Dell 6.2 Understanding Me sh Profiles

Understanding Me sh Profiles

Mesh profileshelp define and bring-up the mesh network. The followingsecti ons describe the mesh cluster,mesh

radio, and meshrecovery profiles in more detail.

The complete meshprofile consis ts of a mesh radio profile, RF management (802.11a and 802.11g) radio profiles, a

high-throughputSSID profile (if your deployment includes80 2.11n-capableAP s),a mesh cluster profile, and a read-

only recoveryprofile. The recovery profilei s dynamicallygenerated by the master controller;you do not explicitly

configurethe recovery profile.

Dell provides a “default” version of the mesh radio, RF management, high-throughputSSID and cluster profiles with

defaultvalues for most parameters. You can use the “default”version of a profile or create a new instance of a profile

which you can then edit as you need. You can change the values of any parameter in a profile. You have the

flexibility of applying the “default”versions o f profilesi n addition to customizing profiles that are necessary for the

AP or AP groupt o function.

If you assign a profile to an individual AP, the valuesi nt heprofile override the profile assigned to the AP group to

which the AP belongs. The exception is the mesh cluster profile—you can apply multiple mesh clusterprofiles to

individual APs, as wellas to A P groups.

Mesh clustersare grouped and defined by a mesh cluster profile, which provides the frameworko f the mesh network.

Similart o virtual AP profiles, the mesh cluster profile contains the MSSID (mesh cluster name), authentication

methods, security credentials,and cluster priority required for mesh nodes to associate with their neighbors and join

the cluster.As sociated mesh nodes store this information in flash memory. Although most mesh deployments require

only a single mesh clusterprofile, you can configure and apply multiple mesh cluster profiles to an AP group or an

individual AP. If you have multiplecluster profiles, the mesh portal uses the profilewi th the highestpriorit y to bring

up the mesh network.Mesh points, i n contrast, go throught he list of mesh cluster profilesi n orderof priorit y to

decide which profilet o use to associate themselves with the network. The meshc lusterpriority determines the order

by which the mesh clusterprofiles are used. This allows you, rathert hanthe link metric algorithm, to explicitly

segmentt he network by defining multiplecluster profiles.

Dell providesa “default”versio no ft hemesh cluster profile. You can use the “default”versio no rcreate a new

instance of a profile which you can then edit as you need. You can configure a maximum of 16 mesh cluster profiles

on a mesh node. For details about configuring meshcluster profiles, see “Mesh Cluster Profiles”.

Dell providesa “default”versio no ft hemesh radio profile. You can use the “default” version or create a new instance

of a profile which you can then edit as you need. The mesh radio profile allows you to specify the set of rates used to

transmit data on the mesh link. For information about configuring meshradio profiles,see "Working with Mesh

Radio Profiles" on page 450.

The two 802.11a and 802.11g R F managementprofiles for an AP configure its 802.11 a (5 Ghz) and 802.11b/g (2.4

GHz) radio settings. Use these profile settings to determine the channel, beacon period, transmit power, and ARM

profilefor a mesh AP’s 5 GHz and2 .5 Ghzfrequency bands. You can either use the “default”version of each profile,

or create a new 802.11a or 80 2.11g profile which you can then configure as necessary. Each RF management profile

also has a radio-enableparameter that allows you to enable ordi sablethe AP’s ability to si multaneouslycarry

WLAN client trafficand mesh-backhaul traffic on that radio.This value is enabled by default.For information about

configuringRF Management Radio profiles, see "802.11a and 802 .11g RF Management Profiles"o n page4 24.

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