How lightweight Accesspoint works?

[Zohaib Khan]

Hi all,

I have a very  basic question, how Lightweight access point work after joining WLC.

when client will connect to AP after successful authentication how client device will work, every time when traffic for that client have to pass from WLC or not?

[George Stefanick · Accepted solution]

When the WLC is deployed and the AP is in local mode. The ap and wlc encapsulates the traffic inside a CAPWAP packet. This is how the AP and WLC exchange packets and control plane information. 

If the AP is in FlexConnect mode traffic is dumped at the switch and not forwarded to the WLC.