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Cisco Aironet 1500 Series Outdoor Mesh Access Point Hardware Installation Guide
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Chapter 3 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 point can only communicate with controllers and cannot operate independently.
The access point does not support Wireless Domain Services (WDS) and cannot 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 subn et a nd co mmuni cat e w ith
each other using MAC addresses in encapsulated Ethernet frames. This ope ration 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 differen t subnets. The
access point communicates with the controller using standard IP packets. Layer 3 operation is
scalable and is recommended by Cisco. A Layer 3 access point on a different subnet than the
controller requires a DHCP server on the access point subn et and a route to the 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:
Your controllers are connected to switch ports that are configured as trunk ports.
Your access points are connected to switch ports that are configured as untagged access ports.
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 Interfaces of your controllers.
Typically, a DHCP server can be configured on a Cisco switch.
Optionally a DNS server can be configured to en ab le CI SCO - LWAPP-CONTROLLER.<local
domain> to resolve to the IP address of the Management Interface of your controller.
Your controllers are configured and reachable by the access points.
Your controllers are configured with the MAC addresses of the access points and Zero Touch
Configuration is enabled.
Controller MAC Filter List
Prior to activating your access point, you must ensure that the access point MAC address has been added
to the controller MAC Filter list. To view the MAC addresses added to the controller MAC filter list, you
can use the controller CLI or the controller GUI:
Controller CLI–Use the show macfilter summary controller CLI command to view the MAC
addresses added to the controller filter list.
Controller GUI–Log into your controller web interface (HTTPS) u si ng a w eb br owser and c hoo se
SECURITY > MAC Filters to view the MAC addresses added to the controller filter list.