WLC 2504 and Apple iPhone App

[ROBERT THOMPSON]

Hello Everyone,

We have a small issue with a Cisco WLC 2504 with Software 7.4.100 running in a house controlling all Audio/Video and entertainment systems.

The issue is as follows:

1. Apple iPhone cannot control wireless devices such as Belkin's Wemo Switches

2. Apple iPhone cannot control uPnP/DLNA  type devices such as Smart TV's using the associated app

I can see, via PC, all devices and each of the Wemo devices are pingable.

We have enabled the broadcast forwarding on the controller as well as Multicast (AP and Global)  and enabled mDNS. The iPhone can control the Sonos equipment but Sonos is a little more robust than the Belkin Wemo devices when it comes to controller based wireless deployments.

I suspect issues such as roaming between access points on the iphone. However, in a standard non controller setup (IE - Autonomous Access Points), the iphone could control all of these devices perfectly.

Having looked at all the options, this one is a little off normal logic and i am still leaning towards the iphone roaming between AP's. This is such a simple setup - 1) Single VLAN, Single subnet, static routing, WPA2 PSK (AES), Single SSID (hidden), LAP1262's, 3750-E's, No MAC filtering etc and we are not running flex connect

My next move is to configure the controller to reduce the roaming capabilities in such a way that the iphone will need very poor signal before it roams. I have had issues with Apple IOS devices before and had to really tune down the roaming element. I also had issues with WPA2 PSK  and roaming with IOS devices but that was supposed to be fixed in IOS 6.1

Short of me going to site with a sniffer, can anyone shed a little light on the above that I may be missing.

Many thanks in advance

Rob

[Scott Fella]

One of the bigger things that needs to be done is to configure multicast on the switch/router in order for this to work well. I have a setup at home for my Apple TV and without multicast in the network side it will not work. Autonomous it works fine, but not in the 15.x code.


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[ROBERT THOMPSON]

Hi Scott,

M/cast routing is enabled as well as IGMP snooping. I have the Sonos M/Cast working with the iphone, its just this weird iphone app trying to find Belkin Wemo devices and Smart TV devices. I will probably find this fault by putting the sniffer on their network and  finding out how the Wemo's talk to each other and the iphone app's. Some consumer grade devices are just not made to work in a controller based environment, hence why I will have to tune the roaming in such a way that devices don't really roam. Real mobility devices will roam but only when RF is very low.

Rob

[Scott Fella]

If these other devices are wired, well that can be your issue. mDNS doesn't support the wired side as of now. I believe the v7.5 will have support for the wired side mDNS.

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[ROBERT THOMPSON]

Cheers Scott,

I think you are onto something there. I will update this post this weekend following my findings just in case people have similar issues.

Rob

[Scott Fella]

Well let me know... I can tell you that v7.5 is supporting the wired side:)

Thanks,

Scott

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[JohnSenters]

I am having a similar issue. I have a 2504 running 7.4, 7-1142 AP's, and 2-SG300-28p Switches.

The issues I have are the iPhone cannot see iTunes on an iMac connected wireless so the customer can use the remote app or sync his phone with itunes. I also have an issue with the airplay functionallity, I can airplay wirelessly to any of the 3 AppleTV hardwired to the network but cannot airplay to an AirportExpress that is hardwired. Everything works great wired to wired on the network . The iPhone will show that it is connected to the airport express but it will not pass audio.

Any assistance is much appreciated

Regards

John

[Scott Fella]

John,

I have tested mDNS for a while and to be honest, even if I manually add service strings for home sharing so my Apple TVs can connect to my PC vid iTunes and also required for the iPhone Remote app, it just doesn't work. Mirroring and audio should work fine though. I have used the Avahi bonjour gateway solution in the past and that works great.

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[George Stefanick]

I have sharing working on a 2100 and 7.0 code. No issues

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[George Stefanick]

What do u you use Avahi for ?

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