Motorola WS5100 manual Hardware Overview

Overview

The switch provides a centralized management solution for wireless networking components across the wired network infrastructure. The switch connects to legacy access ports through a Layer 2 switch/hub. The switch connects to non-legacy access ports through a Layer 3 interface.

The switch functions as the center of the wireless network. The access ports function as radio antennas for data traffic management and routing. All of the system configuration and intelligence for the wireless network resides in the switch.

The switch uses access ports to bridge data from associated wireless devices to the wireless switch. The wireless switch applies appropriate policies to the data packets before routing them to their destination. Data packets destined for devices on the wired network are processed by the switch, where appropriate policies are applied before they are encapsulated and sent to their destination.

Access port configuration is managed by the switch through the Graphical User Interface (GUI), SNMP or the Command Line Interface (CLI). The switch streamlines the management of a large wireless system and allows for Quality of Service (QoS), virtual WLANs and packet forwarding implementations.

1.1 Hardware Overview

The wireless switch is a rack-mountable device that manages all inbound and outbound traffic on the wireless network. It provides security, network service and system management applications.

Unlike traditional wireless infrastructure devices that reside at the edge of a network, the switch uses centralized, policy-based management to apply sets of rules or actions to all devices on the wireless network. It collects management “intelligence” from individual access points and moves the collected information into the centralized switch. Then, it replaces access points with “dumb” radio antennas called access ports.

Access ports (APs) are 48V power-over-Ethernet devices connected to the switch by an Ethernet cable. An access port receives 802.11x data from MUs and forwards the data to the switch which applies the appropriate policies and routes the packets to their destinations. Depending on the model, an AP can support as many as 16 WLANs.

Access ports do not have software or firmware upon initial receipt from the factory. When the access port is first powered on and cleared for the network, the switch initializes the access port and installs a small firmware file automatically. Therefore, installation and firmware upgrades are automatic and transparent.