Wireless Backhaul - Cisco aironet 1522 Design And Deployment Manual

Mesh Network Components
The three RAPs are connected to the wired network at each location and are located on the building roof.
All the downstream access points operate as MAPs and communicate using wireless links (not shown).
Both MAPs and RAPs can provide WLAN client access; however, the location of RAPs are often not
suitable for providing client access. Each of the three access points in Figure 15 are located on the
building roofs and are functioning as RAPs. These RAPs are connected to the network at each location.
Some of the buildings have onsite controllers to terminate CAPWAP sessions from the mesh access
points but it is not a mandatory requirement as CAPWAP sessions can be back hauled to a controller over
a wide-area network (WAN). (See Figure 16.)
For more details on CAPWAP, refer to the "Architecture Overview" section on page 29.
Note
Figure 15 Wireless Mesh Deployment

Wireless Backhaul

In a Cisco wireless backhaul network, traffic can be bridged between MAPs and RAPs. This traffic can
be from wired devices being bridged by the wireless mesh, or CAPWAP traffic from the mesh access
points. This traffic is always AES encrypted when it crosses a wireless mesh link such as a wireless
backhaul (Figure 16).
AES encryption is established as part of the mesh access point neighbor relationship with other mesh
access points. The encryption keys used between mesh access points are derived during the EAP
authentication process.
Universal Access
You can configure the backhaul (1522, 1240 and 1130) to accept client traffic over its 802.11a radio.
This feature is identified as Backhaul Client Access in the controller GUI (Monitor > Wireless). When
this feature is disabled, backhaul traffic is only transmitted over the 802.11a radio and client association
is only allowed over the 802.11b/g radio. Refer to the "Configuring Global Mesh Parameters" section on
page 71 for configuration details.
Cisco Aironet 1520, 1130, 1240 Series Wireless Mesh Access Points, Design and Deployment Guide, Release 6.0
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