I am researching Cisco EWC APs. After reading some of the documentation, I am a little confused. The initial configuration, assuming we have separate Employee and Guest SSIDs / VLANs / Networks, notes the AP should be connected to a switch via a trunk allowing those 3 VLANs (one management as native VLAN, one Employee VLAN, one Guest VLAN.) This implies Layer 2 functionality.
We currently have a physical Cisco controller operating in Layer 3 mode. There are two Employee and Guest SSIDs / VLANs / Networks, however it doesn’t matter from which SSID, the traffic originates… The 802.11 frame from the client hits the AP, is encapsulated in CAPWAP, and sent to the controller. The AP connects itself physically to an access port, not a trunk. The traffic always comes from the same AP IP regardless of SSID and hits the same Controller IP. At the controller, the CAPWAP packet is decapsulated and frame sent out on the wire on the appropriate VLAN for the SSID.
Do the EWC APs not function the same way as our current controller set up? It seems to me it’s all layer 2 if the AP needs to connect to a trunk? How does IP addressing for the actual AP work then? Does it require an individual IP for every SSID or does the AP acting as controller just need the management IP?
Thanks!
