Description
What to do if one sees "Other Network" as a broadcasted SSID.
Scope
KB ARTICLE TYPE: Design
RELATED PRODUCTS: All Meru APs and controllers running VPort/VCell
RELATED SOFTWARE VERSIONS: 4.x & 5.x
KEYWORDS: VPort Broadcast, Other Network,
Solution
The reason they see this is because we broadcast CSSID (child) beacons without the SSID populated in it. To stop seeing this, one has to either turn OFF VPort or set VPort Broadcast (in each ESSID configuration) to Always. I would recommend neither because it can cause connectivity issues. Turning OFF Vport is not possible (on the AP320 and AP433 - all Atheros based wireless APs) without turning OFF VCell as well and setting VPort Broadcast for CSSIDs to Always would only cause clients to connect to the CSSID instead of the BSSID (Parent beacon) causing delays in connectivity. Turning OFF VCell is also not recommended because you'd lose all the benefits of seamless roaming, increased client density, etc.
So what is a CSSID? It is a per-station beacon that is sent by an AP (unique to a client) at a speed depending on client capability and position to keep a client alive (amongst other things). While the parent beacon is sent once a second at the lowest supported data-rate (so everyone can hear it) and is used to get new clients to a network (and therefore always has the SSID field populated), child beacons - CSSIDs are used on a per-station basis. All in all, the presence of "Other Network" is not really an issue. If the client tries to connect to it, he won't be able to. You face an issue only when you do NOT see the SSID you have configured and see "Other Network" instead. That can be fixed by increasing the parent beacon frequency.
