05-07-2021 12:05 AM - edited 07-05-2021 01:16 PM
Hello,
I have basic knowledge of FlexConnect and when it's used - branch offices and remote sites. Recently I've been told by some auditors that we should configure FlexConnect in our local network to increase wireless speed and quality. I've never heard of using it in a local network. Does it make sense to enable FlexConnect in a local network?
Thank you for any feedback.
Btw. we have one WLC and 70 APs.
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05-13-2021 06:33 PM
out of curiosity, the existing setup is Aireos or ios-xe based. If Airos, first thing to be done is to migrate to ios-xe.
are auditors talking about SD-Access and not traditional flex connect by any chance.
05-13-2021 11:34 PM - edited 05-13-2021 11:35 PM
@patoberli There currently is no circumstance to do this, as long as the bandwidth between all APs and WLC is large enough to cope the full expected traffic.
This is what I needed to hear. Do other experts agree on this too?
@balaji.bandi you can use any netflow and NMS to Monitor
Do you recommend any? We use Zabbix but I am not able to make it work. Any other alternative? Where can I see these numbers in WLC?
@Scott Fella Out of curiosity, have you made a decision or done any further testing?
I've made my decision but I am collecting more info for my manager. Now I am going to monitor traffic from/to WLC to verify that WLC uplinks can handle all the traffic. I would test FlexConnect on APs only in case they would insist on configuring it.
@saravlak We have 3504. As long as it's supported, we stay where we are.
05-18-2021 12:16 AM
Do you recommend any? We use Zabbix but I am not able to make it work. Any other alternative? Where can I see these numbers in WLC?
I use Prime Infrastructure. I wouldn't anymore buy this as a new product.
Cisco by now uses a mostly standard netflow format, but make sure your software actually supports Cisco WLC Netflow:
I've made my decision but I am collecting more info for my manager. Now I am going to monitor traffic from/to WLC to verify that WLC uplinks can handle all the traffic. I would test FlexConnect on APs only in case they would insist on configuring it.
As stated many times, FlexConnect is very rarely needed if you don't transfer the data over WAN links. Depending on the size of your network (amount of APs) and the small 3504 WLC, you might saturate the 1 Gbps port. You can work around that by enabling LAG on more ports on the 3504, that way you can increase the throughput further: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/wireless/controller/technotes/8-5/b_WLC_3504_Release_8_5_Deployment_Guide.html
Nowadays in most enterprise developments your AP density is fairly high, so that all clients have a strong signal with a short path to the AP. That way you can get a lot of performance out of your network, while providing good roaming. The big downside of this is the channel re-use. For this reason you often have 40 or even 20 MHz channels on 5 GHz, to maximize the amount of free channels. But this will vastly reduce the maximum throughput if no users are there (capable client assumed), but will vastly increase the throughput if many users are there.
In other words, with a 160 MHz 802.11ax channel (which limits you to 2 or 3 available channels), you could have > 1 Gbps of throughput with a single capable client. If you reduce this to 20 MHz you now have around 19 available channels, but a maximum throughput of maybe 250 Mbps. Those numbers are sadly only valid if there are no other wireless devices on the same frequency, which sadly doesn't happen in the real world, unless you are in a cellar
05-17-2021 11:07 PM
Nobody?
05-18-2021 05:56 AM
05-19-2021 12:30 AM
patoberli wrote: There currently is no circumstance to do this, as long as the bandwidth between all APs and WLC is large enough to cope the full expected traffic.
Do other experts agree on this too?
05-19-2021 12:35 AM
Agreed.
And in fact there may be specific reasons for needing the traffic to be centrally switched like features which are not supported on flexconnect local switching.
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/wireless/access_point/feature-matrix/ap-feature-matrix.html
05-20-2021 05:07 AM
Well, we've been monitoring traffic on WLC ports and I see these values (per second):
Avg. Sent:150Kbps
Avg. Received: 2Kbps
Are these numbers relevant? They seem pretty low.
05-20-2021 05:49 AM
05-20-2021 10:14 PM - edited 05-21-2021 01:08 AM
Are these numbers real/correct when 300 devices are connected?
It looks like all the Internet traffic doesn't go by default through WLC and just the management traffic does.
Can anyone clarify this?
05-21-2021 02:27 AM
05-21-2021 04:35 AM
Thanks. This is what I was looking for. I see 40-60Mbps InDataRate and 20-40Mbps OutDataRate. Still, I think this is ok. Do you agree?
05-21-2021 06:20 AM
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