Hi Jason,
Hopefully this info will clear this up for you;
Q. Can I install an access point (AP) at a remote office and install a Cisco WLC at my headquarters? Does the Lightweight AP Protocol (LWAPP) work over a WAN?
A. Yes, you can have the WLCs across the WAN from the APs. LWAPP works over a WAN. Use Remote Edge AP (REAP) mode. REAP allows the control of an AP by a remote controller that is connected via a WAN link. Traffic is bridged onto the LAN link locally, which avoids the need to unnecessarily send local traffic over the WAN link. This is precisely one of the greatest advantages of having WLCs in your wireless network.
Note: Not all lightweight APs support REAP. For example, the 1030 AP supports REAP, but the 1010 and 1020 AP do not support REAP. Before you plan to implement REAP, check to determine if the APs support it. Cisco IOS Software APs that have been converted to LWAPP do not support REAP.
Q. I want to set up the Cisco 1030 Lightweight Access Point (AP) with a Cisco WLC in Remote Edge AP (REAP) mode. In this mode, is all wireless traffic tunneled back to the WLC? Additionally, if the AP cannot contact the WLC, what happens to the wireless clients?
A. The 1030 AP tunnels all WLC traffic (control and management traffic) to the WLC via Lightweight AP Protocol (LWAPP). All data traffic stays local to the AP. The 1030 REAP can only reside on a single subnet because it cannot perform IEEE 802.1Q VLAN tagging. As such, traffic on each service set identifier (SSID) terminates on the same subnet on the wired network. So, while wireless traffic may be segmented over the air between SSIDs, user traffic is not separated on the wired side. Access to local network resources is maintained throughout WAN outages.
At times of WAN link outage, all WLANs except the first is decommissioned. Therefore, use WLAN 1 as the primary WLAN and plan security policies accordingly. Cisco recommends that you use a local authentication/encryption method, such as the Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) Pre-Shared Key (WPA-PSK), on this first WLAN.
Note: Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) suffices, but this method is not recommended because of known security vulnerabilities.
If you use WPA-PSK (or WEP), properly configured users are still able to gain access to local network resources even when the WAN link is down.
From this doc;
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps6366/products_qanda_item09186a008064a991.shtml
Hope this helps!
Rob
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