Prioritizing Wlan Traffic; Load Balancing - Ruckus Wireless ZoneDirector 1100 User Manual

Managing Access Points
Optimizing Access Point Performance
• Uplink Selection: Use this setting to manually define which APs can serve as an uplink
for this Mesh AP.
5. Click OK. The adjusted AP will be automatically restarted, and when it is active, will be ready
for network connections.

Prioritizing WLAN Traffic

If you want to prioritize internal traffic over guest WLAN traffic, for example, you can set the
WLAN priority in the WLAN configuration settings to "high" or "low." By default all WLANs
are set to high priority.
To set a specific WLAN to lower priority:
1. Go to Configure > WLANs.
2. Click the Edit link next to the WLAN for which a lower priority will be set.
3. Select Low next to Priority, and click OK.

Load Balancing

Enabling load balancing can improve WLAN performance by helping to spread the client load
between nearby access points, so that one AP does not get overloaded while another sits idle.
The load balancing feature can be controlled from within ZoneDirector's Web interface to
balance the number of clients per radio on adjacent APs. "Adjacent APs" are determined by
ZoneDirector at startup by measuring the RSSI during channel scans. After startup, ZoneDi-
rector uses subsequent scans to update the list of adjacent radios periodically and when a new
AP sends its first scan report. When an AP leaves, ZoneDirector immediately updates the list
of adjacent radios and refreshes the client limits at each affected AP.
Once ZoneDirector is aware of which APs are adjacent to each other, it begins managing the
client load by sending desired client limits to the APs. These limits are "soft values" that can
be exceeded in several scenarios, including: (1) when a client's signal is so weak that it may not
be able to support a link with another AP, and (2) when a client's signal is so strong that it really
belongs on this AP.
The APs maintain these desired client limits and enforce them once they reach the limits by
withholding probe responses and authentication responses on any radio that has reached its
limit.
Key points on load balancing:
• These rules apply only to client devices; the AP always responds to another AP that is
attempting to set up or maintain a mesh network.
• Load balancing does not disassociate clients already connected.
• Load balancing takes action before a client association request, reducing the chance of
client misbehavior.
• The process does not require any time-critical interaction between APs and ZoneDirector.
• Provides control of adjacent AP distance with safeguards against abandoning clients.
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