does WLC involved in data exchange?

[Steve Zhou]

Hi,

I thought the introduction of WLC was to centralize the management of APs, which basically a control / data plane separation. However, I heard that actually all the data frames also goes through WLC, not just management tasks.

One simple example of topology would like one WLC managing one AP:

- WLC
- AP1
- client1    client2

If client1 doing file transfer or video call with client2, does all the data have to go through WLC?

thank you!

[Prateek Saxena]

In a simple setup (local mode AP's) yes all the traffic will go through the WLC. When the AP radio receives traffic from client, the drivers will encapsulate everything in CAPWAP packet and send to the WLC. The WLC will do nothing but forward that traffic via CAPWAP to the same AP. Then AP to client.

If you have a more  complex setup (Flexconnect mode AP's) and local switching on the SSID then the traffic will go directly from client 1 to client 2.