Wireless/Redundant Edge Services xl Module Management and Configuration Guide WS.02.xx and greater

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Radio Port Configuration
Configuring Radio Settings
The basic rates are rates for which RP radios advertise support. A radio uses
and allows stations to use basic rates for:
■ management frames
■ broadcast frames
■ multicast frames
Such frames are sent to all stations associated to a basic service set (BSS);
therefore, if an RP is to support 802.11b stations, it must use only the rates
(1, 2, 5.5, and 11 Mbps) supported by those slower stations.
If an 802.11bg radio does not need to support 802.11b stations, you can set the
basic rates to g only rates (for example, 6, 12 and 24). The higher data rates
for management and broadcast traffic can improve performance in the wire-
less network. They also prevent the 802.11b stations from associating to the
RP radio and slowing the network. Such a setting is sometimes called 802.11g
only mode.
To select basic data rates for newly adopted radios of a particular type,
complete these steps:
1. Access the Rate Settings screen for the radio type:
a. Select Network Setup > Radio Adoption Defaults and click the Configu-
ration tab.
b. Select the radio type and click the Edit button.
c. Click the Rate Settings button.
2. In the Basic Rates column, check the boxes next to the data rates that
radios should use for management, broadcast, and multicast traffic.
By default, the station supports both 802.11b and 802.11g stations with
basic rates 1, 2, 5.5, and 11.
To configure Wi-Fi g-only or pure-g mode on an 802.11bg radio, deselect
1, 2, 5.5, and 11 and select 6, 12, and 24.
3. Configure supported rates, as described below, or finish configuring rate
settings by clicking the OK button.
The supported rates are data rates that the radio will allow for all other traffic.
The radio automatically selects the most efficient rate to a station based on
factors such as error rate and the distance to that station.
Basic rates are automatically included as supported rates, but you can configure
additional data rates. The additional rates allow stations that support higher
data rates to actually use them, possibly improving network performance.