Layer 2 roaming is well known and implemented in many installations as it is much easier to deploy and troubleshoot. In some occasions, especially in large deployments, Layer 3 roaming might be the solution. I implemented a couple of Aruba IAP clusters recently. In one of the installation, it was decided we split the building … Continue reading Aruba Instant Layer 3 Mobility across different clusters →

Best practice is described as 'commercial or professional procedures that are accepted or prescribed as being correct or most effective' according to the dictionary. Most vendors publish the best practice related to general usage of the system, specific features, supported numbers related to scalability etc. This document, article, link or pdf is often used as … Continue reading vendor’s best practices →

Cisco's approach for wireless remote packet capture limited to change of the AP mode into the sniffer mode. The big disadvantage of that is that Cisco AP either works in local/FlexConnect mode serving the mobile clients or sniffer mode capturing the traffic and not both at the same time. In firmware 7.4 Cisco introduced per … Continue reading Cisco per-client packet capture →

  Fragmentation was an enhancement to 802.11a/b/g WLAN networks, which helped in a highly interfered environments with usage of SISO antennas. As a final effect there were a lot of collisions in these conditions, therefore there were a lot of retransmissions. It was easier to fragment a frame into smaller chunks and transmit it. As … Continue reading fragmentation →

Band steering is a feature of accepting the connection over the preferred band. In most of the cases, we would like dual-band mobile clients to associate with interference-less band which is 5GHz, instead of 2.4 GHz. The feature isn't defined in any 802.11 standards, it is rather proprietary feature implemented in most of the enterprise … Continue reading band steering →