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220 Configuring APs
NN47250-500 (320657-F Version 02.01)
Session load balancing
You can assign APs to a load-balancing group. A load-balancing group helps reduce congestion by distributing client
sessions among the APs in the group. For example, if an 802.11b/g radio operating on channel 1 is supporting more
sessions than a neighboring 802.11b/g radio operating on channel 6, the load-balancing feature can reject association
requests to the radio on channel 1.
To balance the sessions, WSS Software rejects an association request for an access point’s radio if that radio has at least
four more active sessions than the radio of the same type with the least number of active sessions within the group. If the
rejected client associates with another access point in the same group, the session load among the access points in the
group becomes more balanced.
Load balancing is based only on association requests for new sessions. Adding an AP to a group does not affect sessions
that are already active on the access point. In addition, WSS Software does not attempt to rebalance sessions when a
client disassociates from an access point. If WSS Software rejects an association request for load-balancing reasons but
not for authentication reasons, the rejection does not count as an authentication failure.
Nortel recommends that you configure small groups and ensure that all the radios in the group provide comparable
coverage within the same service area.
(To configure a load-balancing group, see “Configuring a load-balancing group” (page 240).)
Service profiles
A service profile controls advertisement and encryption for an SSID. You can specify the following:
• Whether SSIDs that use the service profile are beaconed
• Whether the SSIDs are encrypted or clear (unencrypted)
• For encrypted SSIDs, the encryption settings to use
• The fallthru authentication type for users that are not authenticated with 802.1X or MAC authentication
Table 2 lists the parameters controlled by a service profile and their default values.
Table 2: Defaults for service profile parameters
Parameter Default Value
Radio Behavior When Parameter Set
To Default Value
attr No attributes
configured
Does not assign the SSID’s authorization
attribute values to SSID users, even if
attributes are not otherwise assigned.
auth-dot1x enable When the Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA)
information element (IE) is enabled, uses
802.1X to authenticate WPA clients.
auth-fallthru none Denies access to users who do not match
an 802.1X or MAC authentication rule for
the SSID requested by the user.
auth-psk disable Does not support using a preshared key
(PSK) to authenticate WPA clients.