Mobility Configuration Guide, Cisco IOS XE Release 3SE (Catalyst 3850 Switches)
Inter Sub Domain Mobility

Inter Sub Domain Mobility

Introduction

This section focuses specifically on mobility events that occur across mobility sub-domains. An inter sub-domain mobility event occurs when a user moves from his home sub-domain to a foreign sub-domain. When the station initially roams to the foreign sub-domain, the foreign Mobility Controller signals the mobility event through the Mobility Oracle. This causes the station's traffic to be tunneled between the MCs in both sub-domains.

Point of Presence at Anchor Switch

When a station moves across sub-domains, the home and foreign MCs ensure that all of the station's traffic is tunneled.

Figure 1.



Tunneling across sub-domains when the client roams from Anchor Switch to Foreign Switch

The following events happen when a station roams across sub-domains with the anchor switch in the home sub-domain as its point of presence:

  • A station joins the network by associating to the AP on switch A and is provided with an IP address from a subnet available on it.Its traffic is natively bridged at the switch and no tunneling is required. switch A is both the point of presence and point of attachment for the station.
  • When the station roams to switch B where the same subnet is not available, the information is provided in the handoff process.
  • When the handoff is complete, the mobile announce message is sent from switch B to the MC in foreign sub-domain.
  • The MC belonging to the foreign sub-domain will then tunnel the mobile announce message to the MO. This cause the stations traffic to be tunneled between the MCs in both the sub-domains.
  • The MO will tunnel the mobile announce message to the MC in the home sub-domain.
  • The MC in the home sub-domain will then tunnel the traffic to the anchor switch.

Tunneling across sub-domains with the Anchor Switch in the home sub-domain is the point of presence

The following events happen when a station roams across sub-domains with the anchor switch in the home sub-domain as its point of presence:

  • A station joins the network by associating to the AP on switch A and is provided with an IP address from a subnet available on it.Its traffic is natively bridged at the switch and no tunneling is required. switch A is both the point of presence and point of attachment for the station.
  • When the station roams to switch B where the same subnet is not available, the information is provided in the handoff process.
  • When the handoff is complete, the anchor switch (Switch A) sends the handoff complete message to Switch B.
  • The MC in the foreign sub-domain then forwards the handoff complete message to the MC in the home sub-domain.
  • The MC belonging to the foreign sub-domain will then tunnel the traffic to the MO and finally reached the MC in the home sub-domain.
  • The MC in the home sub-domain will then tunnel the traffic to the anchor switch.
  • The anchor switch continues to be the point of presence for the station.
  • The Switch B will contain the point of attachment.