How Data traffic will be done between AP and Controller ?

[palani2010]

How Data traffic will be done between AP and Controller ? 

Is it go through CAPWAP, I believe CAPWAP used to both control plane and data plane ?

[MHM Cisco World · Accepted solution]

Yes correct 
only the UDP ports is different between control and data 

 

[palani2010]

Thanks.

DTLS will be enable for control plane but not for data plane by default. 

How to check DTLS enabled for data plane from wlc 9800.

[MHM Cisco World · Accepted solution]

Configuring Data DTLS (GUI)

Follow the procedure to enable DTLS data encryption for the access points on the controller :

Procedure

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Step 1	Click Configuration > Tags and Profile > AP Join.
Step 2	Click Add to create a new AP Join Profile or click an existing profile to edit it.
Step 3	Click CAPWAP > Advanced.
Step 4	Check Enable Data Encryption check box to enable Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS) data encryption.
Step 5	Click Update & Apply to Device.

[palani2010]

If DTLS is not enabled means frames not will be encapsulated in capwap data plane traffic.

Correct me if i am wrong

[MHM Cisco World]

no it will send via capwap with udp port 5247 but it not encap inside dtls.

MHM

[Mark Elsen]

 - The topic is discussed in this document amongst other stuff : https://www.thenetworkdna.com/2023/02/basics-of-capwap-tunneling.html

 M.

[Flavio Miranda · Accepted solution]

@palani2010 

 Not exactly.

If the WLAN is in flexconnect mode, only control plane is sent between WLC and AP. Data Plane will be betwen AP and switch.

If the WLAN is in local mode, both control plane and data plane will be sent between WLC and AP.

[palani2010]

Flex connect doubts

1. Need to configure flexconnect on wlan 

2. AP should be configured from local mode to flex mode

[Rich R]

Flexconnect is the AP (not WLAN) mode required if you want to do WLAN local switching.

Once the AP is in Flexconnect mode the WLAN can be configured for central or local switching.  Centrally switched WLAN client data will still be tunnelled to WLC over CAPWAP while locally switched will breakout on local VLAN on AP switch port.  Flexconnect AP can have centrally and locally switched WLANs.