Example 2: Creating A Cluster; Example 3: Creating A Wlan Policy - Black Box SmartPath LWN602A User Manual

8.2 Example 2: Creating a Cluster

A cluster is a group of SmartPath APs that exchanges information with each other to form a collaborative whole. Through
coordinated actions based on shared information, cluster members can provide the following services:
• Consistent Quality of Service (QoS) policy enforcement across all cluster members
• Coordinated and predictive wireless access control that provides seamless Layer 2 and Layer 3 roaming to clients moving from
one cluster member to another (The members of a cluster can be in the same subnet or different subnets, allowing clients to
roam across subnet boundaries.)
• Dynamic best-path routing for optimized data forwarding and network path redundancy
• Automatic radio frequency and power selection for wireless mesh and access radios
• Tunneling of client traffic from one cluster member to another, such as the tunneling of guest traffic from a SmartPath AP in the
internal network to another SmartPath AP in the corporate DMZ
Cluster members use Wi-Fi Protected Access with a preshared key (WPA-PSK) to exchange keys and secure wireless cluster
communications. To authenticate and encrypt wireless cluster communications, cluster members use open authentication and
CCMP (AES) encryption. CCMP is a rough acronym for "Counter Mode with Cipher Block Chaining Message Authentication Code
Protocol" that makes use of Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). This is very similar to the security provided by the SSID in the
preceding example.
In this example, you define a cluster and name it "cluster-test1". Later, in Section 8.3, you assign the cluster to a WLAN policy,
which in turn, you assign to SmartPath AP devices in Section 8.5.
NOTE: A WLAN policy is different from a cluster. Unlike the members of a WLAN policy who share a set of policy-based
configurations, the members of a cluster communicate with each other and coordinate their activities as access points.
WLAN policy members share configurations. Cluster members work together collaboratively.
Click Configuration > Advanced Configuration > Clusters > New, enter the following, leave the other options at their default
settings, and then click Save:
Cluster: cluster1-test (You cannot include spaces in the name of a cluster.)
Description: Test cluster for learning how to use the GUI; remove later
As was done in the previous example, this note and the name "cluster1-test" are intended to act as reminders to replace
this configuration later with a cluster name that you really intend to use.
Modify Encryption Protection: (select)
Automatically generate password: (select)
The password is what cluster members use when authenticating themselves to each other over the wireless backhaul link
using WPA-PSK CCMP (AES). As an admin, you never need to see or know what this string is; therefore, using the
automatic password generation method saves you the trouble of inventing a long—up to 63 characters—and random
alphanumeric string.
Optional Settings: Leave the optional settings as they are by default. For information about these settings, and about any setting
in the GUI for that matter, see the SmartPath EMS VMA on-line Help system.

8.3 Example 3: Creating a WLAN Policy

Through SmartPath EMS VMA, you can configure two broad types of features:
• Policy-level features—In combination, these features form policies that control how users access the network: SSIDs, user
profiles, QoS forwarding mechanisms and rates, clusters, AAA (authentication, authorization, accounting) services, management
services (DNS, NTP, SNMP, and syslog), tunnel policies, IP and MAC firewall policies, and VLAN assignments.
Chapter 8: Basic Configuration Examples
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