Cisco Wireless LAN Controller (WLC) Basic Configuration

Hello Muhammad

If you were to configure the wireless network using what is known as a “standalone architecture” then yes, you would need to create a trunk for the connection of the access point so that each SSID can correspond to the appropriate trunk. However, when using a WLC in your architecture, you eliminate the need for a trunk. WLC uses a tunnelling protocol called Control And Provisioning of Wireless Access Points (CAPWAP). This tunnels all the info necessary (VLANs, management, SSIDs etc) between the WLC and the access point. This also allows a single AP to provide multiple SSIDs each of which place data on different VLANs, even when using an access port for the AP. Take a look at this diagram:


You can see that this greatly simplifies the configuration of each access point especially if you have multiple SSIDs. You can find out more information about both the “standalone architecture” as well as the architecture using a WLC and CAPWAP in the following lesson:

I hope this has been helpful!

Laz

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