Multiple WDS APs on a single IP range

[c.tenley]

I have 80+ APs on a single IP range. Can I have two WDS APs on a single IP range in order to service the 80+ APs? I was planning to configure 40 APs to point to one WDS AP and the other 40 to the other WDS AP

[a-vazquez]

You can define multiple WDS's per subnet, but they will elect a primary and the primary will handle all authentications. Only when the primary fails will a backup takeover.

[mattmar]

no, you can only have 1 WDS per subnet then use pri to assign backups.

[sethgarnar]

If you have subnet say 172.16.1.X just split that into 4 subnets of 62 addresses. Then you have 4 subnets to use for WDS all on the same range. Remember an WDS AP can support 60 client ap's with no wireless users connected, and 30 if wireless clients are connected.

[jflanda]

Mi question is: could it be done with layer 2 ACLs in the access switches or in the own APs in other to avoid WDS servers seeing each other? If traffic between WLSs is filtered they both will become ACTIVE, then you can point APs to one o other WLS. In this is OK, which are the ACLs?

[d.beaver]

No, you cannot have 2 AP's acting as primary WDS servers on the same subnet. You can have 2 WDS servers on the same subnet, but the first will act as the primary and the second one would act as a failover. Together they would still only support 60 AP's.

You would have to either break the wireless network into 2 subnets, each with 40 AP's and 1 WDS server, or if you have a 6500 at the core you could purchase a WLSM which will support up to 300 Access Points per subnet.

I have had success with 2 wireless subnets, the only gotcha would be roaming from one network to the other. Roaming to a different subnet, your clients will have to obtain a new IP address which can take a little time. If you use your wireless network for internet and email, that should work fine. If you have mission critical applications, you may run into problems.

[networx99]

You can put the AP's in seperate VLAN's for WDS but have the SSID's in the same vlan, thus being able to roam across WDS subnets without having to get a new IP for your clients. This negates the problem of having to do a dhcp request on the client side when crossing over.