Many network administrators have ended up enabling more and more SSIDs to meet the needs of the business. This is bad news for Wi-Fi, with each SSID sending beacons and collectively, using precious bandwidth. iPSK is one option to help remediate.
In our previous blog, Why too many SSIDs are bad for your Wi-Fi, we discussed the drawbacks of having multiple SSIDs, optimal SSID recommendations, and how iPSK can help streamline your network. Now, let's delve into the process of consolidating multiple SSIDs into a single one, explore the benefits of iPSK, and examine its implementation with Meraki.
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iPSK SSID Consolidation
Consolidating multiple SSIDs into one, iPSK reduces the management overhead associated with broadcasting beacon frames for each SSID.
This frees up more airtime for data transmission and improves overall network performance. Having less congestion from management traffic, latency is reduced, and users/device will benefit from faster data rates and more reliable connections.
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Benefits of using iPSK
iPSK has some major benefits for a Wi-Fi Network:
- Airtime Utilisation
- Security
- Scalability
Let's take a look at each in turn, starting with improved airtime utilization.
As fewer SSIDs are required, less airtime is consumed by low-speed beacon frames, allowing more bandwidth to be dedicated to actual user traffic. This makes the network more efficient, particularly in high-density environments, where every bit of airtime counts.
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Security is another major benefit of iPSK. Network administrators can assign different pre-shared keys to different groups of users or devices, allowing for granular control over access levels without the need for multiple SSIDs.
For example, employees can use one key that provides full access to corporate resources, while guests can use another key that limits them to internet access only.
IoT devices can be assigned a separate key that isolates them on a restricted VLAN, preventing them from communicating with sensitive parts of the network. This approach enhances security while keeping network management simple.
Finally, advances in iPSK makes it highly scalable, making it an ideal solution for environments with large numbers of devices.
So, whether you are managing hundreds of employees or thousands of IoT devices, iPSK can easily accommodate the growing number of connected devices without the need to add more SSIDs. This scalability ensures that your network can grow without becoming bogged down by unnecessary SSID congestion.
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Implementation of iPSK with Meraki
In a Meraki wireless environment, deploying iPSK is a straightforward process that can have a significant impact on network performance.
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The first step is to configure a single SSID for all users and devices. In the access control settings, enable “iPSK without Radius” as the authentication type. Meraki iPSK allows for 5000 iPSKs per SSID.
Then create individual pre-shared keys for each user/device group.
These keys will be used to provide users/devices access to the network. Group policies will allow you to map each user/device type to a specific VLAN and setup access policies to ensure that traffic is properly segmented and secured.
Once implemented, iPSK should immediately reduce the amount of SSID-related management traffic on your network, improving throughput and reducing latency. As always, monitor the network to ensure that iPSK is having the desired effect, and adjust your configurations as needed to optimise performance.
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SSID Consolidation with iPSK: Summary
If your Wi-Fi network is suffering from SSID congestion, consider implementing iPSK as a scalable, efficient solution.
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iPSK will streamline your network management and enhance overall performance, providing a better experience for both users and administrators.
Cleaning up your Wi-Fi spectrum will allow for higher throughput, where less of your valuable bandwidth is consumed by advertising the network itself.
Security and scalability are also key reasons to deploy iPSK.
The feature is available in both Cisco and Meraki. The key recommendation is that you need to keep your SSIDs below 4-5 - any more and you start to negatively impact your Wi-Fi experience.
Hopefully this blog has been a useful read - if you need help with your Wi-Fi network, feel free to drop us a line.
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