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Cisco Aironet 1100 Series Access Point Hardware Installation Guide
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Chapter 1 Overview
The lightweight access point contains one integrated radio: a 2.4-GHz radio (IEEE 802.11g). Using a
controller, you can configure the radio settings.
In the Cisco Centralized Wireless LAN architecture, access points operate in the lightweight mode (as
opposed to autonomous mode). The lightweight access points associate to a controller. The controller
manages the configuration, firmware, and controls transactions such as 802.1x authentication. In
addition, all wireless traffic is tunneled through the controller.
LWAPP is an Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) draft protocol that defines the control messaging
for setup and path authentication and run-time operations. LWAPP also defines the tunneling mechanism
for data traffic.
In an LWAPP environment, a lightweight access point discovers a controller by using LWAPP discovery
mechanisms and then sends it an LWAPP join request. The controller sends the lightweight access point
an LWAPP join response allowing the access point to join the controller. When the access point is joined,
the access point downloads its software if the versions on the access point and controller do not match.
After an access point joins a controller, you can reassign it to any controller on your network.
LWAPP secures the control communication between the lightweight access point and controller by
means of a secure key distribution, using X.509 certificates on both the access point and controller.
This chapter provides information on the following topics:
•
Hardware Features, page 1-3
•
Network Examples with Autonomous Access Points, page 1-5
•
Network Example with Lightweight Access Points, page 1-9
