Bandwidth and latency are two elements that affect network speed. Latency refers to delays typically encountered when network data is processed. A low latency network connection is one that has short delay times, whereas a high latency network typically encounters long delays.
This article talks about the new mode available in WLA/WLC that can be used to mitigate the association problems that may be encountered due to network latency.
When a wireless client attempts to connect and maintain a connection to a Wireless LAN Accesspoint (WLA) with the Wireless LAN Controller (WLC) located in a high-latency network, the client association may fail on the network. This may happen for two reasons:
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The wireless client may be waiting for a response from the WLA. Because the WLA forwards requests to the WLC, the client may time out due to the significant roundtrip delay between the WLA and WLC.
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The WLC may be waiting for a response from the client. Because the roundtrip delay is significant, the WLC may time out before the response is returned to the client.
To resolve this issue, a new feature known as the high latency mode has been made available, which allows you to configure attributes that can mitigate the association problems on a high latency network. This feature introduces the following commands:
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WLC# set ap apnum high-latency-mode {enable | disable}
Use the above command to explicitly specify any of the correct AP number.
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WLC# set ap auto high-latency-mode {enable | disable}
Use the above command to have all the APs join the WLC automatically.

The show
command output now includes a field to indicate whether high latency is enabled or not:

2020-10-10: Archived article.