FlexConnect in the local site ??

[RKha]

Dars.

I have main and DR sites (2 WLC for each on) and also branches . WLC 5508 . I am asking about the AP in the main and DR .what is the best deployment for . Does the  FlexConnect recommended or CAPWAPP ? Making the AP in the main  CAPWAPP to the WLC in the main and FlexConnect with that one in the DR ( the secondary WLC to the AP)  is it possible and recommended ??

[Scott Fella]

There are limitation between FlexConnect and local mode. I would always go with local mode if APs are local to at least one WLC.  For failover, you need to look at subnets in case of a failure.  Some DR sites have the same later two subnets and some do not. So in case of a failure, clients will either get the same IP address or not. If you have static IP address on wireless devices and the DR has interfaces on a different subnet, that will break the client.  FlexConncet works well for remote sites as long as it's not too large of a site in my opinion.  Just look at the limitations in the FlexConnect deployment guide and if your okay with that, then place the APs in FlexConnect for the remote sites. The guide explains the design also for Flex.

-Scott

[chrisriehm]

Why not have large sites with flexconnect AP's?  With dual 8500's there aren't many limitations any more.  Just list both WLC's in HA and a tertiary if you have other regional DC's

[sobhardw]

In local mode, the LAP maintains a CAPWAP (or LWAPP depending on your IOS version) tunnel to its associated controller. All client traffic is centrally switched by the controller which why LAPs have been referred to as ‘dumb’ APs, primarily due to the fact it does very little thinking on its own. As a matter of fact, if a LAP operating in local mode loses its connection to the WLC, the LAP will stop forwarding and begin looking for the controller. Until the LAP (operating in local mode) joins another WLC it will not forward any user traffic.

If you had every LAP operating in Local mode and you experienced a WAN failure at the location housing your WLC, every LAP in your network would stop forwarding user traffic, crippling your wireless networks. LAPs operating in REAP mode do not always require a connection to the WLC, and have the capability to locally switch WLAN traffic without relying on the controller. The functionality of REAP was later expanded to H-REAP (Hybrid-REAP) getting a littler better with each code release. Later on H-REAP was later re-branded again being called Flexconnect gaining a host of new features.

For more information on Flexconnect , Please refer to the below link:

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/wireless/controller/7-4/configuration/guides/consolidated/b_cg74_CONSOLIDATED/b_cg74_CONSOLIDATED_chapter_010001101.html

[Abhishek Abhishek]

In local mode, an AP creates two CAPWAP tunnels to the WLC.  One is for management, the other is data traffic.  This behavior is known as "centrally switched" because the data traffic is switched(bridged) from the ap to the controller where it is then routed by some routing device.