Converged Access With The Cisco Catalyst 3850 Switch; Distributed Functions Enable Converged Access - Cisco Catalyst 3850 Deployment Manual

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Converged Access with the Cisco Catalyst 3850 Switch

The Cisco Catalyst 3850 Switch can serve as an integrated wireless LAN controller for up to 50 directly attached

Cisco access points and 2000 clients per stack. The Cisco Catalyst 3850 Switches can form the basis of a

deployment that supports up to 250 Cisco access points and 16,000 clients. The converged access deployment

mode builds on an existing Cisco Unified Wireless Network.

The converged access deployment is achieved by distributing some of the functions from the wireless LAN

controllers (WLCs) to the Cisco Catalyst 3850 Switches in the access network. The access switches terminate the

CAPWAP encapsulated wireless traffic locally and convert the wireless traffic into wired frames. This unifies wired

and wireless traffic on the switch and makes it possible to apply the rich, intelligent wired services on wireless

traffic.

This section explains the converged access deployment with the Cisco Catalyst 3850 Switches in detail. Before the

details are explored, it is important to understand the functions that are distributed to the access switches.

There are three software functions (two required and one optional) that enable wireless services on WLC:

Mobility agent: The mobility agent manages CAPWAP tunnel terminations from access points and builds a

database of client endpoints (mobile devices) that are served locally as well as roamed from an anchor WLC.

The mobility agent also provides 802.1x authentication, proxy IGMP, and proxy ARP for locally served clients.

Mobility controller: The mobility controller provides a superset of the mobility agent software functions and

manages mobility (roaming) for client stations that move from one WLC to another. The mobility controller provides

guest access functionality by building an EtheroIP tunnel with the guest anchor controller in the DMZ. It also

provides central management of the RF spectrum, such as rogue detection, dynamic channel assignment,

transmission power on access points, coverage hole detection, and Cisco CleanAir

technology.

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