topic Re: Cisco Access Point loadbalaning in Wireless

Cisco Access Point loadbalaning

Rickey369 — Mon, 05 Jul 2021 16:19:14 GMT

Hi All,

I have two access points ( AP-1 and AP-2) in one of our office area . All the AP's are connected to WLC. I see a lot of users are getting connected to AP-1 ( around 40) and Complain about slow internet speed. Whereas users connecting to AP-2 is very less ( around 6). How can i make the users connect to AP-2 Instead of AP-1. These two AP's are close to each other (may be around 10 ft away). How can i resolve this.

Please Help.

Regards,

Rick

Re: Cisco Access Point loadbalaning

d.friday — Wed, 17 Oct 2018 15:48:08 GMT

You can try to enable Client Load Balancing
You can find this setting under your WLAN > Advanced > Load Balancing and Band Select > check the box next to Client Load Balancing
You may find some older clients do not like this setting and may cause voice issues.
I would also recommend moving the APs farther apart you my experience Co channel interference.

Re: Cisco Access Point loadbalaning

Rickey369 — Wed, 17 Oct 2018 15:56:12 GMT

Hi Friday,

I do not find any check box at that window: Wireless > Advanced > Load Balancing and Band Select

Rick!

Re: Cisco Access Point loadbalaning

d.friday — Wed, 17 Oct 2018 16:12:08 GMT

WLAN > select your SSID and look under advanced

Re: Cisco Access Point loadbalaning

Rickey369 — Wed, 17 Oct 2018 16:49:36 GMT

Thanks Friday. I got it. what is the actual function of "Client Load Balancing "and "Client Band Select " ?

Re: Cisco Access Point loadbalaning

Rasika Nayanajith — Wed, 17 Oct 2018 17:35:12 GMT

Hi Rick,

In wireless, roaming decision entirely determine by each client. Once they first associate to an AP, unless its roaming criteria triggered, it will stick to that AP. So you cannot do a lot to control this situation.

However, I would check power level of these APs & see if reducing AP-1 foot print help in this scenario.

You can get power details using below CLI command from your WLC

show advanced 802.11a summary
show advanced 802.11b summary

HTH

Rasika

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Re: Cisco Access Point loadbalaning

Alex Pfeil — Wed, 17 Oct 2018 17:46:45 GMT

I agree that the power level is a great thing to check.

Re: Cisco Access Point loadbalaning

Ambuj M — Thu, 18 Oct 2018 03:26:41 GMT

I agree with all points above, since the client difference is significant (40 vs 6), I would recommend to try load balancing feature under WLAN. Keep the default client window setting which I believe is 5. After the change, after users reassociate, under idle situation you should client count load balanced as n and n+5 between 2 APs

Re: Cisco Access Point loadbalaning

Leo Laohoo — Thu, 18 Oct 2018 05:28:23 GMT

@Rickey369 wrote:

All the AP's are connected to WLC. I see a lot of users are getting connected to AP-1 ( around 40) and Complain about slow internet speed.

1. Wireless clients make the ultimate decision to join which AP. If the wireless clients are running very old wireless NIC drivers then the behaviour you're seeing is "normal". Get the wireless NIC drivers and see if it improve things.

2. What radios are the clients complaining of slow sleep connected to? 2.4 Ghz radio?

WARNING: Enabling AP "load balancing" is counter productive.

Re: Cisco Access Point loadbalaning

patoberli — Thu, 18 Oct 2018 13:33:02 GMT

Check this:
https://rscciew.wordpress.com/2014/10/26/cisco-load-balancing-feature/
Please note, usually you'll have more problems than gains from enabling Client Load Balancing.

Re: Cisco Access Point loadbalaning

Rickey369 — Tue, 23 Oct 2018 10:33:01 GMT

Hi Rasika,
Thank you for the Info. FYI, The two AP operates both 802.11a/n/ac and 802.11b/g/n Radio.

show advanced 802.11a summary output for two AP are as follows:
AP1: Slot:1 Channel :(64,60)* Tx Power: *4/5 ( 7 dBm)
AP2: Slot1 Channel :(153,149)* Tx Power *1/8 (23 dBm)

show advanced 802.11b summary output for two AP are as follows:
AP1: Channel : 6* Tx Power *1/5 (16 dBm)
AP2: Channel :1* Tx Power : *1/5 (16 dBm)

Regards
Rick