Field

Description

 

 

Beacon Interval

Beacon frames are transmitted by an access point at regular intervals to

 

announce the existence of the wireless network. The default behavior is to

 

send a beacon frame once every 100 milliseconds (or 10 per second).

 

The Beacon Interval value is set in milliseconds. Type a value from 20 to

 

2000.

 

 

DTIM Period

The Delivery Traffic Information Map (DTIM) message is an element included

 

in some Beacon frames. It indicates which client stations, currently sleeping

 

in low-power mode, have data buffered on the access point awaiting pick-up.

 

The DTIM period you specify here indicates how often the clients served by

 

this access point should check for buffered data still on the AP awaiting

 

pickup.

 

The measurement is in beacons. For example, if you set this to “1” clients

 

will check for buffered data on the AP at every beacon. If you set this to “2”,

 

clients will check on every other beacon. If you set this to 10, clients will check

 

on every 10th beacon.

 

 

Fragmentation

Specify a number between 256 and 2,346 to set the frame size threshold

Threshold

in bytes.

 

The fragmentation threshold is a way of limiting the size of packets (frames)

 

transmitted over the network. If a packet exceeds the fragmentation threshold

 

set here, the fragmentation function will be activated and the packet will be

 

sent as multiple 802.11 frames.

 

If the packet being transmitted is equal to or less than the threshold,

 

fragmentation will not be used.

 

Setting the threshold to the largest value (2,346 bytes) effectively disables

 

fragmentation.

 

Fragmentation involves more overhead both because of the extra work of

 

dividing up and reassembling of frames it requires, and because it increases

 

message traffic on the network. However, fragmentation can help improve

 

network performance and reliability if correctly configured.

 

Sending smaller frames (by using lower fragmentation threshold) may help

 

with some interference problems, such as with microwave ovens.

 

By default, fragmentation is off. We recommend not using fragmentation

 

unless you suspect radio interference. The additional headers applied to

 

each fragment increase the overhead on the network and can greatly reduce

 

throughput.

 

 

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