Cisco Unified Wireless Network Architecture

Essam Abdelaal Systems Engineer Cisco Systems, UAE

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2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

Cisco Confidential

Gaining Perspective

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2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

Cisco Confidential

Centralization not a new idea

Original cellular networks were nodal. Lots of call drops Lots of administration Roaming wasnt very good Not capable of providing advanced services

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2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

Cisco Confidential

Enter the Base Station Controller

Complete view of the network Improved roaming One point of administration

Enabled provisioning of advanced services

Management/Control
Base stations are used to handle call setup, handovers, and other functions across an entire cellular network.
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2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

Cisco Confidential

Enter The Controller

DHCP DNS RADIUS ACS HPOV

LWAPP

Control and Management

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2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

Cisco Confidential

What does LWAPP enable?

Zero-touch AP deployment
Centralized RF management Fast roaming between access points: CCKM, PKC, 802.1x, and other protocols Single point for administering many access points Centralization of security policies In the future: Interoperability!

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2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

Cisco Confidential

10

Cisco Centralized WLAN Solution Architecture

Cisco WCS Cisco WLAN Controller Security Policies QoS Policies RF Management Mobility Management
SNMP v3
IE Web browser

Cisco Wireless Location Appliance Switch/Routed Network

Lightweight Access Points

Remote RF interface MAC Layer Encryption Air monitoring

Cisco Confidential
11

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2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

Making the Network Resilient

N+1 Fault Tolerant Wireless Controllers

X
sw3 sw2

X
sw1

Primary: sw3 Secondary: sw2 Tertiary: sw1

Primary: sw1 Secondary: sw2 Tertiary: sw3

Ciscos LWAPP Failover behavior and timers are configurable

Session Number Presentation_ID 2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

Cisco Confidential

13

Reliable Connectivity Through Dynamic RF Management

RF channel 1 Dynamic Channel Assignment Dynamic Power Optimization RF channel 2 RF channel 3

RF Controller Software

Hardware Layer

Eliminate coverage holes Avoid interference/Improve performance Optimize coverage area Reduce hands on WLAN mgmt
Session Number Presentation_ID 2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

Cisco Confidential

14

Centralization Delivers RF Reliability

Cisco WLAN Controller

Ethernet Switch

Cisco Aironet Access Points

Cisco Hardware Layer

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2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

Cisco Confidential

15

Better Network Performance

Dynamic Load Balancing
Solving Performance & Capacity problems in high density areas (e.g. conference rooms, cafeteria)

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2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

Cisco Confidential

16

Better Network Performance

Dynamic Load Sharing
Solving Performance & Capacity problems in high density areas (e.g. conference rooms, cafeteria)

Session Number Presentation_ID

2005 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

Cisco Confidential

17