AirMesh

1)     The mesh-point should be evenly distributed between the numbers of portals. 
Each portal should have its own ap-group.   This will allow us to assign a primary cluster and radio profile per group. 

2)     Why should we assign a primary cluster per ap-group? 
If all the portals and end-points are in the same group, the end-points will not be load balance between the portals, when they are all on the same channel. 

3)     Why should we create a different mesh-radio-profile per ap-group?    If all the portals are on the same channel, there will be contention in the air.     If we have four end-points, it will be better for the mesh-point to be on two different channels. 

4)     There is an advantage of assigning a mesh-channel.    
         a)     The network will not need to scan and converge. 
         b)     We can avoid DFS channels. 
         c)     We can prevent two portals to be on the same channel. 
         d)     The approach will evenly distribute channels. 

5)     If we assign channels, will we  break the redundancy? 
No, we can still configure multiple cluster-profiles with a different priority because the endpoint will scan the valid channels, if there is second mesh-cluster configured. 

Please review the following simple example: 

(BRANCH2400) #show ap-group voice-1 

AP group "voice-1" 
------------------ 
Parameter                            Value 
---------                            ----- 
Virtual AP                           voice 
802.11a radio profile                default 
802.11g radio profile                default 
Wired AP profile                     default 
Ethernet interface 0 link profile    default 
Ethernet interface 1 link profile    default 
AP system profile                    default 
VoIP Call Admission Control profile  default 
802.11a Traffic Management profile   N/A 
802.11g Traffic Management profile   N/A 
Regulatory Domain profile            default 
SNMP profile                         default 
RF Optimization profile              default 
RF Event Thresholds profile          default 
IDS profile                          ids-low-setting 
Mesh Radio profile                   channel44 
Mesh Cluster profile                 cluster-a  priority 1           
Mesh Cluster profile                 cluster-b  priority 16 

(BRANCH2400) # 
(BRANCH2400) # 
(BRANCH2400) # 
(BRANCH2400) # 
(BRANCH2400) #show ap-group voice-2 

AP group "voice-2" 
------------------ 
Parameter                            Value 
---------                            ----- 
Virtual AP                           voice 
802.11a radio profile                default 
802.11g radio profile                default 
Wired AP profile                     default 
Ethernet interface 0 link profile    default 
Ethernet interface 1 link profile    default 
AP system profile                    default 
VoIP Call Admission Control profile  default 
802.11a Traffic Management profile   N/A 
802.11g Traffic Management profile   N/A 
Regulatory Domain profile            default 
SNMP profile                         default 
RF Optimization profile              default 
RF Event Thresholds profile          default 
IDS profile                          ids-low-setting 
Mesh Radio profile                   channel48 
Mesh Cluster profile                 cluster-b  priority 1 
Mesh Cluster profile                 cluster-a  priority 16 


In the above example, we have two different ap-groups.   Each ap-group is assigned a mesh-radio-profile.   If  the primary portal should fail, the endpoint will move to the secondary cluster. 


How should you troubleshoot VoIP on a mesh network?    

In a Mesh environment, the chain could be one portal with two end-points.   The topology could look like this: portal1-----end-point1-------end-point2.   In this example, we would verify the voice performance on portal1 and then end-point1 and then end-point2.   Please keep in mind that each hop will add delay.   The voice quality can be explained by added delay of the hops..