Nortel Networks 2300 Resiliency and Dual-Homing Options for APs, Group, Upgrade-firmware Enable

				Configuring AP access points 227
Table 7:		Global AP Parameters (continued)
	Parameter		Default Value	Description
	group		None	Named set of AP access ports. WSS
				Software load-balances user sessions among
				the access ports in the group.
	upgrade-firmware		enable	Automatic upgrade of boot firmware.
	blink		disable	LED blink mode—blinking LEDs on an AP
				make the AP visually easy to identify.

Resiliency and Dual-Homing Options for APs

APs can support a wide variety of resiliency options. Redundancy for PoE, for data link connections and for WSS services can be provided to the AP.

•PoE redundancy—On AP models that have two Ethernet ports, you can provide PoE redundancy by connecting both ports to PoE sources. PoE can come from a directly connected WSS or a PoE injector. Dual-homing support for PoE is automatically enabled when you connect both AP Ethernet ports.

•Data link redundancy—You can provide data link redundancy by connecting both Ethernet ports directly to one WSS, two WSS switches, an intermediate Ethernet switch, or a combination of WSS and Ethernet switch. If an intermediate Ethernet connection is used, you also need a Distributed AP configuration on an WSS somewhere in the network. Dual-homing support for data link redundancy is automatically enabled when you connect both AP Ethernet ports.

•WSS redundancy—You can provide redundancy of WSS services by dual-homing the AP to two directly connected WSSs; or by configuring a Distributed AP configuration either on two or more indirectly connected WSSs, or on a combination of a directly connected WSS and one or more indirectly connected WSSs. To provide WSS redundancy on an AP model that has only one AP port, configure a Distributed AP connection on two or more indirectly connected WSSs.

Bias

On a WSS, configurations for APs have a bias (low or high) associated with them. The default is high. A WSS switch with high bias for an AP is preferred over a WSS with low bias for the AP.

If more than one switch has high bias, or the bias for all connections is the same, the switch that has the greatest capacity to add more active APs is preferred. For example, if one switch has 50 active APs while another switch has 60 active APs, and both switches are capable of managing 80 active APs, the new AP uses the switch that has only 50 active APs.

Note. Bias applies only to WSSs that are indirectly attached to the AP through an intermediate Layer 2 or Layer 3 network. An AP always attempts to boot on AP port 1 first, and if a WSS is directly attached on AP port 1, the AP boots from it regardless of the bias settings.

(To set the bias for an AP configuration, see “Changing Bias” on page 260.)

Nortel WLAN Security Switch 2300 Series Configuration Guide