Motorola WS5100 manual MU Balancing Across Multiple APs, AP Balancing Across Multiple Switches

1-12WS5100 Series Switch System Reference Guide

MU Balancing Across Multiple APs

As per the 802.11 standard, AP and MU association is a process conducted independently of the switch.

802.11provides message elements used by the MU firmware to influence the roaming decision. The switch implements the following MU load balancing techniques:

•802.11e admission control — 1 byte: channel utilization % and 1 byte: MU count is sent in QBSS Load Element in beacons to MU.

•Motorola load balancing element (proprietary) — 2 byte: Kbps, 2 byte : Kbps and 2 byte : MU Count are sent in beacon to MU.

NOTE: Each switch can support a maximum of 4096 MUs.

AP Balancing Across Multiple Switches

At adoption time, the AP solicits and receives multiple adoption responses from the switches on the network. These adoption responses contain preference and loading information the AP uses to select the optimum switch to be adopted by. Use this mechanism to define which APs are adopted by which switches. By default, the adoption algorithm generally distributes AP adoption evenly among the switches available.

NOTE: Each switch can support a maximum of 48 access ports. However, port adoption per switch is determined by the number of licenses acquired.

CAUTION: An access port is required to have a DHCP provided IP address before

!attempting layer 3 adoption, otherwise it will not work. Additionally, the access port must be able to find the IP addresses of the switches on the network.

To locate switch IP addresses on the network:

•Configure DHCP option 189 to specify each switch IP address.

•Configure a DNS Server to resolve an existing name into the IP of the switch. The access port has to get DNS server information as part of its DHCP information. The default DNS name requested by an AP300 is “Symbol-CAPWAP-Address”. However, since the default name is configurable, it can be set as a factory default to whatever value is needed.

In a layer 3 environment, the access port adoption process is somewhat unique, for more information, see Configuring Layer 3 Access Port Adoption on page 4-88.

1.2.2.10Wireless Roaming

The following types of wireless roaming are supported by the switch:

•L3 Roaming

•Fast Roaming

•Interswitch Layer 2 Roaming

•International Roaming

•MU Move Command

•Virtual AP