Getting Started Guide for Cisco Aironet 701E Access Points (Available for India only)
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Table of Contents
Cisco Aironet 701E Access Points
Performing a Pre-Installation Configuration
Configuring and Deploying the Access Point on the Wireless Network Guidelines for Using Cisco Aironet Lightweight Access Points
Troubleshooting the Access Point Join Process
Declarations of Conformity and Regulatory Information
Configuring DHCP Option 43 and DHCP Option 60 Cisco Aironet 701E Access Points
First Published: August, 2014. Available for India only
Performing a Pre-Installation Configuration
Configuring and Deploying the Access Point on the Wireless Network
Declarations of Conformity and Regulatory Information
About this Guide
This guide provides instructions on how to install and configure Cisco Aironet 701E Access Points. This guide also provides mounting instructions and limited troubleshooting procedures.
Note
Cisco Aironet 701E access points are available only for India.
Safety Instructions
Translated versions of the following safety warnings are provided in the translated safety warnings document that is shipped with your access point. The translated warnings are also in the Translated Safety Warnings for Cisco Aironet Access Points, which is available on Cisco.com.
Warning IMPORTANT SAFETY INSTRUCTIONS
This warning symbol means danger. You are in a situation that could cause bodily injury. Before you work on any equipment, be aware of the hazards involved with electrical circuitry and be familiar with standard practices for preventing accidents. Use the statement number provided at the end of each warning to locate its translation in the translated safety warnings that accompanied this device. Statement 1071
SAVE THESE INSTRUCTIONS
Warning Read the installation instructions before you connect the system to its power source. Statement 1004
Warning This product must be connected to an IEC60950 compliant limited power source or an IEEE 802.3af compliant power source: Statement CS-0404
Warning Installation of the equipment must comply with local and national electrical codes. Statement 1074
Warning This product relies on the building’s installation for short-circuit (overcurrent) protection. Ensure that the protective device is rated not greater than:
20A. Statement 1005
Warning Do not operate your wireless network device near unshielded blasting caps or in an explosive environment unless the device has been modified to be especially qualified for such use. Statement 245B
Warning In order to comply with FCC radio frequency (RF) exposure limits, antennas should be located at a minimum of 7.9 inches (20 cm) or more from the body of all persons.
Statement 332
Caution Do not use plastic wall anchors to mount the access point on a ceiling because they will not support the weight of the access point. The fasteners used must be capable of maintaining a minimum pullout force of 20 lbs (9 kg).
Caution This product and all interconnected equipment must be installed indoors within the same building, including the associated LAN connections as defined by Environment A of the IEEE 802.af Standard.
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Unpacking
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
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Overview
The following illustrations show the access point connections and features. Figure 1 shows the single-radio AIR-701E access point, Figure 2 shows the location of the Kensington lock slot on both models.
Figure 1 AP-701E Access Point Ports and Connections
Figure 2 AP-701E Kensington Lock Slot Location
Preparing the Access Point
Before you mount and deploy your access point, we recommend that you perform a site survey (or use the site planning tool) to determine the best location to install your access point.
You should have the following information about your wireless network available:
- Access point locations.
- Access point mounting options: below a suspended ceiling or on a flat horizontal surface.
- Access point power options: power supplied by the recommended external power supply (Cisco AIR-PWRINJ5=), PoE from a network device, or a PoE power injector/hub (usually located in a wiring closet).
Cisco recommends that you make a site map showing access point locations so that you can record the device MAC addresses from each location and return them to the person who is planning or managing your wireless network.
Performing a Pre-Installation Configuration
The following procedures ensure that your access point installation and initial operation go as expected. A pre-installation configuration is also known as priming the access point. This procedure is optional.
Note
Figure 3 shows the pre-installation configuration setup.
Figure 3 Pre-Installation Configuration Setup
Follow these steps to perform the pre-installation configuration.
Step 1
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
Step 2
a.
Note The access point requires a Fast Ethernet link to prevent the Ethernet port from becoming a bottleneck for traffic because wireless traffic speeds exceed transmit speeds of a 10Mbps Ethernet port.
b.
Note If the access point remains in this mode for more than five minutes, the access point is unable to find the Master Cisco wireless LAN controller. Check the connection between the access point and the Cisco wireless LAN controller and be sure that they are on the same subnet.
c.
d.
e.
Step 3
Step 4
Step 5
Note When you are installing a Layer 3 access point on a different subnet than the Cisco wireless LAN controller, be sure that a DHCP server is reachable from the subnet on which you will be installing the access point, and that the subnet has a route back to the Cisco wireless LAN controller. Also be sure that the route back to the Cisco wireless LAN controller has destination UDP ports 5246 and 5247 open for CAPWAP communications. Ensure that the route back to the primary, secondary, and tertiary wireless LAN controller allows IP packet fragments. Finally, be sure that if address translation is used, that the access point and the Cisco wireless LAN controller have a static 1-to-1 NAT to an outside address. (Port Address Translation is not supported.)
Mounting the Access Point
Cisco Aironet 701E access point can be mounted in several configurations, including on a suspended ceiling, on a hard ceiling or wall, or on an electrical or network box. Mounting equipment is sold separately.
The AP-701E is compatible with the AIR-AP-BRACKET-7=. If this bracket is used then the following can also be used: AIR-AP-T-RAIL-F=, AIR-AP-T-RAIL-R= and AIR-AP-CHNL-ADAPTER=. Mounting accessories are sold separately. For more information on brackets available of use, go to the URL www.cisco.com/go/bracket.
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Configuring and Deploying the Access Point on the Wireless Network
Controller Discovery Process
The configuration process takes place on the Wireless LAN Controller. See the Cisco Wireless LAN Controller Configuration Guide for additional information. This guide is available on Cisco.com at the following URL:
http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/wireless/controller/8-0/configuration-guide/b_cg80.html
The access point uses the IETF standard Control and Provisioning of Wireless Access Points Protocol (CAPWAP) to communicate between the controller and other wireless access points on the network. CAPWAP is a standard, interoperable protocol which enables an access controller to manage a collection of wireless termination points. The discovery process using CAPWAP is identical to the Lightweight Access Point Protocol (LWAPP) used with previous Cisco Aironet access points. LWAPP-enabled access points are compatible with CAPWAP and conversion to a CAPWAP controller is seamless. Deployments can combine CAPWAP and LWAPP software on the controllers.
The functionality provided by the controller does not change except for customers who have Layer 2 deployments, which CAPWAP does not support.
In a CAPWAP environment, a wireless access point discovers a controller by using CAPWAP discovery mechanisms and then sends it a CAPWAP join request. The controller sends the access point a CAPWAP join response allowing the access point to join the controller. When the access point joins the controller, the controller manages its configuration, firmware, control transactions, and data transactions.
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Note
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Access points must be discovered by a controller before they can become an active part of the network. The access point supports these controller discovery processes:
- Layer 3 CAPWAP discovery—Can occur on different subnets than the access point and uses IP addresses and UDP packets rather than MAC addresses used by Layer 2 discovery.
- Locally stored controller IP address discovery—If the access point was previously joined to a controller, the IP addresses of the primary, secondary, and tertiary controllers are stored in the access point’s non-volatile memory. This process of storing controller IP addresses on an access point for later deployment is called priming the access point. For more information about priming, see the “Performing a Pre-Installation Configuration” section.
- DHCP server discovery—This feature uses DHCP option 43 to provide controller IP addresses to the access points. Cisco switches support a DHCP server option that is typically used for this capability. For more information about DHCP option 43, see the “Configuring DHCP Option 43 and DHCP Option 60” section.
- DNS discovery—The access point can discover controllers through your domain name server (DNS). For the access point to do so, you must configure your DNS to return controller IP addresses in response to CISCO-LWAPP-CONTROLLER.localdomain, where localdomain is the access point domain name. Configuring the CISCO-LWAPP-CONTROLLER provides backwards compatibility in an existing customer deployment. When an access point receives an IP address and DNS information from a DHCP server, it contacts the DNS to resolve CISCO-LWAPP-CONTROLLER.localdomain. When the DNS sends a list of controller IP addresses, the access point sends discovery requests to the controllers.
Deploying the Access Point
After you have mounted the access point, follow these steps to deploy it on the wireless network.
Step 1
Step 2
a.
b.
c.
Tip Use the ip helper address command to forward DHCP requests to a DHCP server on a different subnet. Click this URL for more information on the ip helper address command: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/ios/12_3t/ip_addr/command/reference/ip1_i1gt.html
Step 3
Note A Master Cisco wireless LAN controller should be used only for configuring access points and not in a working network.
Troubleshooting
If you experience difficulty getting your access point installed and running, look for a solution to your problem in this guide or in additional access point documentation. These, and other documents, are available on Cisco.com.
Guidelines for Using Cisco Aironet Lightweight Access Points
Keep these guidelines in mind when you use a 701E access point:
- The access point can only communicate with Cisco wireless LAN controllers.
- The access point does not support Wireless Domain Services (WDS) and cannot communicate with WDS devices. However, the controller provides functionality equivalent to WDS when the access point joins it.
- CAPWAP does not support Layer 2. The access point must get an IP address and discover the controller using Layer 3, DHCP, DNS, or IP subnet broadcast.
- The access point console port is enabled for monitoring and debug purposes. All configuration commands are disabled when the access point is connected to a controller.
Using DHCP Option 43
You can use DHCP Option 43 to provide a list of controller IP addresses to the access points, enabling them to find and join a controller. For additional information, refer to the “Configuring DHCP Option 43 and DHCP Option 60” section.
Checking the Access Point LED
Figure 4 shows the location of the access point Status LED.
Note
Figure 4 Access Point LED Location
Table 1 shows the access point Status LED indications for various conditions.
Troubleshooting the Access Point Join Process
Access points can fail to join a controller for many reasons: a RADIUS authorization is pending; self-signed certificates are not enabled on the controller; the access point’s and controller’s regulatory domains don’t match, and so on.
Controller software enables you to configure the access points to send all CAPWAP-related errors to a syslog server. You do not need to enable any debug commands on the controller because all of the CAPWAP error messages can be viewed from the syslog server itself.
The state of the access point is not maintained on the controller until it receives a CAPWAP join request from the access point. Therefore, it can be difficult to determine why the CAPWAP discovery request from a certain access point was rejected. In order to troubleshoot such joining problems without enabling CAPWAP debug commands on the controller, the controller collects information for all access points that send a discovery message to it and maintains information for any access points that have successfully joined it.
The controller collects all join-related information for each access point that sends a CAPWAP discovery request to the controller. Collection begins with the first discovery message received from the access point and ends with the last configuration payload sent from the controller to the access point.
When the controller is maintaining join-related information for the maximum number of access points, it does not collect information for any more access points.
An access point sends all syslog messages to IP address 255.255.255.255 by default when any of the following conditions are met:
- An access point running software release 8.0 or later has been newly deployed.
- An existing access point running software release 8.0 or later has been reset after clearing the configuration.
If any of these conditions are met and the access point has not yet joined a controller, you can also configure a DHCP server to return a syslog server IP address to the access point using option 7 on the server. The access point then starts sending all syslog messages to this IP address.
When the access point joins a controller for the first time, the controller sends the global syslog server IP address (the default is 255.255.255.255) to the access point. After that, the access point sends all syslog messages to this IP address until it is overridden by one of the following scenarios:
- The access point is still connected to the same controller, and the global syslog server IP address configuration on the controller has been changed using the config ap syslog host global syslog_server_IP_address command. In this case, the controller sends the new global syslog server IP address to the access point.
- The access point is still connected to the same controller, and a specific syslog server IP address has been configured for the access point on the controller using the config ap syslog host specific Cisco_AP syslog_server_IP_address command. In this case, the controller sends the new specific syslog server IP address to the access point.
- The access point is disconnected from the controller and joins another controller. In this case, the new controller sends its global syslog server IP address to the access point.
- Whenever a new syslog server IP address overrides the existing syslog server IP address, the old address is erased from persistent storage, and the new address is stored in its place. The access point also starts sending all syslog messages to the new IP address provided the access point can reach the syslog server IP address.
You can configure the syslog server for access points and view the access point join information only from the controller CLI.
A detailed explanation of the join process is on Cisco.com at the following URL:
http://www.Cisco.com/en/US/products/ps6366/products_tech_note09186a00808f8599.shtml
Declarations of Conformity and Regulatory Information
All the Declaration of Conformity statements related to this product can be found at the following location: http://www.ciscofax.com
Configuring DHCP Option 43 and DHCP Option 60
This section contains a DHCP Option 43 configuration example on a Windows 2003 Enterprise DHCP server for use with Cisco Aironet lightweight access points. For other DHCP server implementations, consult product documentation for configuring DHCP Option 43. In Option 43, you should use the IP address of the controller management interface.
Note
The access point uses the type-length-value (TLV) format for DHCP Option 43. DHCP servers must be programmed to return the option based on the access point’s DHCP Vendor Class Identifier (VCI) string (DHCP Option 60). The VCI string for 701E access points is:
Note
Cisco AP c702-ServiceProviderThe format of the TLV block is listed below:
- Type: 0xf1 (decimal 241)
- Length: Number of controller IP addresses * 4
- Value: List of WLC management interfaces
To configure DHCP Option 43 in the embedded Cisco IOS DHCP server, follow these steps:
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
Step 4
The hex string is assembled by concatenating the TLV values shown below:
Type is always f1(hex). Length is the number of controller management IP addresses times 4 in hex. Value is the IP address of the controller listed sequentially in hex.
For example, suppose that there are two controllers with management interface IP addresses, 10.126.126.2 and 10.127.127.2. The type is f1(hex). The length is 2 * 4 = 8 = 08 (hex). The IP addresses translate to 0a7e7e02 and 0a7f7f02. Assembling the string then yields f1080a7e7e020a7f7f02. The resulting Cisco IOS command added to the DHCP scope is option 43 hex f1080a7e7e020a7f7f02.
Access Point Specifications
Table 2 lists the technical specifications for 701E access points.
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