Controllerless Networks

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How do Instant APs work?

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  • 1.  How do Instant APs work?

    EMPLOYEE
    Posted Feb 22, 2012 04:55 AM

    Hello

     

    A customer of ours has asked us about the protocols behind Instant APs and their virtual controller technology.

     

    I guess it works more or less like VRRP with no preemption and the same priority for all APs for the master AP election. For control traffic, i suppose it still uses PAPI tunnels but I would like to give our customer a more precise answer. Are there any tecnhnical notes addressing virtual controller technology?

     

    Regards

     

    Samuel

     

    P.S. I've already seen the tech notes on the main webpage, but I'm afraid I need a bit more detail.

     



  • 2.  RE: How do Instant APs work?
    Best Answer

    Posted Feb 22, 2012 01:54 PM

    The virtual controller or master is elected  using an election process that involves all IAPs in the group. If there is a contention, the IAP with the highest uptime will win.

    There are no tunnels built for control traffic. The IAPs communicate using layer 2 broadcast and this is very lightweight.

     

    There are additional details that can't be shared externally, but if there are specific questions or issues that the customer is concerned about, I will be happy to discuss those.

     

    Thanks,

    Shashi



  • 3.  RE: How do Instant APs work?

    EMPLOYEE
    Posted Feb 29, 2012 02:01 PM

    Hello

     

    We've been capturing traffic in one of our customers network and have found out the following:

    • Control traffic (master AP election) between APs is done using PAPI (or at least it is UDP 8112) protocol.
    • The configuration is passed from the master AP to the rest via HTTP (plain text)

     



  • 4.  RE: How do Instant APs work?

    Posted Sep 01, 2012 10:45 AM

    So the IAP works like the APs with the controller with bridge mode right?