Why are the global defaults on Cisco WLC to set 1, 2, 5.5, and 11 Mbps rates as mandatory?

[Sam Brynes]

Just wondering what the reason for this is. Why not just set the 1 Mbps rate as mandatory, and the rest of the 802.11b rates (2, 5.5, 11) as supported?

Is there a benefit for setting multiple rates as mandatory instead of just the lowest rate? I am thinking of getting rid of all 802.11b rates to increase throughput since we don't have any 802.11b clients.

[Rasika Nayanajith · Accepted solution]

Here is what I would do.

Disable 1,2,5.5,6,9,11Mbps on your 2.4GHz band. 

Make 12 & 24Mbps as mandatory.

Why two mandatory rates is useful

Management frames trnasmit lowest mandatory rates

Multicast frames goes highest mandatory rate configured.

HTH

Rasika

*** Pls rate all useful responses ***

[Sam Brynes]

Thanks Rasika, that makes sense.

Also, a helpful utility for people to know how much SSID overhead they may be incurring from beacon frames:

http://www.revolutionwifi.net/revolutionwifi/2016/2/ssid-overhead-now-an-app-for-idevice

By sending beacon frames at a higher data rate, I reduced my overhead significantly.

[patoberli]

Correct. Probably the main reason why it's set different by default, compatibility to legacy clients. Out of the box, many settings on the WLC are set for compatibility and not performance.
This is somewhat different on Mobility Express though, there the defaults (and recommendations) are set for much higher speeds with less legacy support.