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distribution of clients - AP Model AIR-AP2802I-E-K9

jbo@Thisted.dk
Level 1
Level 1

I have Cisco Wireless Controller 5520 - 8.3.132.0 - With Cisco Prime 3.5.0

 

I have about 900 AP - and a daily count of 5000 Client give or take

This is running smoothly whit no problems - My Question is.

 

I have made a setup with 3 AP2802 - for an examination for 150 Students. - They were all asked to turn off their phones before exsamination.

All having a Laptop - I was counting on 150 Clients divided between the 3 ap´s.

 

But in reallity I got 110 Clients on a single AP and the remaining 40 on the last 2.

 

Why is that? 

 

Regards

Johnni

 
1 Accepted Solution

Accepted Solutions

There are ways, check the feature Client Load Balancing. BUT (with CAPS) this feature can cause temporary disconnect and other weird problems. There is also the feature Band Select, which is more for steering the clients between 5 and 2.4 Ghz, but could also have an influence here.



My suggestion, first test with enabled 802.11v (all features, found under the SSID). If that doesn't help, try Load Balancing.



Unless you have more than 150 clients, reduce the AP count to 3, leave the middle one out. Chromebooks usually don't need a lot of bandwidth (but check this first) and 50 low bandwidth clients are no problem for one AP. If you do need the bandwidth, disable the 2.4 Ghz interface on the middle one and switch it to dual-5Ghz.


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8 Replies 8

marce1000
VIP
VIP

 

 - Because clients make roaming decisions for themselves based on best 'Wifi-Environment'.

M.



-- ' 'Good body every evening' ' this sentence was once spotted on a logo at the entrance of a Weight Watchers Club !

jagan.chowdam
Level 4
Level 4

It depends on a lot of factors such as how may APs clients can hear from their location and how strong they can hear. AP power levels should be looked as well.

 

Sometimes, WLC configuration such as RF Profiles, client Load Balancing etc will help moving/sharing clients between APs.

 

Hope this helps

Jagan

Leo Laohoo
Hall of Fame
Hall of Fame
If the clients are laptops, what has the wireless NIC firmware been updated?

patoberli
VIP Alumni
VIP Alumni
To add one more thing to my previous speakers, you might want to enable (test) 802.11v. That way the client, if the driver supports it, gets some information about the load of the AP and might decide to join another one.

jbo@Thisted.dk
Level 1
Level 1

So What I thought was.

 

I have a square room with 3 APs one at each end and one in the middle.

The 150 Students are of course devided out in the room. - Most of them have Chromebooks

 

It was the AP in one end that was taking most of the load - So there is no way for me to control MAX load of the AP?

 

That way I could force them to go to another AP?

There is no way to control how many wireless clients will join an AP because each individual wireless client makes the decision what AP they want to join.

There are ways, check the feature Client Load Balancing. BUT (with CAPS) this feature can cause temporary disconnect and other weird problems. There is also the feature Band Select, which is more for steering the clients between 5 and 2.4 Ghz, but could also have an influence here.



My suggestion, first test with enabled 802.11v (all features, found under the SSID). If that doesn't help, try Load Balancing.



Unless you have more than 150 clients, reduce the AP count to 3, leave the middle one out. Chromebooks usually don't need a lot of bandwidth (but check this first) and 50 low bandwidth clients are no problem for one AP. If you do need the bandwidth, disable the 2.4 Ghz interface on the middle one and switch it to dual-5Ghz.


I will try this out - Thanks -
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