Use AP as a trunk to a switch

[sudip.acharya1]

Hello,

I have a 5508 controller with multiple SSID’s that are non-broadcasting. My goal is to get a 1142N to work in non-root bridge mode by accessing one of the existing WPA2 SSID’s.

I have a IDF that has a 3750 switch with multiple devices connected to it in 3-4 different vlans. B/C of fiber length restraints, I can’t uplink in a traditional way. So, my thought is I can connect a 1142N in non-root bridge mode and connect it to an existing WPA2 w/AES that’s being broadcasted by our 5508WLC. Connect the 1142 to 3750 and let it act as the trunk port for the devices on the switch.

Is that possible?

Thanks in advance.

[Leo Laohoo]

The only time you have dot1Q trunking to the WAP is when you are using autonomous IOS with multiple SSID and H-REAP. 

[Amjad Abdullah]

Sudip:
Using your method would work fine with 1 VLAN only. However, can not be used for multiple VLANs.

Even though you can use Work Group Bridge (WGB) in order to let the autonomous AP to join through lightweight APs, it can only connect using one SSID and hence using one VLAN.

Q. Does a WGB support multiple VLANs in it?
A. No. A Cisco WGB device does not support multiple VLANs in it. A 1100 AP, however, that acts in WGB mode can support multiple VLANs in it but with these restrictions:
The VLANs must be assigned on both the root AP and WGB sides.
The WGB must be connected to a dot1Q-capable switch.
The Infrastructure SSID must be mapped to the native VLAN on root and the WGB.
Note: The WGB associates on the Infrastructure SSID.
With this configuration, it is possible to associate WGB (WGB BVI interface) as a Native VLAN and have wired clients configured behind a dot1q switch associated to different (non-Native) VLANs.

Reference: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/wireless/ps441/products_qanda_item09186a0080094644.shtml#q49

The above multi-vlan support although restricted to 1100, it is only achievable with two autonomous APs one of them is a WGB. This is because with a lightweight AP, you are only restricted to the VLAN to which the SSID that the WGB connects to is configured.

If you want to do what you illustrated you can use two autonomous APs; one as a root and one as a non-root.

Hope this helps.

Amjad

[Amjad Abdullah]

more:

Q. Is VLAN trunking supported through the Workgroup Bridge?
A. The role of a Workgroup Bridge is to extend the Wireless backbone to a wired client. When you use a WGB, wired clients cannot be in multiple VLANs. A root/non-root bridging construction is used for the extension of the wired network to another site over wireless.. Root/non-root bridges can handle multiple VLANs.
WGBs do support VLANs when they operate in infrastructure mode. The problem is that infrastructure mode is configured on the root AP (interface command infrastructure-client). As infrastructure client is not available in LWAPP, VLANs are not supported on WGBs when WGBs associate to LWAPP APs.

same above reference.

[sudip.acharya1]

Understood.

So, if I wanted to remove the multi-vlan support, and simply plug in this non-root bridge to a switch connected that has servers in vlan 00, how would I do that?

[Amjad Abdullah · Accepted solution]

Hi Sudip,

You need to configure the autonomous AP so that:

- It's role as workgroup bridge.

- It's SSID has same name and security method as the SSID that it will connect to in the lightweight AP.

keeping in mind of course rechability and interfaces up in both sides.

Here is a config example that I hope you'll find useful: http://tiny.cc/251jew

Thanks.

Amjad

[sudip.acharya1]

Thanks.