Configuring a Voice SSID with Network Director

Voice over IP has different requirements than data traffic and therefore has unique configuration requirements. For an explanation of voice traffic, see Understanding Voice Clients and Voice Traffic.

If your network is supporting both wireless data clients and voice clients, we recommend that you have two WLAN Service profiles, one for data and one for voice—this topic describes creating a WLAN Service profile for voice clients.

Note: WLAN Service profiles define the SSID name.

Creating a CoS Profile Dedicated to Voice

To be able to support latency-sensitive traffic such as voice traffic, you must create a dedicated CoS profile by entering voice-specific settings. This topic describes the typical settings that you can use to create a CoS profile dedicated to voice.

1. Click the Build Mode icon in the Network Director banner.
2. Click CoS under Profile and Configuration Management in the Tasks pane.

   The Manage CoS Profiles page opens, displaying the list of current CoS profiles.

3. Click Add on the Manage CoS Profiles page and select Wireless Controller (WLC) in the Device Family Chooser page.

   The Create CoS Profile for Wireless Controllers (WLC) wizard opens.

4. Configure the following settings:
   • Provide a name for the CoS profile.
   • In the Voice CoS section, select VoIP-data.
   • (Optional) In the Voice CoS section, select Enable Bandwidth Limit and specify the maximum bandwidth that you want the system to reserve for voice traffic.
   • In the Access Categories section, make sure that the action corresponding to the Access Category—Voice is Permit.
5. Click Done to save the settings.

For an explanation of all the CoS profile parameters, see Creating and Managing CoS Profiles.

After you create the CoS profile, you then associate the CoS profile with an Authorization profile during creation of the Authorization profile. Next, you associate the Authorization profile with a WLAN Service profile to apply the CoS settings to all the users who connect to that SSID. For information on creating a WLAN Service profile (including mapping the Authorization profile) dedicated to voice, see Creating a WLAN Service Profile Dedicated to Voice.

Creating a WLAN Service Profile Dedicated to Voice

If your network is supporting both wireless data clients and voice clients, we recommend that you have two WLAN Service profiles, one for data and one for voice—this topic describes creating a WLAN Service profile for voice clients.

Note: You will need to link an existing Authorization profile and Authentication profile during WLAN creation. For directions to create an Authorization profile, see Creating and Managing Wireless Authorization Profiles. For directions to create an Authentication profile, see Creating and Managing Authentication Profiles.

1. Click Build mode in the Network Director banner.

   Tip: WLAN Service profiles can be created in any view—Device View, Logical View, or Location View.

2. Click WLAN Service under Profile and Configuration Management in the Tasks pane.

   The Manage WLAN Service Profiles page opens, displaying the list of currently configured WLAN Service profiles.

3. Click Add on the Manage WLAN Service Profiles page.

   The Create WLAN Service Profile for Wireless Controllers (WLC) wizard opens with the Basic Settings tab displayed.

4. In the Basic Settings tab of the Create WLAN Service Profile wizard, configure these settings:
   • Provide a name for the WLAN.
   • Set SSID Type to Crypto.
   • Select the previously created Authorization profile and Authentication profile.
   • Set Fall Through Access to Last Resort.
5. Click the Security Settings tab of the Create WLAN Service Profile wizard, and configure these settings:
   • Ideally, enable RSN (WPA2) 802.1X Auth with CCMP. You might also need to configure PSK authentication depending on the capabilities of the client devices.
   • Disable WPA 802.1X Auth.
6. Click the Advanced Settings tab of the Create WLAN Service Profile wizard, and configure these settings:
   • Enable Proxy ARP to help preserve client battery life and to allow the access points to respond to ARPs on behalf of the clients.
   • Enable No Broadcast to help preserve client battery life and to convert ARP and DHCP broadcast messages to unicast.
   • Set Short Retry Count to 3.
   • Set Long Retry Count to 3.
   • Set CAC Mode to VoIP Session.

     Note: Restricting sessions on the access point applies to both data and voice clients, which is one reason we recommend separate profiles for voice and data.

   • Enable Load Balancing Exempt to prevent dynamic load balancing of clients on the service and ensure the fastest possible association .
   • Beacon the service at a higher data rate to encourage faster roaming. Beacons sent at a higher data rate can be heard over a shorter distance, so the client will scan for new access points sooner and roam more quickly
7. Click Review, check the configuration, then click Finish.

A WLAN Service profile is not used automatically. You must link a Radio profile to the WLAN Service profile, then link the Radio profile to radios to apply WLAN Service profile settings. Next, create a Radio profile to use with the WLAN Service profile.

For an explanation of all WLAN Service profile parameters, see Understanding WLAN Service Profiles. To create a radio profile for voice, see Creating a Radio Profile for Voice Clients Only.