VLAN Configuration

[Sardar1]

Dear All,

i have a question about VLANs configuration.currently i have 4 vlan created for IP TV, IP Phone, IP Camera and Wireless Wifi. now i want to configure more VLAN for Wifi Network only because the Wifi is getting slow sometime so if i seperate all Access points by by VLAN it will reduced broadcoasting and speed will be better. now the question is shuold i configure vlan like already existing vlan or i need to create sub vlan of one main vlan which is created for WIFI APs?

Thank You

[Kasun Bandara]

@Sardar1 hi, i noticed that you have slowness issues in wifi. i suggest you to verify the wifi device status and the interference if its only related to the wifi connections. and next step will be to verify the wired competitivities.

what is the IP rane subnet for wifi segment? if its very big subnet such as /16 i suggest you can segregate the same segment. if its /24 or below, this slowness may relate to different issue.

[Sardar1]

Hi @Kasun Bandara Thanks for your prompt response . i recently joined a new office where our company is providing ISP services for Wifi, and i am in the customer site to resolve issues related to our wifi services, the internal network is managed by customer themselve. now the wifi is getting slow in peak hours when the tenant get back from work.the custome ask me to configure more vlan on their Core switch so it will help and increase Wifi speed. for example we have 4 VLANs valn 4, 5, 6, and 7. what i need to do next should i create some more vlans like 8,9,10-----30 and put multiple APs in it, as there are around 400 APs.or i have to create sub Vlan under Wifi main Vlan which maybe Vlan 7.

Thank you

[Kasun Bandara]

@Sardar1 , i understood your requirement. you can create more VLANs and segregate the APs and User VLANs. for ex. you can have multiple VLANs for different departments in company or Floors or specific locations. but again i suggest you to do analysis of architecture to understand real issue and find the root cause for slowness. as its slowing down at peak times, this may be saturating the internet link or switch throughputs too. if that is the issue, there is different fixes to do. 

[Sardar1]

Thank you maybe what you mentined is the issue let me check other troubleshooting as well .

[marce1000]

 - A (new) standard vlan will be sufficient to separate AP and client traffic , 

 M.

[Flavio Miranda]

@Sardar1 

How many users per Access Point do you get in Peak hours?

[Sardar1]

@Flavio Miranda the Access Point is reserve for 3 persons each AP as all the APs installed in Tenant Room and there are max 3 persons in each room.

[Flavio Miranda]

Are those tenant Room separated with some kind of wall?

[Sardar1]

yes all room are seperated with walls there are around 13 buildings and 12 rooms in each building

[Flavio Miranda]

Good. Seems you have a good envrironment for wi-fi with low interference and channel utilization. 

 I dont believe seggregating vlan will help with wi-fi but surely is a good practice for networking

[Sardar1]

so what should i do now for increase the speed and overcome the slow internet issue ?

[Flavio Miranda]

It seems you have a good wi-fi environment. Not sure which access point you have, which switch and how they interconnect.

We can find bottleneck in every segment starting by the PCs, network adapter, drivers.

I would recommend run iPerf test inside the network and from inside to outside. This could give you a clue on where the bottleneck is.

You can use a wireless device as client and one cable device as server.

 After that you can repeat the tests but now using a server outside which includes testing also the internet .

[Sardar1]

Ok i will try Iperf as well, the network setup is ok but all the access point in one VLAN that why i ask if i can configure more vlan and distribute the APs in different VLAN.

Thank You so much for your time

[Flavio Miranda]

I dont see all AP in one vlan as a huge problem. This is very common actually to facilitate management. The broacast the APs will create by staying on the same vlan is not something that will slow down you network. But, you can, for sure, seggregate that. 

  I believe your problem is something else but only with an iPerf test you can get some conclusion. iPerf is a good resouce when problem is related to network slow.