AI-RRM

Overview

Radio resource management (RRM), traditionally known as Auto RF for the Meraki cloud network, is a solution that improves wireless networks by automatically optimizing radio configurations (such as channel changes, transmit power, and more) to mitigate interference and maximize RF spectrum capacity. Adding artificial intelligence (AI) to RRM offloads analysis of RF patterns to an AI engine that more intelligently optimizes RRM. The result is better connectivity for users and simplified management for network administrators. Unlike traditional RF optimization systems, which use snapshot data as the source of decision-making, AI-RRM uses historical, long-term, trend-based RF data lakes to automate and optimize RF. Every set of traditional RF optimization decisions (such as channel decision spectrum allocation and AP power levels) now gets AI/ML-based decisions.  

Cisco AI-RRM is different as it allows the analysis of historical dynamic RF data over time. Evaluating complex RF data often results from factoring in local knowledge of “Normal” against the currently displayed data. “Normal” can, and does, vary from site to site based on equipment choices and architectural design vs. client density.
 

Together, the AI-RRM algorithms with the Cisco AI Cloud take Wi-Fi RF management to a new level that correlates 24x7 observations from the network and client devices and applies 20+ years of Cisco RF technology to drive user experiences into the future.

Benefits of AI-RRM

Improved Wireless Connectivity (User Experience)

AI algorithms enhance wireless network performance by proactively learning your network's trends and patterns, improving the operation of wireless endpoints over time. This intelligent optimization leads to significant improvements, including a 40% reduction in co-channel interference and a 7-decibel gain in signal-to-noise ratio for wireless clients. Additionally, the system includes a "Busy hour" feature that reduces RRM changes during peak times by up to 99%, ensuring 24/7 connectivity.

Lower Operational Costs (Administrative Experience)

AI simplifies RRM and provides a scalable deployment workflow, even for users with minimal RF expertise. It offers RF visibility and actionable insights to optimize RRM profiles, increasing efficiency and eliminating error-prone manual processes.

Maximized Investment

Whether used with Wi-Fi 6E, Wi-Fi 6, or previous generations of Wi-Fi at any scale, AI-RRM offers visibility into previously unknown aspects of your network.

 The AI-RRM topology flowchart steps are recorded here:

1. Anonymized RF data is sent from the access point to the AI Cloud which utilizes AI-Enhanced RRM algorithms.
2. After data analysis, RF optimizations are then automatically applied to the access point.
3. Wireless endpoints are able to benefit from this optimized wireless experience.

How to enable AI-RRM

The new RRM tab is introduced on the Radio settings page. It consists of all the AI-powered RRM features that majorly drive decisions based on historical data, along with many Cisco Radio Resource Management features that will help optimize the RF network much more efficiently and sophisticatedly. 

Navigate to Wireless > Configure > Radio Settings > RRM tab > Enable AI-RRM, as seen in the image below. 

AI-RRM will utilize the RF parameters specified in each RF profile to implement changes in RF parameters. Across the network, access points may either share the same RF profile or be assigned distinct ones. AI-RRM does not modify or change your current RF Profile settings or assignment.

Refer to the following documentation on how to create an RF profile.

Refer to Meraki Wireless for Enterprise Best Practices- RF Design.

Flexible Radio Assignment

In a dense AP deployment, there may be more 2.4 GHz radios than necessary for the coverage area. This usually causes high co-channel interference with the limited number of channels available on the 2.4 GHz spectrum. 

The Flexible Radio Assignment (FRA) functionality in AI-RRM enables the dynamic deactivation of 2.4 GHz Tx radios in the AP. The radios are deactivated when they are acting as a source of co-channel interference, are adding to radio overhead, or are not required to maintain optimal coverage and roaming experiences. This feature helps to minimize interference among redundant neighboring 2.4 GHz cells.

This feature will help reduce the co-channel interference in the 2.4 GHz environment, ensuring clients have adequate, full coverage without manually changing transmit power configurations or redesigning your Wi-Fi architecture.

This feature can be enabled by toggling the enable button under Flexible Radio Assignment. 

How to identify which 2.4 GHz radios are disabled?

In the Radio settings Overview page, if you select 2.4 GHz in band, you will find APs with Target Power as Off.

If FRA is disabled, the 2.4 GHz radios that were turned off by FRA will automatically be re-enabled within 30 minutes.

AI Channel Planning

A well-designed channel plan will ensure we get the most out of the RF network to operate as a high-performance wireless network. To achieve this, use a wide spread of channel availability in the AutoChannel list. However, these channels can get affected by DFS events and non-Wi-Fi interferers, such as jammers, which reduces the number of channels that can effectively be used for wireless network operations. AI channel planning maintains the channel avoid list on a per-access point basis in the network.  

AI channel planning will avoid channels that are most affected by the following reasons:

• Too frequent DFS events
• Too frequent jammed channel
• AFC low power regulation (outdoor 6 GHz AP)

There are 2 aspects to AI channel planning; RF Jammed and DFS Hit events.

Once a DFS hit or jam event occurs, the channel will be put on a Channel Avoid List.

• If a channel is in avoid mode, we strictly avoid using this channel from the next best channel candidate unless all the channels are avoided.
• The avoid period for this channel to stay in the Channel Avoid List depends on the severity.

For channels in avoid mode, the table below indicates the monitoring period for each level of severity:

The figure below shows the insights and learnings for channel avoidance that can be exported via CSV.

Download historical report will contain a CSV with AI Channel Planning decisions and a list of channels affected, including the start and end time for avoidance. 

Busy Hour

Reliable connectivity is key when it comes to an efficient wireless network. This is essential during the active hours of any business vertical. The Busy hour feature will avoid unnecessary RF changes during the defined period and make the essential changes after the busy hour. This will eliminate client disconnections or roaming due to channel changes. 

Each business vertical has its own characteristic of busy hours, and sometimes it is hard to dictate from the central network admin perspective. With the power of the dashboard, RRM can now optimize each network individually for its unique daily busy hour.

During the Busy hour, RRM will only change an AP's radio transmit power if required and minimize the AutoChannel calculation. Some exceptions will be DFS, jammed channels, access point addition or the Update AutoChannel button from the dashboard. 

Crucial changes include:

• DFS hits
• RF Jammed
• Access point addition
• Persistent, excessive co-channel interferences from nearby rogues
• Update AutoChannel button from the dashboard.

As shown in the figure below, Busy hour assignments can be set in 2 ways:

1. Manual: Define the network’s active hours. 

2. Auto: Let the dashboard recommend the busy hour. Our system will analyze your past six weeks of data to understand your active hours and set it automatically. The auto Busy hour is calculated based on the number of clients connected to the network and the amount of traffic sent/received.

Radio Settings Overview Page

Below are the headlines regarding the RF Coverage and RF Performance, which includes the overall RF Performance score (100-0, with 100 being excellent) as well as highlights such as % APs with poor co-channel interference and the number of Mitigations done by AI channel planning. The RF Coverage summary looks at the AP density (the number of AP neighbors seen at or above -70 dBm) and Connectivity – the average client SNR during the last RRM run.

FAQs

1. During the Busy hour, what will happen if a manual change is made on an AP?

   • All the APs in the network will operate as usual unless there is a significant change in the channel assignment of the AP. If there are significant enough differences between the new candidate channel vs. the current operational channel, it will change.

2. If changes are made to a RF Profile during the Busy hour, does it wait until after the Busy hour?
   • New additions will not reset the busy hour criteria, which is much more sticky than a non-busy hour.
3. Will auto Busy hour work with templates?
   •  No, auto Busy hour is not supported on templates.
4. What if a customer has all of their assets under the same network spanning across multiple locations and timezones?
   • Auto Busy hour can calculate one busy hour fitting for all the APs in a particular network. Different locations need to be in different networks with appropriate timezone configurations. 
5. How do you track the severity table of the network, and is it per AP?
   •  It is per AP, per channel, and per event type.
6. What are the configuration options that are being modified to facilitate the channel avoidance?
   • No configuration is needed on the network. The algorithm will monitor the number of DFS hits and decide the severity of the channel.
7. Is there an overview of the scheduling the channel changes?
   • One can view the overview in the Auto RF event log.
8. What metrics are used to determine the Busy hour - is it combination of current client count, usage (effectively what is displayed on the summary report)?
   • Combination of client count and usage.