Feature Compatibility Overview

Feature Compatibility is a new, always-on functionality that alerts users when access points are not compatible with certain Wi-Fi features. Incompatibility may occur due to the use of legacy APs, or APs running older firmware versions, that do not support newer features.

RUCKUS One ensures that AP compatibility issues are easily and quickly identifiable at the venue and Wi-Fi network levels:

• Displays an informational icon in the Devices and APs columns on Venue and Wi-Fi Network pages, respectively.
• Displays an interactive banner message alerting you to the number of APs with feature incompatibility and allowing you to view the incompatibility details in a sidebar.
• Displays a Feature Compatibility column (which you can enable or disable) in the list of APs for a specific venue or Wi-Fi network, reflecting the compatibility status for each AP. Status values are Fully compatible, Partially compatible, or Unknown. Partially incompatible is interactive; clicking this value opens an Incompatibility Details sidebar.

  The Incompatibility Details sidebar contains the AP model, the current AP firmware version, feature name for which AP incompatibility exists, and the minimum AP firmware requirements. In the Min. Required Versions column, pause the pointer on the firmware version to view the AP model families (denoted by their applicable IEEE 802.11 standard) that support the specific Wi-Fi feature.

Feature Compatibility provides the following benefits:

• User Experience: Requires minimum customer actions to support End of Life (EOL) AP models when compared to alternative solutions such as splitting the venue to handle EOL devices.
• Flexibility: Allows maximum flexibility for customers in terms of upgrading or downgrading device firmware versions.

Requirements

This feature has no special hardware or software requirements for feature enablement or usage.

Considerations

Best Practices

RUCKUS One automatically checks AP compatibilities whenever a venue or network configuration is modified. While device-to-feature incompatibility will not result in a configuration change failure, legacy AP models and older AP firmware versions cannot support the latest Wi-Fi technologies and features. You should view the administration Activity Details associated with any venue or network configuration change to see a report listing every incompatible device and the feature with which it is incompatible.

Prerequisites

This feature has no prerequisites to feature enablement or usage.