Controller-less WLANs

This article explains:

1. Need for Airtime Fairness and
2. Configuration of Airtime Fairness through Aruba Central dashboard.

Airtime Fairness is needed to provide every client with an equal opportunity to utilize the network bandwidth irrespective of client type, capability or operating system.
Following are the three Airtime fairness modes:

1. Default-access: Airtime Fairness is basically disabled, and clients are entertained based on the requests they make.
2. Fair-access: Each client gets the same airtime, regardless of client capability and capacity. This option is useful in environments like a training facility or exam hall, where a mix of 802.11a/g, 802.11g, and 802.11n clients need equal to network resources, regardless of their capabilities.
3. Preferred-access: High-throughput (802.11a/n) clients do not get penalized because of slower 802.11g or 802.11b client transmissions that take more air time due to lower transmit rates. The 802.11a clients get more airtime than 802.11g clients which in turn get more airtime than 802.11b. The ratio is 16:4:1.

This article applies to all the IAPs managed by the Aruba Central dashboard.