Cisco Wireless Controller Configuration Guide, Release 8.2
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- Updated:
- September 16, 2016
Chapter: Configuring RF Profiles
Configuring RF Profiles
Prerequisites for Configuring RF Profiles
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:
Restrictions for Configuring RF Profiles
- 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:
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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.
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Within the AP group, changing the assignment of an RF profile on either band causes the AP to reboot.
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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.
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You cannot delete an RF profile that is applied to an AP group.
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- If you enable Out of Box, save the configuration, and then reboot the CIsco WLC, the status of Out of Box is changed to disabled. This behavior is observed in Cisco WiSM2, Cisco 5500 Series WLC, and Cisco 2500 Series WLC. The workaround is to enable Out of Box again after you reboot the Cisco WLC.
Information About RF Profiles
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. |
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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.
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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.
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Stadium Vision Configurations—You can configure the following parameter: -
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Probe Cycle Count—Probe cycle count for the RF profile. The cycle count sets the number of suppression cycles for a new client.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Client RSSI—Minimum RSSI for a client to respond to a probe.
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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.
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Denial—The denial count sets the maximum number of association denials during load balancing.
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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.
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Voice RSSI—Minimum receive signal strength indication (RSSI) value for voice packets received by the access point.
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Coverage Exception—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.
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Coverage Level—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.
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- DCA—You can configure the following DCA parameters:
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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 (i.e. 802.11 APs which are not in the same RF domain – for instance a foreign 802.11 network). This interference is measured using the same mechanism as the noise level.
Due to being out of the reach of the radio resource management module of the current deployment, such AP’s may be disruptive for RRM and hence the user is able to unselect their contribution to DCA in an RF profile to disable this feature.
- 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:
- 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. If the bandwidth is larger than 20 MHz, channel bonding takes place in sequential channels. For example, if the bandwidth is 40 MHz, the selected pair is 36 MHz and 40 MHz. For a higher bandwidth such as 80-MHz, the bandwidths selected are 36, 40, 44, and 48 MHz.
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Auto switch-over on Radar detection—With the enhancements made in DFS architecture, radar trigger on the serving channel AP will move to a new best channel that is conformed by RRM Dynamic Channel Assignment (DCA) list. The channel width applied to such AP will also follow respective DCA channel width settings configured globally or under RF Profiles (if configured).
- Trap thresholds—The profile threshold for the traps can be configured for the specific AP groups based on the RF profiles.
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Configuring an RF Profile (GUI)
Configuring an RF Profile (CLI)
Applying an RF Profile to AP Groups (GUI)
Applying RF Profiles to AP Groups (CLI)
Use this command to apply RF profiles to AP groups:
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