Smart RF Policies

Self Monitoring At Run Time RF Management (Smart RF) is an innovation designed to simplify RF configurations for new deployments, while (over time) providing on-going deployment optimization radio performance improvements.

A Smart RF policy can reduce deployment costs by scanning the RF environment to determine the best channel and transmit power for each managed radio.

Smart RF centralizes the decision process and makes intelligent RF configuration decisions using information obtained from the RF environment. Smart RF helps reduce ongoing management and maintenance costs through periodic re-calibration of the network. Recalibration can be initiated manually or can be automatically scheduled to ensure the RF configuration is optimized to factor for RF environment changes (such as new sources of interference, or neighboring access points).

Note

Unlike a controller or service platform, an access point utilizes a single Smart RF configuration it can use with other access points of the same model. However, the Smart RF policy needs to be activated from any one of the Smart RF screens. Numerous Smart RF policies cannot be defined on behalf of the access point.

Smart RF also provides self-healing functions by monitoring the network in real-time and provides automatic mitigation from potentially problematic events such as radio interference, non-WiFi interference (noise), external WiFi interference, coverage holes and radio failures. Smart RF employs self-healing to enable a WLAN to better maintain wireless client performance and site coverage during dynamic RF environment changes, which typically require manual reconfiguration to resolve.

If a Smart RF managed radio is operating in WLAN mode on a channel requiring DFS, it will switch channels if radar is detected.

• If Smart RF is enabled, the radio picks a channel defined in the Smart RF policy.
• If Smart RF is disabled, but a Smart RF policy is mapped, the radio picks a channel specified in the Smart RF policy.
• If no Smart RF policy is mapped, the radio selects a random channel.

If the radio is a dedicated sensor, it stops termination on that channel if a neighboring access points detects radar. The access point attempts to come back to its original channel (statically configured or selected by Smart RF) after the channel evacuation period has expired.

Change this behavior using a no dfs-rehome command from the controller or service platform CLI. This keeps the radio on the newly selected channel and prevents the radio from coming back to the original channel, even after the channel evacuation period.

Note

RF planning must be performed to ensure overlapping coverage exists at a deployment site for Smart RF to be a viable network performance tool. Smart RF can only provide recovery when access points are deployed appropriately. Smart RF is not a solution, it's a temporary measure. Administrators need to determine the root cause of RF deterioration and fix it. Smart RF history/events can assist.

Caution

The access point‘s Smart RF feature is not able to detect a voice call in progress, and will switch to a different channel resulting in voice call reconnections and communication disruptions.