Chapter 14 Adaptive Radio Management; Arm Features; Channel Or Power Assignment; Voice Aware Scanning - Dell PowerConnect W-IAP175P User Manual

Adaptive Radio Management (ARM) is a radio frequency management technology that optimizes WLAN
performance even in the networks with highest traffic by dynamically and intelligently choosing the best 802.11
channel and transmitting power for each IAP in its current RF environment. ARM works with all standard clients,
across all operating systems, while remaining in compliance with the IEEE 802.11 standards. It does not require
any proprietary client software to achieve its performance goals. ARM ensures low-latency roaming, consistently
high performance, and maximum client compatibility in a multi-channel environment. By ensuring the fair
distribution of available Wi-Fi bandwidth to mobile devices, ARM ensures that data, voice, and video
applications have sufficient network resources at all times. ARM allows mixed 802.11a, b, g, and n client types to
inter-operate at the highest performance levels.

ARM Features

This section describes ARM features that are available in Dell Instant.

Channel or Power Assignment

This feature automatically assigns channel and power settings for all the IAPs in the network according to changes
in the RF environment. This feature automates many setup tasks during network installation and during ongoing
operations when RF conditions change.

Voice Aware Scanning

This feature stops the IAP that is supporting an active voice call from scanning for other channels in the RF
spectrum. The IAP resumes scanning when no more active voice calls are present on that IAP. This significantly
improves the voice quality when a call is in progress while simultaneously delivering automated RF management
functions.

Load Aware Scanning

This feature dynamically adjusts scanning behavior to maintain uninterrupted data transfer on resource intensive
systems when the network traffic exceeds a predefined threshold. The IAPs resume complete monitoring scans
when the traffic drops to the normal levels.

Band Steering Mode

This feature moves dual-band capable clients to stay on the 5 GHz band on dual-band IAPs. This feature reduces
co-channel interference and increases available bandwidth for dual-band clients because there are more channels
on the 5 GHz band than on the 2.4 GHz band.
Band steering supports the following three different band steering modes:
Prefer 5Ghz—If you configure the IAP to use prefer-5GHz band steering mode, the IAP will try to steer the
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client to 5G band (if the client is 5G capable) but will let the client connect on the 2.4G band if the client
persists in 2.4G association attempts.
Force 5Ghz—When the IAP is configured in force-5GHz band steering mode, the IAP will try to force 5Ghz-
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capable IAPs to use that radio band.
Balance Bands—In this band steering mode, the IAP tries to balance the clients across the two radios in order
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to best utilize the available 2.4G bandwidth. This feature takes into account the fact that the 5Ghz band has
Dell PowerConnect W-Series Instant Access Point 6.1.2.3-2.0.0.0 | User Guide
Chapter 14
Adaptive Radio Management
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