ZyXEL Communications NWA-3163 & NWA-3166 User Manual

Chapter 21 Load Balancing

NWA-3160 Series User’s Guide

When your AP becomes overloaded, there are two basic responses it can take. The 
first one is to “delay” a client connection. This means that the AP withholds the 
connection until the data transfer throughput is lowered or the client connection is 
picked up by another AP. If the client is picked up by another AP then the original 
AP cannot resume the connection.

For example, here the AP has a balanced bandwidth allotment of 6 Mbps. If the 
red laptop (R) attempts to connect and it could potentially push the AP over its 
allotment, say to 7 Mbps, then the AP delays the red laptop’s connection until it 

Dissociate station when 
overloaded

Select Enable to “kick” connections to the AP when it becomes 
overloaded. If you set this option to Disable, then the AP 
simply delays the connection until it can afford the bandwidth 
it requires, or it shunts the connection to another AP within its 
broadcast radius.

The kick priority is determined automatically by the NWA and 
is as follows:

• Idle Timeout - Devices that have been idle the longest will 

be kicked first. If none of the connected devices are idle, 

then the priority shifts to signal strength.

• Signal Strength - Devices with the weakest signal 

strength will be kicked first.

Note: If you enable this function, you should ensure that 

there are multiple APs within the broadcast radius 
that can accept any rejected or kicked wireless 
clients; otherwise, a wireless client attempting to 
connect to an overloaded NWA will be kicked 
continuously and never be allowed to connect.

Apply

Click this to save your changes to the NWA.

Reset

Click this to return this screen to its last-saved settings.

Table 81   Load Balancing