Zebra 00JN09 Voice Deployment with Cisco WLAN Infrastructure Best Practices Guide

Quick guide from the manual

This document provides best practices for deploying voice applications on Zebra mobile computers within a Cisco WLAN infrastructure. It focuses on ensuring stable connectivity, low latency, and high voice quality for time-sensitive applications.

Device Settings

Proper device configuration is critical for voice performance. Key recommendations include:

• MAC Randomization: Enabled by default on Android 11+; generally does not affect voice performance.
• Battery Optimization: Do not use Android battery optimization (Doze Mode) for voice applications as it interrupts communication.
• Band Selection: 5 GHz is recommended for voice traffic.
• Fast Roaming: 802.11r is strongly recommended.
• Subnet Roam: Use this feature if the network is configured for different subnets on the same ESSID.

Network Recommendations

To ensure voice-grade performance, the network environment must meet the following criteria:

• Latency: < 100 msec end-to-end.
• Jitter: < 100 msec.
• Packet Loss: < 1%.
• Minimum AP Coverage: -65 dBm.
• Minimum SNR: 25 dB.
• Radio Channel Utilization: < 50%.

Infrastructure and Vendor Model Recommendations

For Cisco infrastructure, ensure the following settings are applied:

• Security: WPA2 or WPA3 (AES encryption). Do not use WEP or TKIP.
• Voice WLAN: Use 5 GHz only.
• Fast Roam Methods: Prioritize 802.11r, followed by CCKM, then OKC or PMK Cache.
• QoS: Mark Voice WLAN with Platinum QoS and set 802.1p bits to 6.
• Disabled Features: Disable Client Exclusions, Aggressive Load Balancing, and peer-to-peer blocking.

Zebra recommends using Local Mode for Cisco controllers to leverage additional features, though FlexConnect is supported if required by the deployment architecture.