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You can configure aggressive load balancing only from the command-line interface.
Aggressive load balancing is disabled by default, you must enable it manually.
You can enable load balancing either separately or together with the band select configurations.
When the band select is enabled on the dual-band clients, the load balancing parameter selects only the lowest load radio from 5-GHz radios. For the 2.4-GHz clients, there is no probe information of the client on 5 GHz and therefore the load balancing algorithm can only be selected between radio on 2.4 GHz.
You can operate load balancing of clients between access points on the same switch but not for the clients between access points on the different switch.
The load balancing uses an existing association denial mechanism based on the number of client on the radio and the band select is implemented by the distributed probe response suppression on the access point only.
Information for Configuring Aggressive Load Balancing Parameters
Enabling aggressive load balancing on the controller allows lightweight access points to load balance wireless clients across access points. You can enable aggressive load balancing using the controller.
When a wireless client attempts to associate to a lightweight access point, association response packets are sent to the client with an 802.11 response packet including status code 17. The code 17 indicates that the AP is busy. The AP responds with an association response bearing 'success' if the AP threshold is not met, and with code 17 (AP busy) if the AP utilization threshold is reached or exceeded and another less busy AP heard the client request.
For example, if the number of clients on AP1 is more than the number of clients on AP2 plus the load-balancing window, then AP1 is considered to be busier than AP2. When a client attempts to associate to AP1, it receives an 802.11 response packet with status code 17, indicating that the access point is busy, and the client attempts to associate to a different access point.
You can configure the controller to deny client associations up to 10 times (if a client attempted to associate 11 times, it would be allowed to associate on the 11th try). You can also enable or disable load balancing on a particular WLAN, which is useful if you want to disable load balancing for a select group of clients (such as time-sensitive voice clients).
The maximum number of client associations differs for lightweight and autonomous Cisco IOS access points.
There may be a limit per radio and an overall limit per AP.
AP hardware (the 16-MB APs have a lower limit than the 32-MB and higher APs)
For 16-MB APs, the limit is 128 clients per AP. This limit is applicable to 1100 and 1200 series APs.
For 32-MB and higher APs, there is no per-AP limit.
 Note |
With 32-MB and higher lightweight Cisco IOS APs, with two radios, up to 200 + 200 = 400 associations are supported. |
AP model (whether it is 16 MB or 32 MB or higher)
Cisco IOS software release
Hardware configuration (two radios use more memory than one)
Enabled features (WDS functionality in particular)
The per-radio limit is about 200 associations. One association will likely hit the per-AP limit first. Unlike Cisco Unified Wireless Network, autonomous Cisco IOS supports per-SSID/per-AP association limits. This limit is configured using the max-associations CLI, under dot11 SSID. The maximum number is 255 associations (which is also the default number).
Note |
For a FlexConnect AP the association is locally handled. The load-balancing decisions are taken at the Cisco WLC. A FlexConnect AP initially responds to the client before knowing the result of calculations at the Cisco WLC. Load-balancing doesn't take effect when the FlexConnect AP is in standalone mode. FlexConnect AP does not send (re)association response with status 17 for Load-Balancing as Local mode APs do; instead, it first sends (re)association with status 0 (success) and then deauth with reason 5. |
How to Configure Aggressive Load Balancing
| Command or Action | Purpose | |
|---|---|---|
| Step 1 |
configure terminal Example: |
Enters global configuration mode. |
| Step 2 |
wireless load-balancing window client-count Example: |
Sets the client window for aggressive load balancing. You can enter a value between 0 and 20 for the client_count parameter. |
| Step 3 |
wireless load-balancing denial denial-count Example: |
Sets the denial count for load balancing. You can enter a value between 0 and 10 for the denial_count parameter. |
| Step 4 |
end Example: |
Returns to privileged EXEC mode. Alternatively, you can also press Ctrl-Z to exit global configuration mode. |
| Step 5 |
wlan wlan_profile_name wlan_ID SSID_network_name load-balance Example: |
Enables or disables aggressive load balancing on specific WLANs. You can enter a value between 1 and 512 for the wlan_ID parameter. You can enter the up to 32 alphanumeric characters for SSID_network_name parameter. |
| Step 6 |
end Example: |
Returns to privileged EXEC mode. Alternatively, you can also press Ctrl-Z to exit global configuration mode. |
This section describes the new command for aggressive load balancing.
The following command can be used to monitor aggressive load balancing on the switch.
|
Command |
Purpose |
| show wireless load-balancing |
Displays the status of the load-balancing feature. |
Switch# configure terminal
Switch(config)# wireless load-balancing denial-count 1
Switch(config)# end
Switch# show wireless load-balancing
Switch# configure terminal
Switch(config)# wireless load-balancing window 1
Switch(config)# end
Switch# show wireless load-balancing
Switch# configure terminal
Switch(config)# wlan wlan1 25 ssid12
Switch(config-wlan)# load-balance
Switch(config)# end
Switch# show wireless load-balancing
| Related Topic | Document Title |
|---|---|
| System management commands |
System Management Command Reference Guide, Cisco IOS XE Release 3SE (Cisco WLC 5700 Series) |
| Standard/RFC | Title |
|---|---|
| None |
— |
| MIB | MIBs Link |
|---|---|
| All supported MIBs for this release. |
To locate and download MIBs for selected platforms, Cisco IOS releases, and feature sets, use Cisco MIB Locator found at the following URL: |
| Description | Link |
|---|---|
|
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| Release | Feature Information |
|---|---|
| Cisco IOS XE 3.2SECisco IOS XE 3.2SECisco IOS XE 3.3SE | This feature was introduced. |
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