Intermec WA21 System Manual page 102

Chapter 4 — Configuring the Radios
88
802.11b Radio Advanced Parameter Descriptions
Parameter Description
Data Rate Choose the rate at which the access point transmits data. In
general, higher speeds mean shorter range and lower speeds mean
longer range. You can set this rate to 11, 5.5, 2, or 1 Mbps.
Allow Data Rate Determines if you want the radio to drop to a slower data rate
Fallback when it has trouble communicating with another radio.
Intermec recommends that you leave this check box checked or
you may affect radio network performance. Clearing this check
box is only used when performing site surveys.
Basic Rate Choose the rate at which the access point transmits multicast
and beacon frames. In general, higher speeds mean shorter range
and lower speeds mean longer range. Do not set this rate higher
than the maximum rate at which your end devices can receive
multicast frames. You can set this rate to 11, 5.5, 2, or 1 Mbps.
This parameter should usually be left at the default 2 Mbps.
Enable Medium Determines if you want to specify a reservation threshold. Check
Reservation
this check box to set a threshold value. Click Submit Changes,
and the Reservation Threshold parameter appears.
If you clear this check box, you may improve network response
time in installations that usually send very small frames or that
have no hidden stations.
Reservation
Appears only if the Enable Medium Reservation parameter is
Threshold checked.
If you enable medium reservation, you need to set a threshold
value, which is the largest data frame that can be transmitted
without reserving airtime. Airtime is normally reserved to help
prevent collisions with other transmitters.
Distance Between Controls the roaming sensitivity of your end devices. This setting
APs should match the setting on your end devices.
You can use this parameter to virtually reduce the range of your
access point. If you choose Small or Medium, you do not reduce
the absolute range of your radio, but you modify the collision
detection mechanism to allow significant overlap of the wireless
cells. Thus, you create a higher performance radio network, but
you need more access points to cover an area.
Enable Microwave Determines if the access point activates a modified algorithm for
Oven Robustness automatic rate fallback, which prevents the access point from
falling back to 1 Mbps when trying to retransmit radio frames
when 2.4 GHz interference is present.
Enable Load Determines if end devices can distribute their connections across
Balancing multiple access points.
Enable Medium Determines if these access point parameters—Enable Medium
Density Distribution
Reservation, Distance Between APs, Enable Microwave Oven
Robustness—are distributed to end devices that support this
feature.
MobileLAN access WA2X System Manual