21
Load Balancing
21.1 Overview
Wireless load balancing is the process whereby you limit the number of connections allowed on an wireless access point (AP) or you limit the amount of wireless traffic transmitted and received on it. Because there is a hard upper limit on the AP’s wireless bandwidth, this can be a crucial function in areas crowded with wireless users. Rather than let every user connect and subsequently dilute the available bandwidth to the point where each connecting device receives a meager trickle, the load balanced AP instead limits the incoming connections as a means to maintain bandwidth integrity.
21.1.1 What You Need to Know About Load Balancing
There are two kinds of load balancing available on the NWA:
•Load balancing by station number limits the number of devices allowed to connect to your AP. If you know exactly how many stations you want to let connect, choose this option.
For example, if your company’s graphic design team has their own NWA and they have 10 computers, you can load balance for 10. Later, if someone from the sales department visits the graphic design team’s offices for a meeting and he tries to access the network, he won’t be able to because his laptop is device number 11, which is one more than 10 and thus exceeds the load balance. If one of the graphic design team’s computers disconnects from the network, then the sales computer can join.
•Load balancing by traffic level limits the number of connections to the NWA based on maximum bandwidth available.
If you are uncertain as to the exact number of wireless connections you will have then choose this option. By setting a maximum bandwith cap, you allow any number of devices to connect as long as their total bandwidth usage does not exceed the configured bandwidth cap associated with this setting. Once the cap is hit, any new connections are rejected or delayed provided that there are other APs in range that have the same settings as the NWA (such as SSID, security mode, radio mode, and so on).
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