Design and Deployment

of Wireless LANs for

Mobile Applications
Jerome Henry, Technical Leader
BRKEWN-2000
Agenda
1. Building the first cell
Shape, Size (AP Power, Protocols and Rates, 20, 40, 80 MHz)

2. Taking Care of the Roaming Path

AP Placement Strategies, antennas, overlaps

3. Optimizations
Tweaking the WLC and AP configurations for difficult clients

Conclusion
Last Words and where to go when things go wrong
 Chapter 1:
Building the First Cell
FirstHow Much Bandwidth
do you Need?
1. Check the bandwidth of each expected applications in your network,
2. Multiply by number of users of that application in the cell:

This is the bandwidth you need at the edge of the cell

Bandwidth Cheat Sheet

Application By Use Case Throughput Nominal

Web - Casual 500 Kbps

Web - Instructional 1 Mbps
Audio - Casual 100 Kbps
Audio - instructional 1 Mbps
Video - Casual 1 Mbps
Video - Instructional 2-4 Mbps
Printing 1 Mbps
File Sharing - Casual 1 Mbps
File Sharing - Instructional 2-8 Mbps
Online Testing 2-4 Mbps
Device Backups 10-50 Mbps

7
Some Famous Names

Lync (Up/Down):
Call type Audio Audio HD Video Video HD
Typical 51Kbps/51kbps 86Kbps/86kbs 190kbps/190kbps 2.5 Mbps/2.5 Mbps
Bandwidth

Now that you get the picture, a few other examples:

Facetime (video, iPhone 4S): 400 Kbps, (audio) 32 kbps
Viber, Skype (video) 130 kbps, (audio) 30 kbps
Skype/Viber/other chat: around 850 to 1000 bytes (6.8 to 8 kb) per 500 character
message
Netflix (video), from 600 kbps (low quality) to 10 Mbps (3D HD), average 2.2 Mbps
This bandwidth consumption is one way, you need to double for 2-way conversations
9
Real Life Example?
Medical Center I need 6.65 Mbps throughput
everywhere in the cell
Density studies show active 12 users / cell on average - > therefore I need it here
Expected 2 HD video calls (Skype type)
5 audio calls
Other users may browse
Lets do the math:
2 HD video calls = 1.2 Mbps x 2 x 2 ways = 4.8 Mbps
5 audio calls mmm what application? AP
Skype too? 30 kbps x 5 x 2 ways = 600 kbps
Others are browsing (5 people) 250 kbps / user?
Total = 6.65 Mbps needed
Funny that browsing requires more than voice
Should I design for browsing?
(Mean Opinion Score)
VoIP MOS Degrades with Distance and Congestion

Higher data rate = less time in the air

High data rate

Shorter distance = less chances to hit

interference on the way
Lower risk of loss or retries
Short distance
MOS

12
VoIP MOS Degrades with Distance and Congestion

Medium is half duplex

Congestion increases delays and retries
AP 50% CU is gaping threshold

MOS

13
Below 4.1, VoIP Quality Changes from Good to
close to Fair (slightly annoying)

4.1

14
VoIP Golden Rules for Wi-Fi

Packet Error Rate (PER) <=1%

As low jitter as possible, less than 100ms
Retries should be < 20%
End to end delay 150 200 ms, 30 ms in cell
When these values are exceeded, MOS reduces too much

Your mission is to keep MOS high

15
Real Time Voice vs Real Time Video Applications

16
Next Design your Cell
Shape and Size
The Cell Shape Depends on the Antenna

Directional Omni

Same areas
Cell Shape and Cell Size
Your cell shape depends on the antenna you use:
Directional
Omnidirectional
The cell size depends on 3 parameters:
1. The AP power level
2. The protocol you use (802.11a/b/g/n/ac)
3. The Data rates you allow
All this assumes open space in real world, you also need to account for
RF obstacles
Lets Start with Power
Higher Power Does not Always Mean Better Signal

Aim for:
Is it better now?
Noise level -92 dBm
Blah blah blah
RSSI 67 dBm
You are a bit quiet
RSSI -> 25 dB or better SNR
Channel Utilization under 50%.
dBm

Noise Level

Time

23
Modern Devices are Created Unequal
3700i AP
Iphone 5
(+4 dBi antenna on 2.4 GHz,
+6 dBi antenna on 5 GHz)
Band Max Tx Power
2.4 GHz ISM 16 dBm
UNII-1 14 dBm
UNII-2 13.5 dBm
UNII-2e 12 dBm
23 dBm
UNII-3 13 dBm
ISM (Ch 165) 13 dBm
Source: FCC

Disclaimer: antenna gain is not included for the Iphone

24
Some Client Max EIRPs
Model EIRP 2.4 GHz Worst* EIRP 5 GHz
Iphone 5 14.6 dBm 10 dBm
Ipad 4 15.2 dBm 22.67 dBm
Samsung S3 14.9 dBm 10.18 dBm
Samsung S4 12.05 dBm 11.24 dBm
Samsung S5 13.4 dBm 10.61 dBm
HTC One 14.4 dBm 13.8 dBm
Nokia Lumia 1520 13.1 dBm 11.6 dBm
ASUS PCE-AC66 22 dBm 22.83 dBm

* EIRP varies with sub-band, displaying worst of all sub-bands

transmission
received
Okay when AP and client had same HW specs* in 1997
*Tx/Rx sensitivity, antennas, power level
If AP Signal is Strong, Client Uses High Data Rate
Client power can be low, noise at the AP high, HW specs may be different

This is the AP signal (at phone level) This is the phone signal (at AP level)

28
Can Power Really Damage Cell Conditions?
Bad design example: HTC One @ 12 dBm, AP @20 dBm

Based on Rx AP signal, BYOD thinks 54 Mbps rate is okay

But client message is too weak, and AP does not ACK until rate falls to 12 mbps

Each message takes 8 times more to be transmitted

(including EIFS and retries)
 How can you tell the Client Power level?
You can check, live the client power levels on the AP (useful to check symmetry
in AP to client and client to AP signal when building your cell edge):

This is on 5GHz radio, d0 is 2.4 GHz radio

2 client signals reported
AP7cad.74ff.36d2#debug dot11 dot11Radio 1 trace print rcv

*Jun 1 04:11:43.663: D5B70D90 r 6 49/46/42/48 54- 0803 000 m010B85 477AAF m010B85 33E0 477AA0 l46
*Jun 1 04:11:43.664: A2CEF918 r m15-2s 53/63/54/61 40- 8841 030 1A096F A36F20 m333300 76B0 q0 l100

Timestamp L+length of
rest of the frame
Client used MCS 15 (2SS) With WMM, shows the queue
Client SNR without WMM, DCF queue index
Sequence number
Client RSSI on each antenna Address 3
Frame type (follows 802.11 spec)
Frame duration
Receiver and transmitter
addresses (last 3 bytes)
So, what is the right Power?
In short: half your worst client max power
E.g. you design for 5 GHz, worst client max is at 11 dBm, set your AP power to 8 dBm

Otherwise, you get this:

 Power is Taken Care of
lets move to Protocols & Rates
Cell Useful Radius is Determined by Minimum
Allowed Data rate

1 Mbps DSSS
2 Mbps DSSS
5.5 Mbps DSSS
6 Mbps OFDM
9 Mbps OFDM
11 Mbps DSSS
12 Mbps OFDM
18 Mbps OFDM
24 Mbps OFDM
36 Mbps OFDM
48 Mbps OFDM
54 Mbps OFDM
SSIDs and Low Rates Consume Air Time
Before: 8 SSIDs, all
rates allowed
After: 2 SSIDs, 802.11b
rates disabled

60% Before

5% After
Impact of Disabling 802.11b
Disabling 802.11b in this network would:

Suppress 27% of frames (slow frames would be sent faster)

Decrease airtime consumption from 62% to 18 % if using 24 Mbps (slow

frames take much longer to be sent than faster frames)

Reduce cell size:

Clients nearby would benefit from higher speeds
Clients far would not sick to the AP

DSS/CCK
Airtime
consumption

OFDM
Airtime
consumption
 Low rates impact Depends on frame size
20000
18000
Time Time
16000 Time
consumption consumption
Codec & Bit consumption
14000 per voice per voice
64 Byte Rate per voice
flow flow
12000 flow at 1 Mb/s
CCK CCK
DSSS OFDM 128 Byte at 24 Mb/s at 54 Mb/s
10000 DSSS OFDM
Time/ 256 Byte
G.711
102.4 ms 9.45 ms 6.49 ms
8000
S (64 Kb/s)
6000 512 Byte G.729
46.4 ms 6.27 ms 5.20 ms
4000 1024 Byte (8 Kb/s)
2000 2048 Bytes G.726
70.4 ms 7.27 ms 5.64 ms
(32 Kb/s)
0
Mb 1 2 5.5 11 6 12 24 36 48 54 130 300 G.728
42.43 ms 4.72 ms 3.74 ms
ps Frame (16 Kb/s)
Size/Bytes
Individual theoretical time consumption:
SLOT + DIFS + (voice packet + headers) x speed x (number of packets per second) + SIFS + ACK
 And most BYODs know that
Most BYODs take advantage of 802.11 blocks to group small
frames (even if they end up sending one frame at a time):
Viber on Iphone 5S

Viber on Samsung S5
What Should Your Minimum Rate Be?
Stop your cell where: 6 Mbps
1. Signal to your clients is still strong
2. Clients and overhead traffic still reasonably fast
3. Retries are low 24 Mbps

Beyond that point, clients should be able to get to another AP

if they want to.
STA3 STA1
On the right:
STA1 and STA2 hear each other -> less collisions
STA 1 and STA2 send @ 54 Mb/s -> short delays
STA3 is far from AP -> lower data rate (longer transmission delay),
higher PER and loss risks
STA3 does not hear STA1 and STA2 -> higher collision risk STA2

48
SoWhat Should Your Minimum Signal Level Be?
Multiple measurements show a sweet spot by -67 dBm:
802.11n client still communicates at 72 Mbps (MCS 7)

Management/control frames still sent fast (24 Mbps)

But you start seeing devices (here the AP) dropping rate because signal starts to degrade

What minimum configured data rate is that? Depends

49
But it is not Because You Decide that The Cell
Should Stop There, That It Will

Clients will stay connected until they decide to roam

unless your minimum data rate does not allow them to
stay below -67 dBm

50
Hand and Phone Position Affect Signal

Signal Attenuation
Object in Signal Path Through Object
Plasterboard wall 3 dB
Glass wall with metal frame 6 dB
Cinderblock wall 4 dB
Office window 3 dB There can be a 20 dB difference
Metal door 6 dB between these photos
Metal door in brick wall 12 dB

Phone and body position 3 - 6 dB

Phone near field absorption Up to 15 dB

Big Hands are Okay if Your Design is Clever
-67 dBm

AP
AP

-67 20 = -87 dBm

Signal is too weak
But you can roam to the other AP @ -67 dBm!
BTW, where do you put an antenna on a BYOD?
Head not good
Iphone 5,
Antenna is at
bottom

Hand not good Samsung S5, antenna

is at bottom, behind button
HTC One, whole
back cover is metal and
antenna

54
IOS 8 / 9 Devices Expected? Adjust the Cell Edge
IOS 8 / 9 Scans when AP signal falls below -70 dBm
2.4 GHz signal, at same distance from the AP, is commonly 7 dB better than 5 GHz signal
IOS8 is supposed to roam to next BSSID only if its signal is at least 8 dB better than previous one
(this in theory avoid the 5 GHz to 2.4 GHz poor roaming behavior)
BUT measurement sensitivity uncertainty in mass silicon is 3 to 4 dB*
To limit roaming, limit the SSID to one band (5 GHz if possible). With dual-band SSIDs, expect
frequent 5 Ghz -> 2.4 GHz roams - 70 dBm for 5 GHz,
-61 dBm for 2.4 GHz,
This behavior also forces Iphone roams from 5
same SSID
GHz to 2.4 GHz, same
cell edge at -65 dBm AP, same SSID AP
and 15-20% overlap

* This means that your Iphone can show -70 dBm for the AP, while my Iphone at exact same position can show between -68 and -72. Measure next
day on your Iphone and you may also see anything between -68 and -72
 Android? Use Probe as Happiness Index
Samsung S6 when idle and not associated (baseline)
131.3s cycle
Interval
between
probes
66.6s after 6th

Time
 Determining Android Probing Behavior if You Have
Some Time
Try to determine when your BYOD gets to the edge of the cell (from its perspective): at that time, it will start
probing repeatedly to find the next AP
When at the edge of the cell, and idle (or moving with AP signal at low level), S5 settles to a 10.4 s cycle
When you observe this kind of behavior change, you know that there is the edge of your cell

Reached the edge of the cell,

10.4 s cycle
 Determining Android Probing Behavior if You DO

NOT Have Time

Best case scenario: you have primarily on type of BYOD, and it is a major brand: its behavior might be
documented : http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/wireless/controller/technotes/8-
0/device_classification_guide.html
Worst case scenario: you have all sorts of BYODs, or a minor brand: assume roaming when AP RSSI
reaches -70 dBm (from the BYOD perspective). Compare the below to a test device:
Model EIRP 2.4 GHz Worst* EIRP 5 Survival rule: 6 dB difference
GHz halves the distance
Iphone 6 14.5 dBm 10.2 dBm
Ipad 4 15.2 dBm 22.67 dBm
Nexus 6 14.8 dBm 11.1 dBm Received signal = X
LG G3 12.05 dBm 11.24 dBm
d 2d Distance
Samsung S5 13.4 dBm 10.61 dBm I know I will get 6 dB less at d
HTC One M8 14.4 dBm 13.8 dBm
Nokia Lumia 1520 13.1 dBm 11.6 dBm
PC (e.g. ASUS PCE- 22 dBm 22.83 dBm
AC66)
* EIRP varies with sub-band, displaying worst of all sub-bands
Reminder About Rates Configuration
Each SSID will advertise at the
minimum mandatory data rate
Disabled not available to a client
Supported available to an associated client
Mandatory Client must support in order to
associate
Lowest mandatory rate is beacon rate
Highest mandatory rate is default Mcast rate

59
Disable 802.11b but not 802.11n Low Rates!

Many BYODs rely on the beacon to validate that the AP is still there (and sync
their clock)

Many BYODs also ignore AP instructions about supported 802.11n rates

(disable them, and your client talks at a speed the AP will ignore)
In Standard Density Environment,
Stop Your Cell @ -67 dBm

When power is @ 11 or 14 dBm, this is about 12 Mbps*

Everything below 12 Mbps is disabled (but NOT 802.11n low rates)
First allowed rate (12 Mbps) is mandatory

*Small prints: supposing a decently clean RF environment, 10% max retries, no loss.
 Cell size strategies
In HIGH density environment, also stop your cell
@ -67 dBm.
Power is usually low, 14 dBm or lower
Cells are smaller than in standard density environment
Roaming occurs faster
Rate @ -67 dBm is more commonly 24 Mbps
You want to allow your client to roam at that point
-> 24 Mbps is set to Mandatory (below 24 Mbps, client
does not hear the beacons and typically scans to find
alternate AP)
You still want the client to communicate with the AP
while getting into panic scan
Set lower rates (18, 12 Mbps) to Supported
 Disable Slow rates, and maybe fast rates!
For Voice, rates faster than 24 Mbps do not bring any clear advantages

Time Time Time

Codec & Bit consumption consumption consumption per
Rate per voice per voice flow voice flow
flow at 1 Mb/s at 24 Mb/s at 54 Mb/s

G.711 (64 Kb/s) 102.4 ms 9.45 ms 6.49 ms

G.729 (8 Kb/s) 46.4 ms 6.27 ms 5.20 ms

G.726 (32 Kb/s) 70.4 ms 7.27 ms 5.64 ms

G.728 (16 Kb/s) 42.43 ms 4.72 ms 3.74 ms

Time consumption = SLOT + DIFS + (voice packet + headers) x speed x (number of packets per second) + SIFS + ACK
 Faster Rates DO Have an Impact on Rate Shifting
200 byte frame @ 54 Mbps is sent in 3.7 s
200 byte frame @ 24 Mbps is sent in 8.3 s
Rate shifting from 54 Mbps to 24 Mbps wastes 1100 s
(65 times longer to send the next frame), in ideal (no congestion) conditions

24 Mbps 36 Mbps
36 Mbps 24 Mbps
48 Mbps
54 Mbps 54 Mbps
20 MHz? 40 MHz? 80 MHz?
98% of Devices are 802.11n, 45% 802.11ac
What about YOUR network?
If network is already deployed, capture traffic
at different times and observe
Example: large airport on US East Coast,
last month
12 captures of 10 minutes each at different
times / days, with wireshark display rates
20 MHz rates

In this network, enabling 40 MHz is a waste 40 MHz rates

66
 Rates Recommendations So Far
Disable low rates
If your real time applications are Voice only,
disable rates higher than 24 Mbps, and set
channels to 20 MHz
If your real time applications are Voice AND
Video, then you need higher rates
In 5 GHz, set channels to 40 MHz if your clients
support 40 MHz
Leave all 802.11n / ac rates enabled (if your
clients support 802.11n and 802.11ac)

67
 Chapter 2:
Taking Care of the Roaming Path
 Where do You Need Coverage?
Talk to end-users. Think what they will need and when, look for roaming paths
 AP Placement Guidelines
Avoid metallic objects that can affect the signal to your clients
 AP Placement Bad Examples
Issue is sometimes in the environment

Ceiling is highly reflective

metallic mesh

AP behind ceiling
(yes they did that)
 AP Placement Bad Examples
AP too high:
Low rate to the ground
Client signal too weak at the AP level

Nice but you wont cover the

jetway as soon as the door closes > 20ft
 Radiation Pattern and Roaming Buffer
When users are expected to roam while communicating, make sure
their BYOD can detect neighboring APs BEFORE roaming

AP signal drops slowly

AP signal drops fast

User does not have much space/time

to find the next AP Floor
Directional vs omnidirectional antenna
 Rates and Cell Overlap
Cell overlap is designed so that when a VoWLAN device gets to the
67 dBm area, it is already in good range of another access point.
20-percent overlap between cells is recommended
How much is that? Use the -75 dBm rule (or 1.4 radius) if you are not
sure.
Strategically Position Your Transition Aps
At A the phone is connected to AP 1
At B the phone has AP 2 in the neighbor
1 2
A B list, AP 3 has not yet been scanned due
to the RF shadow caused by the elevator
C bank

3 At C the phone needs to roam, but AP 2

is the only AP in the neighbor list
The phone then needs to rescan and
connect to AP 3
200 B frame @ 54 Mbps is sent in 3.7 s
200 B frame @ 24 Mbps is sent in 8.3 s
Rate shifting from 54 Mbps to 24 Mbps can
waste 1100 s
84
Strategically Position Your Transition APs
At point A the phone is connected to
1 AP 1
B 2 At point B the phone has AP 2 in the
A
neighbor list as it was able to scan it
while moving down the hall
C
At point C the phone needs to roam
and successfully selects AP 2
The phone has sufficient time to scan
3 for AP 3 ahead of time

85
 Controller Redundancy and Roaming Paths
Design expected roaming paths and make sure all APs connect to the same
controller, and overlap allows for next AP discovery
Avoid Ping Pong Zones

Client stays here

Ping-pong effect occurs when a wireless client is at the edge of two cells
and hops between them.
Avoid Ping Pong Zones
Ping Pong zone recipe:
Set overlap along pacing path
Let user head force the roam

Pacing back and forth zone

 Chapter 3:
Optimizations
Useful Cell vs RF Cell Edges

RF
edge

24 Mbps OFDM
36 Mbps OFDM
48 Mbps OFDM
54 Mbps OFDM
 -101 dBm point, can receive 1 Mbps

Get RF Help From Cisco RX-SOP

-91 dBm point, can receive 1 Mbps

Ol 802.11abg AP 802.11ac AP

Signal beyond is noise

Signal beyond is noise
 Auto
Low
Cisco RX-SOP Medium
High

Allows you to regulate the size of your

cell and set receive edge barrier
Key differentiator in High Density 802.11ac AP

environment

Higher Rx-Sop Threshold = Smaller Cell Size = Better spectrum re-use

 Think BANDWIDTH in Terms of Directions
In a standard cell, 50% of traffic is downstream (from AP to client), 50% is
upstream
We can definitely control downstream, especially as 802.11n/ac stations are
necessarily WMM
Can we control the upstream? Not directly, but we may have an indirect way of
controlling it

I decide, alone,
when to send (thank
Dont you CSMA/CA)
send!
 Control Upstream and Downstream Bandwidth
Consumption
Per QoS Profile (Gold etc.)
Per SSID
Per user type (guest etc)
Per device type
Per individual user

100
Set your WLAN QoS

101
Use Application Visibility and Control
Dont Allow

Voice
Client Traffic Video
Best-Effort
Background
Rate Limiting

Identify Applications using NBAR2

Control Application Behavior

106
 802.11k,v: Send your BYOD to the Next (Better) Cell
802.11k Neighbor List vs 802.11v BSS Transition Management
Need to roam, what AP do
What could
my next AP be?
you recommend? 802.11v Solicited request

Try this one

Here are the
best 6 for you
Your RSSI / rates are too
low, roam to there instead

802.11k neighbor list Want to join your cell

Nah, load too high, go there

802.11v Unsolicited
instead Optimized Roaming request

802.11v Unsolicited request

 802.11r (FT): Speed Up Roaming Credentials
WARNING: 802.11r is different from pure WPA2

MDIE, PMKID + WPA2 MDIE, PMKID + WPA2

Cisco ClientLink:
Improves Downlink Performance
ClientLink 3.0 Beamforming
Improved Performance For All Clients
802.11a/g/n/ac

1SS 1SS 2SS 3SS

Boost signal strength as you move for

802.11a/g/n/ac clients
MRC performs on the upstream at the AP level
MRC In Action
What you miss on one chain is captured on the other chain

Combined Effect (Adding

all Rx Paths)

3 Antennas Rx Signals
 BandSelect Test Before Full Deployment
Caveat Possible Increased Roaming Delay 2.4G band

No Delay 5G band

Some Delay
(1.5s)

Possible Delay
 Optimized Roaming- help for clients that are not so
smart.
Without Smart Roaming Cisco Smart Roaming

Weak Wi-Fi -85dB -80dB -80dB

Signal

-80dB
Overall Drop
In Cell
Performance

Consistent User Efficient Cell

Experience Usage

Client Stickiness
Causes Poor
User Experience
3G or
4G
Last Words
You Did Your Best, But Good Design Cannot
Compensate For Everything

128
 Troubleshooting Tools
Wireless Captures, RF Analysis, Configuration Analysis
Wireless sniffer
Omnipeek/Wireshark (multichannel, for roaming issues)
Mac with OS X 10.6 and above, Windows 7 with Netmon 3.4
AP in Sniffer mode

L1 analysis: SpectrumExpert
WLCCA (WLC Configuration Analyzer) TAC support
Cisco Prime Infrastructure for Historical view
and Client Troubleshooting tool
Support Community
https://supportforums.cisco.com/community/5771/wireless-ip-voice-and-video
Thank you