Users Guide

122 | Access Points Dell PowerConnect ArubaOS 5.0 | [User Guide
Drop Broadcast and
Multicast
Select the Drop Broadcast and Multicast checkbox to filter out broadcast and multicast traffic in
the air.
Do not enable this option for virtual APs configured in bridge forwarding mode. This configuration
parameter is only intended for use for virtual APs in tunnel mode. In tunnel mode, all packets travel
to the controller, so the controller is able to drop all broadcast traffic. When a virtual AP is
configured to use bridge forwarding mode, most data traffic stays local to the AP, and the
controller is not able to filter out that broadcast traffic.
IMPORTANT: If you enable this option, you must also enable the Broadcast-Filter ARP parameter in
the stateful firewall configuration to prevent ARP requests from being dropped. To enable this
setting:
1. Navigate to Configuration > Stateful Firewall.
2. Click the Global Setting tab.
3. Select the Broadcast-Filter ARP checkbox.
4. Click Apply to save your settings before you return to the Virtual AP Profile.
Note also that although a virtual AP profile can be replicated from a master controller to local
controllers, stateful firewall settings do not. If you select the Drop Broadcast and Multicast option
for a Virtual AP Profile on a master controller, you must enable the Broadcast-Filter ARP setting on
each individual local controller.
Convert Broadcast ARP
requests to unicast
If enabled, all broadcast ARP requests are converted to unicast and sent directly to the client. You
can check the status of this option using the show ap active and the show datapath tunnel
command. If enabled, the output will display the letter a in the flags column. This parameter is
disabled by default.
Do not enable this option for virtual APs configured in bridge forwarding mode. This configuration
parameter is only intended for use for virtual APs in tunnel mode. In tunnel mode, all packets travel
to the controller, so the controller is able to convert ARP requests directed to the broadcast
address into unicast.
When a virtual AP is configured to use bridge forwarding mode, most data traffic stays local to the
AP, and the controller is not able to convert that broadcast traffic.
Band Steering ARM’s band steering feature encourages dual-band capable clients to stay on the 5GHz band on
dual-band APs. This frees up resources on the 2.4GHz band for single band clients like VoIP
phones.
Band steering reduces co-channel interference and increases available bandwidth for dual-band
clients, because there are more channels on the 5GHz band than on the 2.4GHz band. Dual-band
802.11n-capable clients may see even greater bandwidth improvements, because the band
steering feature will automatically select between 40MHz or 20MHz channels in 802.11n networks.
This feature is disabled by default, and must be enabled in a Virtual AP profile.
The band steering feature supports both campus APs and remote APs that have a virtual AP profile
set to tunnel, split-tunnel or bridge forwarding mode. Note, however, that if a campus or remote
APs has virtual AP profiles configured in bridge or split-tunnel forwarding mode but no virtual AP in
tunnel mode, those APs will gather information about 5G-capable clients independently and will
not exchange this information with other APs that also have bridge or split-tunnel virtual APs only.
You must enable the Local Probe Response parameter in the Wireless LAN SSID profile for the
SSID that requires band steering to use the Band Steering feature.
To enable the local probe response parameter:
1. Select the SSID profile associated with the Virtual AP profile.
2. Click the SSID profile Advanced tab.
3. Select the Local Probe Response checkbox.
4. Click Apply to save your settings before you return to the Virtual AP profile.
Table 27 Virtual AP Profile Parameters
Parameter Description