Wireless Access

My customer wants to simplify their deployment by using RAPs for all services - even for those sites which might require quite a few Access Points to provide adequate coverage.  Does ARM still work, as between CAPs, if we did this?   Would roaming between adjacent RAPs (say when using EAP-TLS against a centralised RADIUS server) still work in the same way as between CAPs?    Are there any other downsides to such a setup and, if not, how in fact is there then a differentiation between CAPs and RAPs, other than the tunnelling used when, as I understand it, you can now use encypted tunnelling for CAPs these days?  Are there limits on what AP type(s)  can be set up as CAPs and/or RAPs..?

I can answer your last question.  Any Aruba AP can be provisioned to be a RAP.  The RAP models are 'out of the box' RAPs so to speak.  The other campus APs need to be connected to the controller first and then provisioned as a RAP.

 

Hope that helps

Thanks Michael - that's certainly a really good start... :)

 

What forwarding mode are you using ?

The solution might need to support one of three modes, on a site-by-site basis,   i.e.   on any site you might need to setup all the RAPs there as one of these scenarios:

 

1. All SSIDs tunnelled back to controller

2. Split tunnelling, with some SSIDs bridged to a local VLAN at the AP

3. All SSIDs breaking out to a local VLAN at the AP

Using Adaptive Radio Management (ARM) in a Remote Network
Starting in ArubaOS 3.4.1.x-rn 4.0, the ARM feature can be used by remote APs in bridge mode. Earlier versions of ArubaOS supported ARM on campus APs only.