Aruba Networks Version 3.3 manual Adaptive Radio Management

The RF Plan tool is available on the Mobility Controller, Mobility Management System™, and in a standalone version. All of these versions use the same file format, allowing an RF plan to be developed prior to deploying a controller, and then imported into the RF Live application for viewing.

Aruba recommends as a best practice that each customer completes a post-installation site survey to verify that the delivered coverage matches what was predicted. Occasionally, there will be gaps in the coverage or areas that do not meet the predicted signal strength. This is typically due to unexpected construction materials, banks of metal file cabinets or other RF-opaque building features. However, this is infrequent in a dense deployment. If RF gaps are found, a few APs can be adjusted before the cabling team leaves the site, or the spare APs deployed. If there are no coverage gaps, the extra APs can be used as spares for the future or deployed to cover additional areas.

Adaptive Radio Management

Selecting power and channel settings for hundreds or thousands of Access Points across a campus on foot is not something that any administrator would look forward to without software or hardware automation. The RF medium is continuously changing. While today channel 6 may be optimal for a given area, tomorrow the best choice might be channel 1. Something as simple as new construction could alter the RF characteristics of an area, requiring all APs in the local area to be adjusted.

ARM is an RF spectrum management technology that provides a stable, high performing, self healing wireless LAN deployment that does not require Administrator intervention. ARM is a distributed system that involves an AP or AM continuously scanning all of the legal channels within its regulatory domain, and coordinating channel and power settings on all APs using the Mobility Controller. In the Aruba VRD, for Campus Wireless networks, this processing occurs on the Master at the Management layer, and settings are pushed back down to the Locals at the Aggregation layer.

56 RF Planning and Operation Campus Wireless Networks Validated Reference Design Version 3.3 Design Guide