322| Virtual APs DellPowerConnect W- Series ArubaOS 6.2 | User Guide
Parameter Description
BandSteering ARM’sband steering feature encourages dual-band capable clients to stay on the 5GHzband on
dual-band APs. This freesup resources on the 2.4GHz band for single band clients like VoIP
phones.
Bandsteering reduces co-channel interference and increases available bandwidth for dual-
bandcl ients, becausethere are more channel son the 5GHz band than on the 2.4GHz band.
Dual-band802.11n-capable clients may see even greater bandwidth improvements, because the
bandsteering feature will automaticallyselect between 40MHz or 20MHz channels in 802.11n
networks.This feature is disabled by default, and must be enabled in a Virtual AP profil e.
Theband steering feature supports both campus APs and remote APsthat have a virtual AP
profile setto tunnel,split-tunnel or bridge forwarding m ode. Note, however, that if a campus or
remoteAPs has virtual AP profiles configured in bridge or spli t-tunnelforwardi ng mode but no
virtualAP i n tunnel mode, those APsw ill gather information about 5G-capable clients
independentlyand w ill not exchange this information with other APs thatalso have bridge or
split-tunnelvirtual APsonly.
SteeringM ode Bandsteering supports the following three different band steering modes.
lForce-5GHz:When the AP is configured in force-5GHz band steering mode, the AP will try to
force5Ghz-capable APs to use that radio band.
lPrefer-5GHz(Default): If you configure theAP to use prefer-5GHz band steering mode, the
APwi ll try to steer the client to 5G band (if the client is 5G capable) but w ill let the client
connecton the 2.4G band if the client persists in 2.4G associationattempts.
lBalance-bands:In this band steering mode, the AP tries to balance the clients across the
tworadi osi n order tobest utiliz e theavail able 2.4Gbandw idth. This featuretakes into
accountthe fact that the 5Ghzband has more channel s thanthe 2.4 Ghz band, and that the
5Ghzchannels operate in 40MHz while the 2.5Ghz band operates in 20MHz.
DynamicMul ticast
Optimization (DMO)
Enable/Disabledynami c multicast optimization. Thi s parameter is disabled by default, and
cannotbe enabled w ithoutthe PEFNG license.
DropBroadcast and
Multicast
Selectthe Drop Broadcastand Multicast checkbox to filter outbroadcast and multicast traffic in
theair.
Donot enable this option for virtual APs configured in bridge forwarding mode. This
configurationparam eteri sonl yi ntendedfor use for virtual APs in tunnel mode. In tunnel mode,
all packetstravel to the controller, so the controller is able to drop all broadcast traffic. When a
virtualAP i sconfigured to use bridge forwarding m ode, most datatraffic stays local to the AP,
andthe controller i snot able to filter out that broadcast traffic.
IMPORTANT:If you enable this option, you must also enable the Broadcast-Filter ARP
parameteri n thestateful firewall configuration to prevent ARP requests from being dropped. To
enable this setting:
1. Navigateto Configuration > Stateful Firewall .
2. Click the Global Setting tab.
3. Selectthe Broadcast-Filter ARP checkbox.
4. Click Apply to saveyour settings before you return to theV irtual AP Profile.
Notealso that although a virtual AP profile can be replicated from a master controller to local
Dell controllers, statefulfirewal l settingsdo not. If you select the Drop Broadcastand Multicast
optionfor a Vir tual APP rofile on a master controller, you must enable the Broadcast-FilterARP
settingon each individual localcontroll er.
ConvertBroadcast ARP
requeststo unicast
Ifenabled, al l broadcastARP requestsare converted to unicastand sent directly to the client.
Youcan check the status of this option using theshow ap active and the show datapath tunnel
command. Ifenabl ed, theoutput will display the letter ain the flags column.
Thisconfiguration param eteri sonl yi ntendedfor use for virtual APs in tunnel mode. In tunnel
mode, all packets travelto the controller, so the controller is able to convert ARP requests
directedto the broadcast address into unicast.
Whena vi rtual AP is configured touse bridge forwardi ng mode, most data trafficstays local to