Wireless Assurance and WLAN Configuration
Wireless Assurance and WLAN Configuration
This domain tests WLAN design in Mist and the use of Wireless Assurance to prove whether clients can connect, roam, and perform. Questions often combine WLAN templates, RF templates, security settings, and SLE evidence.
Core rules
- Configure SSIDs through org-level WLAN templates applied to sites, or as site WLANs. A WLAN defines SSID, security (WPA2/WPA3 Personal or Enterprise, captive portal), VLAN, and RADIUS.
- RF templates control channel and power, channel planning, minimum data rate, band steering, and fast roaming (802.11k/v/r). Apply the RF template to the site; do not assume global RF changes reach every site.
- Wireless Assurance SLEs classify user experience: Successful Connect, Time to Connect, Coverage, Capacity, Roaming, Throughput, AP Health, and Client Health. SLEs are site-scoped and thresholds can be customized.
- Client events show association, authentication, DHCP, DNS, and roam stages. Use them to move from an SLE symptom to the failing stage.
Worked example
A site's Successful Connect SLE drops after a WLAN template change. Client events show 802.1X authentication failures only for one SSID. Reasoning: association succeeds, so RF and SSID broadcast are fine; the failure is authentication. The WLAN template points to an old RADIUS server IP. Correct the RADIUS entry or use a site variable, then re-test. Do not raise the SLE threshold; that hides the symptom.
Traps
- Confusing an org WLAN template with a site WLAN.
- Using band steering to fix a coverage hole.
- Enabling 802.11r on clients that do not support it.
- Setting a minimum data rate so high that edge clients cannot associate.
- Treating an SLE threshold change as a root-cause fix.