Duplicate SSIDs Across APs are Causing SSIDs to Drop In and Out

[danwelsh112]

Setup:

• 3 APs (AP 7532, WiNG 5.9.2)
• Three WLANs setup on each AP - Same SSIDs across all APs
• All WLANs are on 5GHz radio - 2.4 GHz Radio is OFF
• Each radio across APs is on a different channel on 40 MHz Band - 36, 44, 126
• Load balancing enabled on each WLAN
• No Virtual Controller settings are enabled on any AP - Enable Auto Election of VC is OFF

Issue:

With load balancing enabled, we can see that our devices are continually switching APs and disassociating and associating. When monitoring the SSIDs, we can see that the SSIDs are available for a few minutes (long enough to successfully associate), but then after a couple minutes, they will no longer be available for a few seconds (i.e.long enough for the device to disconnect).

Issue seems to be happening on the AP side. We made each of the SSIDs across the APs unique, and we no longer had this problem. SSIDs remained consistently stable and available to the devices.

Question:

Is there a certain configuration or setting we are missing that is necessary to properly enable load balancing across APs, all of which have the same SSIDs?

[Richard_Augusto]

Native VLAN 1 Tagged?

[Christopher_Fra]

Hello Dan,
The config does show 2 APs, but mint mlcp ip and vlan are disabled, so right now, the APs will not see each other via mint.

As previously detailed, VC will need to be enabled on one of the APs and please remove the control-vlan xxxx from the rf-domain (This setting is not applicable for stand-alone and/or VC deployment).

Also advise upgrading to v5.9.3.1 for AP75xx deployments.

[danwelsh112]

Hi Christopher!

Thank you for the additional information!

We do seem to have a controller. When we log into one of our APs, it does indeed list our two other APs as neighbors and show their information/statistics/client count. This was accomplished though without having any adoption settings enabled or Virtual Controller elections enabled.

· Load-balancing group-id (on each AP // the same ID) - all on Group ID 1
· Client-load-balancing (on WLANs) - enabled across all SSIDs
· Load-balancing balance-ap-loads (on each AP) - enabled on each profile on each AP


When all of our SSIDs are up, load balancing seems to work as expected. The biggest issue we are facing is with the SSIDs themselves. Now that we have three APs all with the same WLANs and SSIDs in the same area, our SSIDs seem to drop from service periodically. They always come back up, but at different time intervals.

Here is an example of our configuration:

!
! Configuration of AP7532 version 5.9.2.0-032R
!
!
version 2.5
!
!
client-identity-group default
load default-fingerprints
!
alias network-service $tcp proto tcp 1-65535 sourceport 80 proto tcp 80 sourceport 1-65535
!
alias network-service $udp proto udp 1-65535 sourceport 1-65535
!
ip access-list BROADCAST-MULTICAST-CONTROL
permit tcp any any rule-precedence 10 rule-description "permit all TCP traffic"
permit udp any eq 67 any eq dhcpc rule-precedence 11 rule-description "permit DHCP replies"
deny udp any range 137 138 any range 137 138 rule-precedence 20 rule-description "deny windows netbios"
deny ip any 224.0.0.0/4 rule-precedence 21 rule-description "deny IP multicast"
deny ip any host 255.255.255.255 rule-precedence 22 rule-description "deny IP local broadcast"
permit ip any any rule-precedence 100 rule-description "permit all IP traffic"
!
mac access-list PERMIT-ARP-AND-IPv4
permit any any type ip rule-precedence 10 rule-description "permit all IPv4 traffic"
permit any any type arp rule-precedence 20 rule-description "permit all ARP traffic"
!
ip snmp-access-list default
permit any
!
schedule-policy ALL
description FOREVERRRRRRR
time-rule days all
!
application App_DT3
description DT3
use network-service $udp
use network-service $tcp
!
application App_DT1
description DT1
use network-service $udp
use network-service $tcp
!
application-policy AppPolicy_DT3
description DT3
enforcement-time days all
mark app-category all 8021p 3 schedule ALL precedence 1
!
application-policy AppPolicy_DT1
description DT1
enforcement-time days all
mark app-category all 8021p 5 schedule ALL precedence 1
!
firewall-policy default
no ip dos tcp-sequence-past-window
dhcp-offer-convert
no alg ftp
no alg tftp
!
!
mint-policy global-default
!
meshpoint-qos-policy default
!
wlan-qos-policy DT3_Internet
no wmm power-save
classification non-unicast normal
qos trust dscp
qos trust wmm
!
wlan-qos-policy DeviceType2
classification voice
classification non-unicast voice
voice-prioritization
qos trust dscp
qos trust wmm
!
wlan-qos-policy DeviceType1
classification non-wmm video
no wmm power-save
multicast-mask primary XX-XX-XX-XX-XX-XX/FF-FF-FF-FF-FF-00
classification non-unicast video
voice-prioritization
qos trust dscp
qos trust wmm
accelerated-multicast autodetect classification video
!
wlan-qos-policy default
no wmm power-save
classification non-unicast normal
qos trust dscp
qos trust wmm
!
radio-qos-policy default
accelerated-multicast max-streams 50
accelerated-multicast client-timeout 5900
!
wlan "DT3 Internet Test"
description DT3 Internet
ssid WAP_3_50_DT3
vlan XXX
bridging-mode local
encryption-type none
authentication-type none
no client-client-communication
wpa-wpa2 psk 0 TEST4321
client-load-balancing
wireless-client count-per-radio 250
use wlan-qos-policy DT3_Internet
no ipv6 nd header-mismatch-validation
use application-policy AppPolicy_DT3
!
wlan DeviceType2
description DeviceType2
ssid WAP_3_50_DT2
vlan XXX
bridging-mode local
encryption-type none
authentication-type none
no client-client-communication
no radio-resource-measurement channel-report
wpa-wpa2 psk 0 1234TEST
wireless-client count-per-radio 5
use wlan-qos-policy DeviceType2
no ipv6 nd header-mismatch-validation
!
wlan Company_Wi-Fi_C1R1
description Public SSID
ssid WAP_3_24
vlan XXX
bridging-mode local
encryption-type none
authentication-type none
no client-client-communication
wireless-client inactivity-timeout 600
wpa-wpa2 psk 0 TESTEST
wireless-client tx-power 4
client-load-balancing
!
wlan Company_Wi-Fi_C1R2
description Test_Conf_1_1_5G
ssid WAP_3_50
vlan XXX
bridging-mode local
encryption-type none
authentication-type none
no client-client-communication
wireless-client inactivity-timeout 600
wpa-wpa2 psk 0 TEST1234
wireless-client tx-power 4
client-load-balancing
use wlan-qos-policy DeviceType1
use application-policy AppPolicy_DT1
!
smart-rf-policy default
!
wips-policy default
!
radius-server-policy default
!
dhcp-server-policy default
!
!
management-policy default
no telnet
no http server
https server
rest-server
ssh
!
event-system-policy default
!
l2tpv3 policy default
!
location-policy Airplane
!
profile ap7532 default-ap7532
use enterprise-ui
no mint mlcp vlan
no mint mlcp ip
no mint mlcp ipv6
no ip igmp snooping forward-unknown-multicast
ip igmp snooping querier
ip igmp snooping querier max-response-time 20
ip igmp snooping querier robustness-variable 3
no ipv6 mld snooping forward-unknown-multicast
no ip domain-lookup
no autoinstall configuration
no autoinstall firmware
no device-upgrade auto
load-balancing advanced-params max-neighbors 2
load-balancing advanced-params hiwater-threshold ap 3
load-balancing balance-ap-loads
load-balancing group-id 1
crypto ikev1 policy ikev1-default
isakmp-proposal default encryption aes-256 group 2 hash sha
crypto ikev2 policy ikev2-default
isakmp-proposal default encryption aes-256 group 2 hash sha
crypto ipsec transform-set default esp-aes-256 esp-sha-hmac
crypto ikev1 remote-vpn
crypto ikev2 remote-vpn
crypto auto-ipsec-secure
crypto load-management
crypto remote-vpn-client
interface radio1
shutdown
channel 6
power 12
wlan Company_Wi-Fi_C1R1 bss 1 primary
rifs none
aggregation ampdu max-aggr-size tx 2000
probe-response rate lowest-basic
interface radio2
channel 149w
power 30
beacon period 50
beacon dtim-period 1
wlan Company_Wi-Fi_C1R2 bss 1 primary
wlan "DT3 Internet Test" bss 2 primary
wlan DeviceType2 bss 3 primary
rifs none
aggregation ampdu max-aggr-size tx 2000
probe-response rate lowest-basic
no dfs-rehome
interface ge1
switchport mode trunk
switchport trunk allowed vlan 1-XXXX
switchport trunk native vlan XXX
switchport trunk native tagged
no ipv6 nd raguard
ip arp trust
no ipv6 dhcpv6 trust
no cdp receive
no cdp transmit
no lldp receive
no lldp transmit
interface vlanXXX
description DT1
ip address 192.168.100.100/24
interface vlanXXX
description Management
ip address 192.168.200.100/24
ipv6 enable
interface vlanXXXX
description Internal
ip address 192.168.300.100/24
interface pppoe1
use event-system-policy default
use firewall-policy default
ntp server 192.168.100.101
rf-domain-manager capable
no ip dhcp client hostname
logging on
logging buffered informational
logging syslog informational
no events forward on
no logging forward
controller vlan XXX
no cdp run
no lldp run
no ip routing
service pm sys-restart
router ospf
no ipv6 unicast-routing
dpi
dpi custom-app App_DT1
adoption-mode controller
!
rf-domain default
location Ground
contact Company
timezone America/Montreal
country-code us
control-vlan XXX
!
ap7532 B8-50-01-72-0E-2C
use profile default-ap7532
use rf-domain default
hostname ap7532-720E2C
!
ap7532 B8-50-01-72-19-A0
use profile default-ap7532
use rf-domain default
hostname ap7532-7219A0
!
!
end

[Christopher_Fra]

Hello Dan,
The following link is an article pertaining to WiNG 5 AP Load Balancing:

AP Load Balancing