Multiple AP's Broadcasting Single SSID

[Nasir1111]

Hi All,

How can we configure multiple Access Points to Broadcast Same single SSID ???

need to know the cofiguration..

Thanks in Advance.

[Surendra BG]

Configure one AP and then copy past the same config on rest of the APs..

Configuring one is based on your requirement and based on your requirement we can help you over here!!

Regards

Surendra

[Nasir1111]

Hi Surendra,

Thanks , what is the mechanism or what makes 10 different AP's which are configuration wise identical (with different IP's and Channels) not to broadcast 10 SSIDs (named test for example) but 1 single SSID names test.

wanted to understand the backend mechanism

Hope i made my question clear.

Regards,

Nasir

[Surendra BG]

not clear on the question u want 1 SSID or 10 SSID?? is your question about?? -- If you are trying to find out how 10 APs are able to braodcast the same SSID, it is evident through the identical configuration. However if that is not the case, please be more clear on this.

Regards,

Surendra

[Nasir1111]

My question is how 10 AP's are Broadcasting the same SSID ??

But, let me present to you a situation, i have 2 AP's standing alone without any connection to each other via a switch having the identical configurations, lets say the ssid is test.Now in this case we will have 2 different SSIDs named "test".

is that true ???

but if we have the same 2 APs with identical configurations and test as the ssid configured it will Broascast a single SSID, if they are connected to a switched infrastructure.

is that true ??

how that happened ???

[Surendra BG]

in both the situations we have to see just just 1 SSID... however.. i am thinking this is because of BSS and ESS concept in wireless

Regards

Surendra

[Nasir1111]

This is my doubt actually,

Since in the 1st case we have 2 different APs (BSS) with similary SSIDs, shouldnt they broadcast their individual SSIDs ??? and the client should see 2 similar ssids , if not then there has to be some mechanism at the client level to view 2 identical ssids as 1.

[Surendra BG]

thats when BSS comes is wat i believe!! I beleive if we are using ESS then we wil not see multiple SSIDs

Let me test the same in my lab once!!

Regards

Surendra

[Nasir1111]

Please do test, this has been quite a confusion in my mind for quite some time now. Want to get this point cleared.

Really appreciate your patience on this.

i ll be waiting for your reply, pls take your time.

Thanks in advance.

Regards,

Nasir Manzoor

[Saravanan Lakshmanan]

Client will see two ssids with same name but with different BSSIDs. BSSID will be different for each ssid in same and different AP.

[Nasir1111]

Hi Saravanan,

Thanks , but now i ll just back to my previous question,which is in case of ESS (multiple APs attached to the switched infrastructure) it will broadcast single SSID.

How is that possible (need to know the backend mechanism).

Thanks in advance.

Regards,

Nasir Manzoor

[Saravanan Lakshmanan]

whether it is standalone or unified AP it is the same principle. Beacon generated for each SSID is unique and local to that AP only, Beacon generated from neighbor AP may have different channel, power-level, beacon interval,....based on its configuration. An Cisco AP can broadcast upto 16 SSIDs on each radio using unique BSSIDs. Ex: G radio's last octet of bssid starts from 01 and go upwards 0F, for A radio's it will start from 0F and go downwards until 01.

[George Stefanick · Accepted solution]

Here is a blog post I did on this very subject, virtual SSID

http://www.my80211.com/home/2011/5/2/wlc-how-cisco-virtualizes-the-base-radio-mac-address-on-the.html

[Saravanan Lakshmanan]

cool gr8 effort. +5

though there is overlap between the virtual MAC addresses for A and G radio that doesn't affect wireless client connectivity since the transceiver for both A & G radio is different, means they can't hear each other at layer-1. Also, This virtual MAC won't have IP and will not be used for uplink wired data transactions, only AP's ethernet MAC used to send all data to WLC for wired communication that has virtual MAC info encapsulated on them. This virtual MAC/BSSIDs will be used by WLC to map that wlan to VLAN  at WLC.

[Surendra BG]

Awesome george!!!

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