setting up cisco WLC for wireless

carl_townshend · ‎04-26-2008

Hi all, can anyone tell me when I set up my cisco LWAPP wlc and access points, what vlans do each of the interfaces go in, Ie do I have 1 interface for management of the wlc? and which interface do I connect the access points? do the access points themselves have to be on a trunk port etc? for the actual data traffic?

please help

omar.elmohri · ‎04-27-2008

Hello,

First of all, you need LightWeight Access points.

For a WLC there is interfaces which are logical, and ports which are physical. Vlans are associated to interfaces. For your network, if you need only one SSID, you need this one as Vlan and another as Management Vlan where APs can make part of this.

When you configure the WLC, you can affect interfaces to physical ports, which will be connected to a switch then to APs (the ports are trunks).

Yes APs will be connected via a trunk port.

Here an exemple of configuration :

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/wireless/ps430/products_configuration_example09186a0080665cdf.shtml

Regards,

Omar

PLEASE RATE IF THAT HELP.

carl_townshend · ‎04-29-2008

so if im using 2 x 4404 wlc's

and I only have 1 ssid for my wireless, How would I set up each of the ports on the controllers, ie management port, what about the access points, which port do they plug in on the wlc, and would this port have an ip address or just be a trunk ?

can you give me a brief description for the setup ?

omar.elmohri · ‎04-29-2008

Hello Carl,

I did a similar scenario.

For the WLC you can for example use the 2 first ports, and use them as channel group (you do that using graphical HTTP).

For the SSIDs, you can make similar configuration on both WLCs unless IP addresses that will be different (and use the same VLans).

The interfaces of the WLC will be connected to the core switch (as channel group for example) and the LightWeight APs will be connected via a trunk.

I attached for you a tamplate of the configuration I did.

Here is my email if you want that we talk more about that ?

Tell me, Are you using WCS ??

Regards,

Omar

jcoke · ‎04-29-2008

The Deploying Cisco 440X Series Wireless LAN Controllers doc has a very good section on how the interfaces on the WLCs work. Nevermind that the doc says 440X, most of the concepts apply.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/wireless/technology/controller/deployment/guide/dep.html#wp1052072

It takes a sec to get your mind around what the controller and switches are doing but try this. The product (wlc and lwaps) takes all of the infrastructure between the wlc and the lwap and almost turns it into a wire; as if the lwaps were plugged directly into the controller. This is done through the lwapp tunneling/control protocol. The WLC is really the access point, not the lwap. So now the client traffic has traversed that virtual wire and is now in the wlc. What now? Well depending on the ssid you take it and put it out an interface that's connected to your wired network. It could be that the interface is 1:1 mapped to a port (not trunked) or that the interface is mapped with several other interfaces onto a single port (trunked).

Edit: Oh, the images in the html version of that doc kind of suck. If you need a clearer version open the pdf version.

omar.elmohri · ‎04-29-2008

Yes, this document is interesting, I used it before, and it explains the detailed concept.

Carl, you can use the document and give a feedback in case of trouble.

Regards,

Omar