Chapter 11. Tuning AP Radio Parameters

Chapter 11 Contents

Power Tuning pg 185

Managing Power Settings on the AP pg 185

Managing Power Settings on the Client pg 187

Radio Tuning pg 188

Determining Optimal Channel and Frequency pg 188

Tuning to the Optimal Channel and Frequency pg 189

Data Configuration pg 192

Data Rates pg 192

Configuring Antenna Usage pg 194

Configuring Beacon Period and DTIM pg 196

Configuring the RTS Threshold pg 197

Configuring Data Retries pg 198

Configuring the Fragmentation Threshold pg 198

Installing and configuring an access point (AP) is generally a straightforward affair. Plug in the unit, establish some basic configuration settings, and you are ready.

However, your environment might require you to tweak more settings for optimal performance. For example, in an effort to conserve laptop battery power, you might reconfigure transceivers to operate less frequently. You might also find the need to manually set radio channels or adjust the size of frames that are broadcast and received. Cisco APs provide a way to manage these settings.