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202 Configuring APs
NN47250-500 (320657-F Version 02.01)
through any network port. (A network port is any port connecting the switch to other networking devices,
such as switches and routers, and it can also be configured for 802.1Q VLAN tagging.) The WSS
contains a configuration for a Distributed AP based on the AP’s serial number. Similar to ports configured
for directly connected APs, Distributed AP configurations are numbered and can reference a particular
AP. These numbered configurations do not, however, reference any physical port.
Distributed AP network requirements
Because Distributed APs are not directly attached to a WSS, they require additional support from the network
in order to function. Information on the booting and operation sequence for Distributed APs is covered in the
section “Boot process for distributed APs” (page 208).
• Power—PoE must be provided on one of the Ethernet connections to the AP. Be sure to use a PoE
injection device that has been tested by Nortel. (Contact Nortel for information.) Providing PoE on both
of the Ethernet connections (on models that have two Ethernet ports) allows redundant PoE.
• DHCP—By default, a Distributed AP uses TCP/IP for communication, and relies on DHCP to obtain IP
parameters. Therefore, DHCP services must be available on the subnet that the AP is connected to. DHCP
must provide the following parameters to the AP:
● IP address
● Domain name
● DNS server address
● Default router address
• Static IP configuration—If DHCP is not available in the network, a Distributed AP can be configured
with static IP information that specifies its IP address, as well as the WSS uses as its boot device.
• DNS—If the intermediate network between the WSS and Distributed AP includes one or more IP routers,
create a wlan-switch.mynetwork.com entry on the DNS server. The entry needs to map one of these
names to the system IP address of the switch. If the subnet contains more than one WSS in the same
Mobility Domain, you can use the system IP address of any of the switches. (For redundancy, you can
create more than one DNS entry, and map each entry to a different WSS in the subnet.)
The DNS entry allows the AP to communicate with a WSS that is not on the AP’s subnet. If the
AP is unable to locate a WSS on the subnet it is connected to, the AP sends DNS requests to the
wlan-switch, where the DNS suffix for mynetwork.com is learned through DHCP.
● If only wlan-switch is defined in DNS, the AP contacts the WSS whose IP address is
returned for wlan-switch.
Distributed APs and STP
A Distributed AP is a leaf device. You do not need to enable STP on the port that is directly connected to the
AP.
If Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) is enabled on the port that is directly connected to a AP, you might need to
change the STP configuration on the port, to allow the AP to boot.
Note. STP on a port directly connected to a Distributed AP can prevent the AP from
booting.