Access Points at branch and WLC located at Head Quarters

[ciscobigcat]

Guys,

Please excuse these entry-level questions, but we are just starting here with Cisco wireless technologies.... Can we deploy, let's say 8 3600 APs in one branch and have the WLC deployed at another branch? Could this be possible?

thank you in advance                  

[George Stefanick · Accepted solution]

Welcome .. No worries ask all the questions you like thats why we are here

Cisco has a controller design called FlexConnect (also called HREAP). Where you can deploy access points in the branch where clients will get a local branch IP address, local switching. Or you can bring all the traffic back to the controller, Central switch.

read this

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps10315/products_tech_note09186a0080736123.shtml

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/wireless/controller/7.2/configuration/guide/cg_flexconnect.html

__________________________________________________________________________________________
"Satisfaction does not come from knowing the solution, it comes from knowing why." - Rosalind Franklin
__________________________________________________________________________________________
‎"I'm in a serious relationship with my Wi-Fi. You could say we have a connection."

[Rasika Nayanajith · Accepted solution]

Here is another good reference CiscoLive material for your referece.

Also below post will give you an overview of different modes of operation in this FlexConnect/H-REAP configuration.

http://mrncciew.com/2013/03/10/h-reap-modes-of-operation/

HTH

Rasika

**** Pls rate all useful responses ****

[ciscobigcat]

thank you guys.

Now with this confirmation, I need to head over to my next steps..... We now have 1 WLC 2504 controller and 16 Cisco 3602i that we will be deploying (all of them) to 5 different smal branches.

From a design point of view, do you suggest we keep the 2504 at the main office and make use of this FlexConnect feature? or do we deploy a single 2504 for every branch?

thank you

[Rasika Nayanajith]

Keep 2504 at your HQ and deploy AP in Flexconnect mode in branches is the way to go.



Sent from Cisco Technical Support iPhone App

[George Stefanick]

Well this all depends. I always look at few things. It sounds like these branch offices are over VPN ?

Also note there are limitations on flex. Also read and if it makes sense deploy flex groups.

Sent from Cisco Technical Support iPhone App

[ciscobigcat]

Guys, thank you very much for the input so far.

You are always not one, but many steps ahead from a novice

George Stefanick, yes, we have IPSec site-to-site tunnels with all the branches from the main site. Is via the vpn tunnels where FlexConnect limitations come to play?  What exactly are the limitations of FlexConnect that I need to be aware of??/

As you can see, we have many branches all over the states and also overseas. The initial thought was only to deploy APs where we have warehouses (we really have over 20 branches - and growing - but only 5 of them have warehouses...) So, as I look deeper into cisco WiFi technologies, I can really see all these good features that we can certainly use. So with these features, I think it might make more sense, like rasikanayanajith advised, to really keep the WLC at the main site and deploy the APs at the warehouse with the FlexConnect feature.

This way, all the executives, as they travel to all the 5 warehouses, will only need to be concerned with one single set of credentials (their AD credentials), is this correct????  as I assume we can setup Radius Authentication for the clients to login via the WiFi.

please advise and thank you again

[George Stefanick]

Yes there are many ways to design this.. Is your radius local at each location ? You can have users move between sites with no issues if design and configured properly.

If you plan to do radius and or voice pay close attention to the design guide.



Sent from Cisco Technical Support iPad App

[clarkvyborg]

We have about 120 access points shattered across the country and I have them setup to talk to a pair of 5508s we have in our data centers.  I configured primary and secondaries to load balence them by site.  I am using FlexConnect running local switching with central authenication back to a pair of ACS servers.  Some users travel across the company and using central authenication makes this easier to manage.  I am running access points from many generations including 1242s, 1252, 1262s,1142s, 2602s, and 3602s on WLC 7.3 code.

My company is working on a new inventory system which has found favorable results in the field running on our Flex system.  We are an oil/gas service company so the big rigs create an "interesting" environment for WIFI when they are being worked on in the mechanic bays. 

[ciscobigcat]

Hi Christopher,

Thank you for the input. We have almost the same scenario but here's one exception.... we have what we call 2 HUB sites. With this setup, could you setup or in other words recommend that instead of putting the 2 controllers in one site, put 1 controller in HUB1 and put the second in HUB2 and have all other branches use them in a failover style?

[ciscobigcat]

Hi George Stefanick,

Sorry for the delay in getting back but this project keeps getting updated every 6 hours!

In all the 5 warehouses where we will be initially deploying all the 3602i APs, only 3 of these warehouses have a local Domain Controller (DC) but the other 2 warehouses do not have any DC. How will this affect the design?

Can you also explain a bit when you mentioned about voice?? I think we will be implementing voice.

You said to pay close attention to the design guide.... where is this guide? can you please provide a link?

Thank you