Converged Wired and Wireless Access
Provisioning a Small Branch WLAN
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Best Practice User Guide for the Catalyst 3850 and Catalyst 3650 Switch Series
Manage Radio Frequency and Channel Settings
Radio Resource Management (RRM), also known as Auto-RF, helps with channel and power setting
management, but Auto-RF cannot correct for a poor radio frequency design.
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Enable Dynamic Channel Assignment
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Verify WLAN Client Connectivity
For any wireless deployment, we recommend a site survey to ensure a proper quality service design for
your wireless clients.
Disable Low Data Rates
Step 1
Disable the 5-Ghz and 2.4-Ghz networks to successfully modify wireless spectrum rates.
In a well-designed wireless network with good radio frequency coverage, lower data rates can be
disabled. Low data rates consume the most airtime.
Limiting the number of supported data rates allows clients to down-shift faster when retransmitting.
Wireless clients try to send at the fastest data rate. If the transmitted frame is unsuccessful, the wireless
client will retransmit at the next lowest available data rate. The removal of some supported data rates
means that clients that need to retransmit a frame directly down-shift several data rates, which increases
the chance for the frame to go through at the second attempt. IEEE 802.11b-only devices no longer need
to be accommodated. Disable speeds used by IEEE 802.11b-only devices.
!Enable 802.11n and 802.11ac for the 5Ghz spectrum.
ap dot11 5ghz rate RATE_6M disable
ap dot11 5ghz rate RATE_9M disable
ap dot11 5ghz rate RATE_12M mandatory
ap dot11 5ghz rate RATE_18M supported
ap dot11 5ghz rate RATE_24M mandatory
ap dot11 5ghz rate RATE_36M supported
ap dot11 5ghz rate RATE_48M supported