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Cisco Aironet 1000 Series Lightweight Access Point Hardware Installation Guide
OL-9403-04
Chapter3 Troubleshooting
Guidelines for Using the Access Points
Guidelines for Using the Access Points
You should keep these guidelines in mind when you use the access points:
•The access points can only communicate with controllers and cannot operate independently.
•The access points do not support Wireless Domain Services (WDS). Th e acc ess poin ts c an not
communicate with WDS devices. However, the controller provides functionality equivalent to WDS
when the access point associates to it.
•The access points support Layer 2 or Layer 3 LWAPP communications with the controllers. In
Layer 2 operation, the access point and the controller must be on the same subnet and commun icate
with each other using MAC addresses in encapsulated Ethernet frames. This operation is not
scalable to larger networks and not recommended by Cisco.
In Layer 3 operation, the access point and the controller can be on the same or different subnets.
Layer 3 operation is scalable and is recommended by Cisco. A L ayer 3 a cce ss p oint o n a different
subnet than the controller requires a DHCP server on the acce ss p oint s ubne t a nd a r oute to t he
controller. The route to the controller must have destination UDP ports 12222 and 12223 open for
LWAPP communications. The route to the primary, secondary, and tertiary controllers must allow
IP packet fragments.
•Before deploying your access points ensure that the following has been done:
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Your controllers are connected to switch ports that are configured as trunk ports
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Your access points are connected to switch ports that are configured as untagged access ports
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A DHCP server is reachable by your access points and has been co nfigured w ith Opti on 43 .
Option 43 is used to provide the IP addresses of the Management Interface of your controller s.
Typically, a DHCP server can be configured on a Cisco switch.
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Optionally a DNS server can be configured to en ab le C ISC O- LWAPP-CONTROLLER.<local
domain> to resolve to the IP addresses of the Management Interface of your controllers.
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Your controllers are configured and reachable by the access points
Using DHCP Option 43
You can use DHCP Option 43 to provide a list of controller IP addresses to the access points, enabling
the access point to find and join a controller. For additional information, refer to the “Configuring DHCP
Option 43” section on page F-1.