Chapter 4
AireOS Appliance, Virtual, and Mobility Express Controllers
The wireless LAN controller (WLC) is one of the core components of the Cisco Wi-Fi solutions and the main focus of this chapter. In the next pages we will also refer to the term “AireOS” for a WLC, for Airespace (the former wireless solutions vendor acquired by Cisco) operating system.
A WLC communicates with an access point (AP) through the Control and Provisioning of Wireless Access Points (CAPWAP) protocol, specified in IETF RFC 5415, as well as IETF RFC 5416 for dedicated applications to 802.11-based networks. CAPWAP is based on the former Lightweight Access Point Protocol (LWAPP), which Cisco replaced with CAPWAP starting from the AireOS version 5.2.
Although you can find ...
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