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Documentation Home for Self-Managed and Enterprise-Managed APs | Administrators Guide
Load Balancing
The Devicescape Enterprise-Managed AP allows you to balance the distribution of wireless client connections across multiple access points. Using load balancing, you can prevent scenarios where a single access point in your network shows performance degradation because it is handling a disproportionate share of the wireless traffic.
The following sections describe how to configure Load Balancing on your wireless network:
Understanding Load Balancing
Like most configuration settings on the Devicescape Enterprise-Managed AP, load balancing settings are shared among clustered access points.
Identifying the Imbalance: Overworked or Under-utilized Access Points
A typical scenario is that a comparison of Session Monitoring data for multiple access points allows you to identify an access point that is consistently handling a disproportionately large percentage of wireless traffic. This can happen when location placement or other factors causes one access point to transmit the strongest signal to a majority of clients on a network. By default, that access point will receive most of client requests while the other access points stay idle much of the time.
Imbalances in distribution of wireless traffic across access points will be evident in Session Monitoring statistics, which will show higher "Utilization" rates on overworked APs and conversely, higher "Idle" times on under-utilized APs. An AP that is handling more than its fair share of traffic might also show slower data rates or lower transmit/receive rates due to the overload.
Specifying Limits for Utilization and Client Associations
You can correct for imbalances in network AP utilization by enabling load balancing and setting limits on utilization rates and number of client associations allowed per access point.
Load Balancing and QoS
Load balancing also plays a part in contributing to Quality of Service (QoS) for Voice Over IP (VoIP) and other such time-sensitive applications competing for bandwidth and timely access to the air waves on a wireless network. For more information about configuring your network for QoS, see Configuring Quality of Service (QoS).
Navigating to Load Balancing Settings
On the Administration UI, navigate to the Advanced > Load Balancing tab, and update the fields as described in the next section.
Configuring Load Balancing
To configure load balancing, enable "Load Balancing" and set limits and behavior to be triggered by a specified utilization rate of the access point.
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Note
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- To view the current Utilization Rates for access points, click Cluster > Sessions on the Administration Web pages. (See Session Monitoring.)
- Even when clients are disassociated from an AP, the network will still provide continuous service to client stations if another access point is within range so that clients can re-connect to the network. Clients should automatically retry the AP they were originally connected to and other APs on the subnet. Clients who are disassociated from one AP should experience a seamless transition to another AP on the same subnet.
- Load Balancing settings apply to the AP load as a whole. When Guest access is enabled, the settings apply to both Internal and Guest networks together.
- On a two-radio access point, Load Balancing settings apply to both radios but the load of each radio is calculated independently and includes both the Internal and Guest network (when Guest access is enabled).
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Field
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Description
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Load Balancing
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To enable load balancing on this access point, click Enable.
To disable load balancing on this access point, click Disable.
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Utilization for No New Associations
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Utilization rate limits relate to wireless bandwidth utilization.
Provide a bandwidth utilization rate percentage limit for this access point to indicate when to stop accepting new client associations.
When the utilization rate for this access point exceeds the specified limit, no new client associations will be allowed on this access point.
If you specify 0 in this field, all new associations will be allowed regardless of the utilization rate.
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Utilization for Disassociation
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Utilization rate limits relate to wireless bandwidth utilization.
Provide a bandwidth utilization rate percentage limit for this access point to indicate when to disassociate current clients.
When the utilization rate exceeds the specified limit, a client currently associated with this access point will be disconnected.
If you specify 0 in this field, current clients will never be disconnected regardless of the utilization rate.
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Stations Threshold for Disassociation
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Specify the number of client stations you want as a "stations threshold" for disassociation. If the number of client stations associated with the AP at any one time is equal to or less than the number you specify here, no stations will be disassociated regardless of the "Utilization for Disassociation" value.
Theoretically, the maximum number of client stations allowed is 2007.
We recommend setting the maximum to between 30 and 50 client stations. This allows for a workable load on the access point, given that bandwidth is shared among the AP clients.
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Updating Settings
To apply your changes, click Update Settings.
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