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Once you create an AP group and apply RF profiles or modify an existing AP group, the new settings are in effect and the following rules become effective:
The same RF profile must be applied and present on every controller of the AP group or the action will fail for that controller.
You can assign the same RF profile to more than one AP group.
AP that has a custom power setting applied for AP power is not in global mode configuration, an RF profile has no effect on this AP. For RF profiling to work, all APs must have their channel and power managed by RRM.
Within the AP group, changing the assignment of an RF profile on either band causes the AP to reboot.
Once you assign an RF profile to an AP group, you cannot make changes to that RF profile. You must change the AP group RF profile settings to none in order to change the RF profile and then add it back to the AP group. You can also work around this restriction by disabling the network that will be affected by the changes that you will be making either for 802.11a or 802.11b.
You cannot delete an AP group that has APs assigned to it.
You cannot delete an RF profile that is applied to an AP group.
RF Profiles allows you to tune groups of APs that share a common coverage zone together and selectively change how RRM will operates the APs within that coverage zone.
For example, a university might deploy a high density of APs in an area where a high number of users will congregate or meet. This situation requires that you manipulate both data rates and power to address the cell density while managing the co-channel interference. In adjacent areas, normal coverage is provided and such manipulation would result in a loss of coverage.
Using RF profiles and AP groups allows you to optimize the RF settings for AP groups that operate in different environments or coverage zones. RF profiles are created for the 802.11 radios. RF profiles are applied to all APs that belong to an AP group, where all APs in that group will have the same profile settings.
The RF profile gives you the control over the data rates and power (TPC) values.
 Note |
The application of an RF profile does not change the AP’s status in RRM. It is still in global configuration mode controlled by RRM. |
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.
Stadium Vision Configurations—You can configure the following parameter:
Multicast data rates—Configurable data rate for multicast traffic based on the RF condition of an AP.
Out-of-Box AP Configurations—To create an Out-of-Box AP group that consists of newly installed access points that belong to the default AP group. When you enable this feature:
Newly installed access points (assigned to the 'default-group' AP group by default) are automatically assigned to the Out-of-Box AP group upon associating with the controller, and their radios are administratively disabled. This eliminates any RF instability caused by the new access points.
When Out-of-Box is enabled, default-group APs currently associated with the controller remain in the default group until they reassociate with the controller.
All default-group APs that subsequently associate with the controller (existing APs on the same controller that have dropped and reassociated, or APs from another controller) are placed in the Out-of-Box AP group.
Note |
When removing APs from the Out-of-Box AP group for production use, we recommend that you assign the APs to a custom AP group to prevent inadvertently having them revert to the Out-of-Box AP group. |
Special RF profiles are created per 802.11 band. These RF profiles have default settings for all the existing RF parameters and additional new configurations.
Note |
When you disable this feature after you enable it, only subscription of new APs to the Out of Box AP group stops. All APs that are subscribed to the Out of Box AP Group remain in this AP group. The network administrators can move such APs to the default group or a custom AP group upon network convergence. |
Band Select Configurations— Band Select addresses client distribution between the 2.4-GHz and 5-GHz bands by first understanding the client capabilities to verify whether a client can associate on both 2.4-GHz and 5-GHz spectrum. Enabling band select on a WLAN forces the AP to do probe suppression on the 2.4-GHz band that ultimately moves dual band clients to 5-GHz spectrum. You can configure the following band select parameters per AP Group:
Probe response—Probe responses to clients that you can enable or disable.
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.
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. For example, if the window size is defined as 3, assuming fair client distribution across the floor area, then an AP should have no more than 3 clients associated with it than the group average.
Denial—The denial count sets the maximum number of association denials during load balancing.
Coverage Hole Mitigation Configurations—You can configure the following parameters:
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.
| Step 1 |
Choose to open the RF profiles page. |
| Step 2 |
To configure the out-of-box status for all RF profiles, select or unselect the Enable Out Of Box check box. |
| Step 3 |
Click New. |
| Step 4 |
Enter the RF Profile Name and choose the radio band. |
| Step 5 |
Click Apply to configure the customizations of power and data rate parameters. |
| Step 6 |
In the General tab, enter the description for the RF profile in the Description text box. |
| Step 7 |
In the 802.11 tab, configure the data rates to be applied to the APs of this profile. |
| Step 8 |
In the RRM tab, do the following: |
| Step 9 |
In the High Density tab, do the following:
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| Step 10 |
In the Client Distribution tab, do the following: |
| Step 11 |
Click Apply to commit your changes. |
| Step 12 |
Click Save Configuration to save your changes. |
| Step 1 |
To configure the out-of-box status for all RF profiles, enter this command: config rf-profile out-of-box {enable | disable} |
| Step 2 |
To create or delete an RF profile, enter this command: config rf-profile {create {802.11a | 802.11b} | delete} profile-name |
| Step 3 |
To specify a description for the RF profile, enter this command: config rf-profile description text profile-name |
| Step 4 |
To configure the data rates to be applied to the APs of this profile, enter this command: config rf-profile data-rates {802.11a | 802.11b} {disabled | mandatory | supported} rate profile-name |
| Step 5 |
To configure the maximum and minimum power level assignment, that is the maximum and minimum power that the APs in this RF profile are allowed to use, enter this command: config rf-profile {tx-power-max | tx-power-min} power-value profile-name |
| Step 6 |
To configure a custom TPC power threshold for either Version1 or Version 2 of TPC, enter this command: config rf-profile {tx-power-control-thresh-v1 | tx-power-control-thresh-v2} power-threshold profile-name |
| Step 7 |
To configure the coverage hole detection parameters: |
| Step 8 |
To configure the maximum number of clients to be allowed per AP radio, enter this command: config rf-profile max-clients num-of-clients profile-name |
| Step 9 |
To configure the client trap threshold value, enter this command: config rf-profile client-trap-threshold threshold-value profile-name |
| Step 10 |
To configure multicast, enter this command: config rf-profile multicast data-rate rate profile-name |
| Step 11 |
To configure load balancing, enter this command: config rf-profile load-balancing {window num-of-clients | denial value} profile-name |
| Step 12 |
To configure band select: |
| Step 13 |
Configure the 802.11n only mode for an access point group base by entering this command: config rf-profile 11n-client-only {enable | disable} rf-profile-name In the 802.11n only mode, the access point broadcasts support for 802.11n speeds. Only 802.11n clients are allowed to associate with the access point |
| Step 1 |
Choose to open the AP Groups page. |
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| Step 2 |
Click the AP Group Name to open the AP Group > Edit page. |
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| Step 3 |
Click the RF Profile tab to configure the RF profile details. You can choose an RF profile for each band (802.11a/802.11b) or you can choose just one or none to apply to this group.
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| Step 4 |
Click the APs tab and choose the APs to add to the AP group. |
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| Step 5 |
Click Add APs to add the selected APs to the AP group. A warning message displays that the AP group will reboot the APs will rejoin the controller.
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| Step 6 |
Click Apply. The APs are added to the AP Group. |
| Command or Action | Purpose |
|---|---|
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Apply RF profiles to AP groups by entering this command: |
config wlan apgroup profile-mapping {add | delete} ap-group-name rf-profile-name |
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