config-rf-profile)# load-balancing denial 8

Configures the RF Profile Load Balance and load balancing denial count.

Step 10

high-density clients count value

Example:


Device(config-rf-profile)# high-density clients count 160

Configures the RF Profile High Density client count value.

Step 11

rate rate disable

Example:


Device(config-rf-profile)# rate RATE_1M disable

Disables the 802.11 operational rates for a selected rate profile.

Step 12

trap threshold clients value

Example:


Device(config-rf-profile)# trap threshold clients 145

Configures the RF Profile Trap threshold for number of client associated to an AP after the trap is set.

Step 13

tx-power min value

Example:


Device(config-rf-profile)# tx-power min -10

Sets the minimum transmission power levels.

Step 14

Shutdown

Example:


Device(config-rf-profile)# Shutdown

Shuts down the profile and disables network.

Step 15

ap group group-name

Example:


Device(config)# ap group docgroup

Configures RF Profile to a AP group

Step 16

remote-lan rlan-name

Example:


Device(config-apgroup)#remote-lan labtest

Configuring Remote-LAN to a AP group.

Step 17

wlan wlan-name

Example:


Device(config-apgroup)#wlan labwantest

Configuring WLAN to a AP group.

Step 18

rf-profile dot11 24ghz profile-name

Example:


Device(config-apgroup)#rf-profile dot11 24ghz doctest

Configuring 802.11b RF Profile to a AP group.

Step 19

rf-profile dot11 5ghz profile-name

Example:


Device(config-apgroup)#rf-profile dot11 5ghz doc5test

Configuring 802.11a RF Profile to a AP group.

Step 20

show ap rf-profile name profile-name detail

Example:


Device#show ap rf-profile name doctest detail

Displays the RF Profile configuration details.

Step 21

show ap rf-profile summary

Example:


Device#show ap rf-profile summary

Displays the summary of the RF Profiles.

Step 22

show ap groups

Example:


Device#show ap groups

Displays the ap groups summary.