Administrator Guide

Branch office users want continued operation of the branch office WLAN, even if the link to the corporate
network goes down. The branch office AP solves these requirements by providing the following capabilities on
the branch office WLAN:
l Local termination of 802.11 management frames which provides survivability of the branch office WLAN.
l All 802.1x authenticator functionality is implemented in the AP. The controller is used as a RADIUS pass-
through when the authenticator has to communicate with a RADIUS server (which also supports
survivability).
l 802.11 encryption/decryption is in the AP to provide access to local resources.
l Local bridging of client traffic connected to the WLAN or to an AP 70 enet1 port to provide access to local
resources.
Provisioning the Branch AP
You can provision the remote AP either using the controller or using the Zero Touch Provisioning method. For
more information on controller provisioning, see Configuring Installed APs on page 581. For more information
on Zero Touch Provisioning, see Provisioning 4G USB Modems on Remote Access Points on page 760.
Configuring the Branch AP
l Specify forward mode for the Extended Service Set Identifier (ESSID) in the virtual AP profile
l Specify remote AP operation in the virtual AP profile (The remote AP operates in standard mode by default.)
l Set how long the AP stays up after connectivity to controller has gone down in the SSID profile
l Set the VLAN ID in the virtual AP profile
l Set the native VLAN ID in the AP system profile
l Set forward mode for enet1 port
Remote APs support 802.1q VLAN tagging. Data from the remote AP will be tagged on the wired side.
Troubleshooting Remote AP
The following WebUI options are available to troubleshoot issues with remote AP:
l Using local debugging feature
l Viewing the remote AP summary report
l Viewing remote AP connectivity report
l Using remote AP diagnostic options
Local Debugging
Local debugging is a WebUI feature that allows end users to perform diagnostics and view the status of their
remote AP through a wired or wireless client. This feature is useful for troubleshooting connectivity problems
on remote APs and performing throughput tests. There are three tabs in the Local Debugging WebUI
window; Summary, Connectivity, and Diagnostics. Each tab displays different information for the AP, but
all three tabs include a Generate & save support file link that, when clicked, will automatically generate a
support.tgz file that can be sent to a corporate IT department for additional analysis and debugging.
Starting from Dell Networking W-Series ArubaOS 6.4.x, snapshot of the bridge, acl, session, user, and arp tables,
current processes, memory, and kernel debug messages are captured in a single rap_debug.txt file which is
bundled along with support.tgz file.
Dell Networking W-Series ArubaOS 6.4.x | User Guide Remote Access Points | 728