Also don't forget that many clients use beacons to determine if the network they're connected to still exists. I've seen plenty of cases where a client that misses a number of beacons starts to wig out (that's the technical term). Increasing your beacon interval is just asking for trouble in my opinion. Having said that, management overhead (especially at low data rates) can certainly contribute to high Channel Utilization. If you've already trimmed your low data rates, it could be an interesting exercise to go through for additional information. I wouldn't advocate leaving your beacon interval deviated from stock, but if you increased your interval (say, three fold) and your Channel Utilization issues go away, it *could* be extrapolated that you have three times too many APs (assuming an otherwise healthy design/network with a low number of SSIDs).
Remember folks, there is such a thing as too much RF and in the edu space, this occurs quite commonly due to the One AP per Classroom mis-design advice that was making the rounds some time ago... -Sam On Thu, May 26, 2016 at 7:40 PM, Britton Anderson <[email protected]> wrote: > Hey Craig, > > It really depends on how dense your environment is. Keep in mind, the > longer your beacon interval, the slower the roaming time clients take > between APs. In my mind, the overhead that beacons introduce is far less of > an issue than mobile clients dropping connections when they're roaming > through the network. Especially considering the vast majority of cell > carriers using WiFi calling now. > > --Britton > > > > Britton Anderson <[email protected]> | Senior Network > Communications Specialist | University of Alaska > <http://www.alaska.edu/oit> | 907.450.8250 > > On Thu, May 26, 2016 at 4:16 PM, Craig Simons <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Hello Group, >> >> On most vendor products that I’ve seen, the beacon intervals for SSIDs by >> default are set to ~100ms. Has anyone gone to the lengths of increasing >> this default in an effort to combat overhead? >> >> - Craig >> >> >> >> SFU SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY >> Network Services >> >> Craig Simons >> Network Operations Manager >> >> Phone: 778-782-8036 >> Cell: 604-649-7977 >> Email: [email protected] >> Twitter: simonscraig <http://www.twitter.com/simonscraig> >> >> >> >> >> ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE >> Constituent Group discussion list can be found at >> http://www.educause.edu/groups/. >> >> > ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE > Constituent Group discussion list can be found at > http://www.educause.edu/groups/. > > ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/.
