Troubleshooting Wireless Network Disconnections
Question
Wireless users report frequent disconnections from the wireless network.
While troubleshooting, a network engineer finds that after the user is disconnected, the connection re-establishes automatically without any input required.
The engineer also notices these message logs: AP 'AP2' is down.
Reason: Radio channel set.
6:54:04 PM AP 'AP4' is down.
Reason: Radio channel set.
6:44:49 PM AP 'AP7' is down.
Reason: Radio channel set.
6:34:32 PM Which action reduces the user impact?
Answers
Explanations
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A. B. C. D.D.
Based on the symptoms and logs provided, the frequent disconnections experienced by wireless users seem to be caused by the APs going down due to the radio channel being set. This can be caused by interference or other factors that cause the AP to change channels, leading to a brief outage that disconnects users. However, the connection re-establishes automatically, indicating that the issue is not with the client devices but rather with the APs.
To reduce the user impact, the network engineer should take action to prevent or mitigate the AP downtime. Here are the possible actions:
A. Enable coverage hole detection: Enabling coverage hole detection allows the access points to detect when a client has lost connectivity and proactively adjust the transmission power to fill in coverage gaps. This can help improve the overall coverage of the network and reduce the impact of AP downtime. However, it may not be effective if the issue is caused by interference or other factors that affect multiple APs.
B. Increase the AP heartbeat timeout: The AP heartbeat timeout is the interval at which an access point sends a heartbeat signal to the controller. If the controller does not receive a heartbeat signal within this interval, it marks the AP as down. Increasing the AP heartbeat timeout can give the APs more time to recover from channel changes or other issues that cause brief outages, reducing the frequency of false alarms and minimizing the impact on users. However, this may not address the underlying issue causing the AP downtime.
C. Enable BandSelect: BandSelect is a feature that encourages clients to connect to the less congested 5 GHz band instead of the more crowded 2.4 GHz band. By reducing the number of clients on the 2.4 GHz band, the likelihood of interference and channel conflicts is reduced, which can help improve the stability and reliability of the wireless network. However, this may not address the underlying issue causing the AP downtime.
D. Increase the dynamic channel assignment interval: Dynamic channel assignment is a feature that automatically assigns channels to APs based on channel availability and interference levels. Increasing the interval at which channels are assigned can help reduce the frequency of channel changes and minimize the impact of brief outages caused by channel conflicts. However, this may not be effective if the issue is caused by interference or other factors that affect multiple APs.
Based on the above, the most appropriate action to take in this scenario would likely be A. enabling coverage hole detection. This action can help fill in coverage gaps and reduce the impact of AP downtime, which seems to be the root cause of the frequent disconnections experienced by wireless users. However, other actions may also be necessary depending on the specific circumstances of the network.
