Wireless Access

Can we have different Country codes, one defined on the controller being different from the one defined against the AP group?

The country code that I had defined on my controller is QA, while on AP group's regulatory domain, I had defined it as US.

Will this have any issues?

(WLC_001) #show country

Country:QA
Model:Aruba7240XM
Hardware:Unrestricted



(WLC_001) #show ap-group APC

AP group "APC"
--------------
Parameter                                Value
---------                                -----
Virtual AP                               VAP1
Virtual AP                               VAP2-vap_prof
Virtual AP                               GUEST-vap_prof
802.11a radio profile                    default
802.11g radio profile                    default
Ethernet interface 0 port configuration  default
Ethernet interface 1 port configuration  default
Ethernet interface 2 port configuration  shutdown
Ethernet interface 3 port configuration  shutdown
Ethernet interface 4 port configuration  shutdown
AP system profile                        default
VoIP Call Admission Control profile      default
802.11a Traffic Management profile       N/A
802.11g Traffic Management profile       N/A
Regulatory Domain profile                default
RF Optimization profile                  default
RF Event Thresholds profile              default
IDS profile                              default
Mesh Radio profile                       default
Mesh Cluster profile                     N/A
Provisioning profile                     N/A
AP authorization profile                 N/A

(WLC_001) #show ap regulatory-domain-profile "default"

Regulatory Domain profile "default"
-----------------------------------
Parameter                           Value
---------                           -----
Country Code                        US
Valid 802.11g channel               1
Valid 802.11g channel               6
Valid 802.11g channel               11
Valid 802.11a channel               36
Valid 802.11a channel               40
Valid 802.11a channel               44
Valid 802.11a channel               48
Valid 802.11a channel               149
Valid 802.11a channel               153
Valid 802.11a channel               157
Valid 802.11a channel               161
Valid 802.11a channel               165
Valid 802.11g 40MHz channel pair    N/A
Valid 802.11a 40MHz channel pair    N/A
Valid 802.11a 80MHz channel group   N/A
Valid 802.11a 160MHz channel group  N/A

Hi Adnan,

Please refer to the following link:

https://community.arubanetworks.com/t5/Controller-less-WLANs/Regulatory-domain-considerations-when-converting-IAP-to-Campus/ta-p/178894

IAP's converted to CAP's will compare their country code (IAP mode) with country code set in the regulatory domain profile mapped to AP-group.

It does makes sense to have the flexibility of having the country code defined for controller and the one under the regulatory domain of an AP group as different. The knowledge based document confused, wherein it shows having AP’s country differing from controller’s Country as an issue and one of the reason for APs coming up on controller in Air Monitor Mode.

https://community.arubanetworks.com/t5/Controller-Based-WLANs/When-does-an-AP-gets-to-Air-Monitor-mode/ta-p/240526

Excerpt: 3b.    When AP’s has a different country with the controller’s Country.

Compare the country defined on the controller "(Aruba) #show country" to the country defined in the "(Aruba) #show ap regulatory-domain-profile <profile-name>". The ap regulatory-domain-profile will be mapped in the ap-group to which the ap is provisioned to.

Hi Adnan,

ROW (Rest of world) IAP will have country code assigned to it.

Similarly ROW controller will be aligned to one country chosen at time of configuring it.

The default regulatory domain profile on the controller will have the same country code as controller.

# show country.

# show ap regulatory-domain-profile default

The default regulatory domain profile will be mapped to every AP-group unless you create a new one & map it.

Eg: 1. Lets say you chose the country code on IAP to be India while bringing it up for the 1st time.

2. However, you have a controller which is in Singapore & hence will have country set to same.

The default regulatory domain profile will be pointed to Singapore as well in this case.

3. Now, if you will try to convert your IAP to CAP by pointing to this controller, it will go in to AM mode because of the country code mismtach.

In this case, you need to create a new regulatory domain profile & map it to country code India. 

This profile needs to be mapped to the AP-group on which you expect the AP to come up.

I hope this clears the confusion.