Dell 6.2 Chapte r 21

DellPowerConnect W- Series ArubaOS 6.2 | User Guide AdaptiveRadio Management (ARM) | 346
Chapte r 21
Adaptive R adio Manag ement (ARM)
This section describes how to configure the ARM function to automatically select the best channel andt ransmission
power settings for each AP on your WLAN. After completing thet asks describedi nt hefollowing pages, you can
continue configuringyo urA Ps as described in the Dell PowerConnectW-SeriesA rubaOS6 .2 User Guide .
The documentation for this feature includes the followingt opics:
l"UnderstandingARM" on page 346
l"ConfiguringARM P rofiles"on page 34 8
l"Assigning an ARM Profile to an AP Group" on page 355
l"Using Multi-BandARM for 802.11a/802.11g Traffic" on page 356
l"EnablingBand Steering" on page 356
l"EnablingTraffic Shaping" on page 358
l"EnablingSpectrum Load Balancing" on page 359
l"ReusingChannels to Co ntrolR X Sensitivity Tuning" on page 360
l"ConfiguringNon-802.11 for Noise Interference Immunity" on page 360
l"ARM Metrics" on page 361
l"TroubleshootingARM" on page 3 62
Understanding ARM
Dell'sA daptive Radio Management (ARM) technology maximizes WLAN performance even in the highest traffic
networks by dynamicallyand intelligently choosing the best 802.11 channeland transmit power for each Dell AP i n
its current RF environment.
Dell’sA RM technology solves wireless networkingc hallengessuch as large deployments, densedeployments, and
installations that must support VoIP o r mobile users.D eployments with dozens of users per access point can cause
network contention and interference,but ARM dynamically monitors and adjusts the network to ensuret hat allusers
are allowedready access. A RM provides the best voice call quality wit h voice-aware spectrum scanningand call
admission control.
With earliertechnologies, network administrators would haveto perform a site survey at each location to discover
areas of RF coverage and interference,and then manually configureeach A P according to the results of this survey.
Static site surveys can helpyo uchoose channel and power assignments forA Ps, butt hesesurveys are often time-
consumingand expensive, and only reflect the state of the network at a single point in time. ARM is more efficient
than static calibration, and,unlike older technologies, it continuallymonit ors andadjusts radio resources to provide
optimal network performance.Automatic power control can adjust AP power sett ings if adjacent APs are added,
removed,or moved t o a new location within the netwo rk,minimizi ng interferencewith ot herWLAN networks.
ARM adjusts only the affected APs, so the entire network does not requires ystemic changes.