Specifications

Summit WM Technical Reference Guide, Software Version 5.3 129
15 DRM – Dynamic Radio Management
The performance and reliability of a WLAN network is becoming increasingly important as more and
more applications are switching from wired to wireless, which places more users into the same wireless
space. In addition, WLAN applications have expanded to include VoIP, real-time, and mission-critical
services that place extra demands on network performance and reliability. Under normal circumstances,
i.e. proper wired infrastructure with proper QoS settings, the quality of the RF environment actually
determines the performance of the WLAN network.
● Automatic Channel Selection (ACS)
● Automatic Transmit Power Control (ATPC)
● Dynamic Channel Selection (DCS)
For more information on how to use these features, see the following:
● Summit WM User Guide
● Summit WM Solutions Guide
Automatic Channel Selection (ACS) overview
ACS provides an easy way to optimize the channel arrangement based on the current situation in the
field. ACS relies on the RF environment measurements as seen by the Altitude AP, and therefore it is
more accurate than any other method. However, it is very important to understand and avoid its
limitations.
ACS provides an optimal solution only if it is triggered on all Wireless APs in a deployment. Triggering
ACS on a single Wireless AP or on a subset of Wireless APs provides a useful, but suboptimal, solution.
Also, ACS only relies on the information observed at the time it is triggered and does not take into
account the history or the future RF environment. Once a Wireless AP has selected a channel, it will
remain operating on that channel until the user changes the channel or triggers ACS.
ACS can be triggered by one of the following events:
● A new Wireless AP registers with the Summit WM Controller and the Altitude AP default settings
for Channel is Auto.
● A user clicks Auto in the Request New Channel drop-down list on the radio properties tabs of the
Summit WM GUI.
● The user clicks Auto in the Channel drop-down list on the AP Multi-edit page.
● An Altitude AP detects radar on its current operating channel, which triggers ACS to select a new
channel.
● DCS detects the current channel is no longer usable which triggers ACS to select a new channel.
ACS operates independently on the two radios of an Altitude AP; when ACS is simultaneously
triggered on both radios, the result for each radio will be the same as if ACS was triggered separately
on each radio.