¶ Introduction
Legacy 802.11b data rates (1, 2, 5.5, 11 Mbps) exist because Wi-Fi is designed to be backwards compatible with all potential clients. This means that frames which need to be heard by all clients (management and control frames) are transmitted at legacy data rates resulting in higher airtime utilization and lower data throughput. 802.11b is very old Wi-Fi technology, first introduced in 1999. It is unlikely that you will have any 802.11b clients on your network, so we recommend disabling these low data rates.
¶ Related Wyebot Signature
Identifying information (MAC addresses, SSIDs) have been removed from the below screenshot.
¶ Instructions
Instructions from Cisco 2504 WLC running firmware 7.6.130.0
- Click on the Wireless tab.
- To disable 802.11b rates, navigate to 802.1b/g/n > Network.
- Under the Data Rates table, change rates you wish to stop supporting to Disabled. Make sure to set the minimum data rate you wish to allow as Mandatory. It’s also common to set 24Mbps as Mandatory. All higher data rates should be set to Supported.
The screenshot shows the configuration to set a minimum data rate of 12Mbps.
- If you wish to configure the data rates used for the 5GHz radios, navigate to 802.11a/n/ac > Network.
- Set the data rates using the same method as shown in Step 3.
The screenshot shows the configuration to set a minimum data rate of 12Mbps.
- Click Apply in the top right to apply your changes.
