Assigning a QoS Profile to a WLAN

QoS Profiles

Cisco UWN solution WLANs support four levels of QoS: Platinum/Voice, Gold/Video, Silver/Best Effort (default), and Bronze/Background. You can configure the voice traffic WLAN to use Platinum QoS, assign the low-bandwidth WLAN to use Bronze QoS, and assign all other traffic between the remaining QoS levels.

The WLAN QoS level defines a specific 802.11e user priority (UP) for over-the-air traffic. This UP is used to derive the over-the-wire priorities for non-WMM traffic, and it also acts as the ceiling when managing WMM traffic with various levels of priorities.

The wireless rate limits can be defined on both upstream and downstream traffic. Rate limits can be defined per SSID and/or specified as a maximum rate limit for all clients. These rate limits can be individually configured.

The access point uses this QoS-profile-specific UP in accordance with the values in the following table to derive the IP DSCP value that is visible on the wired LAN.

Table 1. Access Point QoS Translation Values

AVVID Traffic Type

AVVID IP DSCP

QoS Profile

AVVID 802.1p

IEEE 802.11e UP

Network control

56 (CS7)

Platinum

7

7

Inter-network control (CAPWAP control, 802.11 management)

48 (CS6)

Platinum

6

7

Voice

46 (EF)

Platinum

5

6

Interactive video

34 (AF41)

Gold

4

5

Mission critical

26 (AF31)

Gold

3

4

Transactional

18 (AF21)

Silver

2

3

Bulk data

10 (AF11)

Bronze

1

2

Best effort

0 (BE)

Silver

0

0

Scavenger

2

Bronze

0

1


Note

The IEEE 802.11e UP value for DSCP values that are not mentioned in the table is calculated by considering 3 MSB bits of DSCP.

For example, the IEEE 802.11e UP value for DSCP 32 (100 000 in binary), would be the decimal equivalent of the MSB (100) which is 4. The 802.11e UP value of DSCP 32 is 4.

This section contains the following subsections:

Assigning a QoS Profile to a WLAN (GUI)

Before you begin

If you have not already done so, configure one or more QoS profiles using the instructions in the Configuring QoS Profiles (GUI) section.

Procedure

Step 1

Choose WLANs to open the WLANs page.

Step 2

Click the ID number of the WLAN to which you want to assign a QoS profile.
Step 3

When the WLANs > Edit page appears, choose the QoS tab.

Step 4

From the Quality of Service (QoS) drop-down list, choose one of the following:

  • Platinum (voice)

  • Gold (video)

  • Silver (best effort)

  • Bronze (background)

    Note 
    Silver (best effort) is the default value.
Step 5

To define the data rates on a per-user basis, do the following:

  1. Define the average data rate TCP traffic per SSID by entering the rate in Kbps in the Average Data Rate text boxes. A value of 0 indicates that the value specified in the selected QoS profile will take effect.

  2. Define the peak data rate for TCP traffic per SSID by entering the rate in Kbps in the Burst Data Rate text boxes. A value of 0 indicates that the value specified in the selected QoS profile will take effect.

    Note 
    The burst data rate should be greater than or equal to the average data rate. Otherwise, the QoS policy may block traffic in the WLANs.

  3. Define the average real-time rate for UDP traffic per SSID by entering the rate in Kbps in the Average Real-Time Rate text boxes. A value of 0 indicates that the value specified in the selected QoS profile will take effect.

  4. Define the peak real-time rate for UDP traffic per SSID by entering the rate in Kbps in the Burst Real-Time Rate text boxes. A value of 0 indicates that the value specified in the selected QoS profile will take effect.

    Note 
    The burst real-time rate should be greater than or equal to the average real-time rate. Otherwise, the QoS policy may block traffic in the WLANs.
Step 6

To define the data rates on a per-SSID basis, do the following:

  1. Define the average data rate for TCP traffic per user by entering the rate in Kbps in the Average Data Rate text boxes. A value of 0 indicates that the value specified in the selected QoS profile will take effect.

  2. Define the peak data rate for TCP traffic per user by entering the rate in Kbps in the Burst Data Rate text boxes. A value of 0 indicates that the value specified in the selected QoS profile will take effect.

    Note 

    The burst data rate should be greater than or equal to the average data rate. Otherwise, the QoS policy may block traffic to and from the wireless client.

    Ensure that you configure the average data rate before you configure the burst data rate.

  3. Define the average real-time rate for UDP traffic per user by entering the rate in Kbps in the Average Real-Time Rate text boxes. A value of 0 indicates that the value specified in the selected QoS profile will take effect.

    Note 
    Average Data Rate is used to measure TCP traffic while Average Real-time rate is used for UDP traffic. They are measured in kbps for all the entries. The values for Average Data Rate and Average Real-time rate can be different because they are applied to different upper layer protocols such as TCP and UDP. These different values for the rates do not impact the bandwidth.

  4. Define the peak real-time rate for UDP traffic per user by entering the rate in Kbps in the Burst Real-Time Rate text boxes. A value of 0 indicates that the value specified in the selected QoS profile will take effect.

    Note 
    The burst real-time rate should be greater than or equal to the average real-time rate. Otherwise, the QoS policy may block traffic to and from the wireless client.
Step 7

Save the configuration.

Assigning a QoS Profile to a WLAN (CLI)

If you have not already done so, configure one or more QoS profiles using the instructions in the Configuring QoS Profiles (CLI) section.

Procedure

Step 1

Assign a QoS profile to a WLAN by entering this command:

config wlan qos wlan_id {bronze | silver | gold | platinum}

Silver is the default value.
Step 2

To override QoS profile rate limit parameters, enter this command:

config wlan override-rate-limit wlan-id {average-data-rate | average-realtime-rate | burst-data-rate | burst-realtime-rate} {per-ssid | per-client} {downstream | upstream} rate

Step 3

Enter the save config command.

Step 4

Verify that you have properly assigned the QoS profile to the WLAN by entering this command:

show wlan wlan_id

Information similar to the following appears:


WLAN Identifier.................................. 1
Profile Name..................................... test
Network Name (SSID).............................. test
Status........................................... Enabled
MAC Filtering.................................... Disabled
Broadcast SSID................................... Enabled
AAA Policy Override.............................. Disabled
Number of Active Clients......................... 0
Exclusionlist.................................... Disabled
Session Timeout.................................. 0
Interface........................................ management
WLAN ACL......................................... unconfigured
DHCP Server...................................... 1.100.163.24
DHCP Address Assignment Required................. Disabled
Quality of Service............................... Silver (best effort)
WMM.............................................. Disabled
...