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Access Point Modes

ciscokid7181
Level 1
Level 1

Dear Folks,

As I have noticed multiple modes in a LWAPP, which is Monitor , Access Point, Sniffer etc. Could you please provide what all functions does it provide than an Access Point?

Regards,

Siddarth

2 Replies 2

Rob Huffman
Hall of Fame
Hall of Fame

Hi Siddarth,

Q. What are the different modes in which a lightweight access point (LAP) can operate?

A. An LAP can operate in any of these modes:

Local mode-This is the default mode of operation. When an LAP is placed into local mode, the AP spends 60 milliseconds on channels that it does not operate on every 180 seconds. During this time, the AP performs noise floor measurements, measures interference, and scans for IDS events.

REAP mode-REAP mode enables an LAP to reside across a WAN link and still be able to communicate with the WLC and provide the functionality of a regular LAP. Currently, REAP mode is supported only on the 1030 LAPs. This functionality is included on a broader range of LAPs in the future.

Monitor mode-Monitor mode is a feature designed to allow specified LWAPP-enabled APs to exclude themselves from handling data traffic between clients and the infrastructure. They instead act as dedicated sensors for location based services (LBS), rogue access point detection, and intrusion detection (IDS). When APs are in Monitor mode they cannot serve clients and continuously cycle through all configured channels listening to each channel for approximately 60 ms.

Note: From the controller release 5.0, LWAPPs can also be configured in Location Optimized Monitor Mode (LOMM), which optimizes the monitoring and location calculation of RFID tags. For more information on this mode, refer to Cisco Unified Wireless Network Software Release 5.0.

Note: With controller release 5.2, the Location Optimized Monitor Mode (LOMM) section has been renamed Tracking Optimization, and the LOMM Enabled drop-down box has been renamed Enable Tracking Optimization.

Note: For more information on how to configure Tracking Optimization, read the Optimizing RFID Tracking on Access Points section.

Rogue detector mode-LAPs that operate in Rogue Detector mode monitor the rogue APs. They do not transmit or contain rogue APs. The idea is that the rogue detector should be able to see all the VLANs in the network since rogue APs can be connected to any of the VLANs in the network (thus we connect it to a trunk port). The switch sends all the rogue AP/Client MAC address lists to the Rogue Detector (RD). The RD then forwards those up to the WLC in order to compare with the MACs of clients that the WLC APs have heard over the air. If MACs match, then the WLC knows the rogue AP to which those clients are connected is on the wired network.

Sniffer mode-An LWAPP that operates in Sniffer mode functions as a sniffer and captures and forwards all the packets on a particular channel to a remote machine that runs Airopeek. These packets contain information on timestamp, signal strength, packet size and so on. The Sniffer feature can be enabled only if you run Airopeek, which is a third-party network analyzer software that supports decoding of data packets.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/wireless/ps430/products_qanda_item09186a00806a4da3.shtml

Hope this helps!

Rob

Very Helpful.  I just missed my exam (200-355) by about 3-4 questions and I know a clear breakdown of the modes would have helped me with at least 2 of them.  Thank you very much!

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