Wireless Mobility

[Ranli_Cruz]

Hello,

I have 8 Cisco Aironet 1602, i think i can do the wireless mobility. Do i need a wireless controller or it is posible to have the mobility without it? if i need a controller which one is better for 8 APs?

[Kyle Nielsen]

No the WLC is not needed.

[Stephen Rodriguez · Accepted solution]

No, you do not need a WLC to be able to roam gracefully.  What you need is proper cell overlap and configuration.  If you are using a PSK, then the same SSID and PSK on all AP will be all you need.

if you are going to want to do 802.1x, then you'd want to configure WDS, so that one of the AP holds the PMK for the clients so that you can roam with doing a full 16 way handshake every roam.

HTH,
Steve

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[Leo Laohoo · Accepted solution]

Straight up, you don't "necessarily" need a WLC.  Like what Steve said, you want to have adequate cell overlap and the correct security/encryption setup.  WDS is also mandatory.

The only time you want to put a WLC is ease of configuration, the ability of the channels and TX power to be "harmonized" through DCA and TPC, respectively, and CleanAir.

Frankly, I'd go for a WLC.  With only 8 APs, you can get the 2504 if you have limited funds.  If you have a healthy budget, you can't go wrong with a 5508.

[Ranli_Cruz]

Nice, i want to have a layer 3 roaming. Could you please help me with the configuration, channels, etcc..?

[George Stefanick]

Ranli,

When you configure the access points make sure they share the same VLAN for each SSID. This way the client will retain the same IP address and pass traffic. Is this what you are asking ?

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