Tracking by unique client identifier also disables uplink sampling for clients, which can be helpful in certain scenarios where non-Meraki NAC solutions are deployed in mixed vendor environments. In this deployment scenario, tracking by IP would otherwise require the security appliance to be split into a separate dashboard network, as tracking by IP is not supported in combined networks. Tracking by MAC would fail to identify end client devices due to the layer 3 boundary, associating downstream client traffic to the routing switch and negatively affecting network usage numbers in dashboard. This method should be used only if the network has downstream layer 3 routing devices that are all Meraki devices. This is specifically useful when there are Meraki MS switches routing layer 3 between end clients and the security appliance, which segregates broadcast traffic containing the client's MAC address. It uses an algorithm that intelligently correlates client MAC and IP addresses seen across the Meraki stack, allowing the security appliance to generate a unique identifier for each client in a combined network with other Meraki devices.

Unique client identifier is a Meraki technology that leverages network topology and device information to uniquely identify and track clients.

Macs tracking