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:

1. 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.

2. 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:

1. WLC# set ap apnum high-latency-mode {enable | disable}

Use the above command to explicitly specify any of the correct AP number.

2. 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.