Controller Based WLANs

Q:

AOS 8.2 Airgroup workflow changes and different modes

Prior to 8.2, Airgroup configurations are non-profile based and applicable only at /mm node.In a large deployment, a single mobility master ( MM) is used to manage large number of managed nodes and clients.Having single configuration for the entire network is not desirable.

From 8.2 the Airgroup config is made profile based and can be applied at any node.

We can configure Airgroup in two modes :

1: Centralized

2: Distributed

Centralized:

Airgroup would run centrally on the Mobility master with a single set of configs applicable for all the MDs. This means Airgroup process runs only on the MM and does not run on the MDs. All mDNS and SSDP/DLNA packets from MD would be punted to MM via Openflow.

Distributed :

In this, there is no Openflow involved. Airgroup process runs individually on each MD, that is enabled to run in distributed mode.

Note : An MM-MD topology can either run in Centralized mode or Distributed mode or a mix of both - where few MDs have Openflow configs enabled and run centralized and others run in distributed mode.