Cisco EnergyWise IOS Deployment Guide

EnergyWise and Wireless Networks

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Keep these considerations in mind when your network has lightweight access points in a wireless LAN (WLAN) and the EnergyWise domain has access points as end points.

•Understand the access-point positions and coverage levels in critical and noncritical environments to set minimal coverage in the critical environments and to disable the access points in the noncritical environments.

When you power any access points on or off, the RF domain changes. The RF group leader, a wireless LAN controller running radio resource management (RRM) software, reconfigures the group. Autonomous access points do not power off, and other access points do not start the wireless network self-healing feature.

•Do not power off the wireless LAN controllers in an RF group.

The group members elect an RF group leader. If the wireless LAN controller restarts, the group-leader metrics change and affects how the members elect a leader.

A wireless LAN controller must be powered on before you connect it to an access point. If the controller is powered off, the connected access point cannot join the controller.

•Assign the primary, secondary, and tertiary controllers to all EnergyWise-capable access points.

After the access points restart, they can rejoin the controllers to which they belonged before they restarted.

If you power on access points in groups and assign primary and secondary controllers for each group, you can power on all the access points at the same time. Some access points join the assigned primary controllers, and others join the assigned secondary controllers.

When you power on access-point groups in a sequence, make sure that the controllers have enough time to download the access-point configuration files.

•If you power off all the access points, they keep the previously assigned channel and power settings. The access points restart with working configurations.

When you first use the access-point EnergyWise profile, restart the system, and make sure that the RF group leader has enough time to reconfigure the group.

•For faster reconfiguration, adjust the transmit power control (TPC) and dynamic channel assignment (DCA) settings. After the RF leader reconfigures the group, reset the TPC and DCA settings.

You can also set the DCA interval for faster reconfiguration when you power access points on and off.