WESM zl Management and Configuration Guide WT.01.28 and greater

1-5
Introduction
ProCurve Wireless Edge Services zl Module
■ receives traffic from wireless stations via RPs and places this traffic into the
correct VLAN to be forwarded into the wired network
■ adopts connecting RPs and automatically deploys configurations to them
Depending on how you configure the Wireless Edge Services zl Module, it may also:
■ enforce users’ 802.1X, MAC, or Web authentication (Web-Auth) to either:
• an external Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS) server
• its internal RADIUS server
■ apply quality-of-service (QoS) settings to traffic received from and destined to
wireless stations
■ provide DHCP services
■ route among up to eight VLANs
■ implement a firewall between VLANs, applying both MAC and IP access control
lists (ACLs) and Network Address Translation (NAT)
■ enable seamless and fast Layer 2 roaming, as well as Layer 3 roaming, between
one of its own RPs and an RP adopted by itself or by another module
■ monitor the wireless network for signs of an attack or intrusion
■ collect information about the wireless network and control self-healing functions
such as neighbor recovery and interference avoidance
■ sample wireless traffic and send the samples to an sFlow collector such as
ProCurve Manager Plus (PCM Plus)
This chapter provides a brief overview of these functions, as well as some of the
technologies on which they are based.
Wireless Networks and WLANs
In this guide, the term wireless network is used to encompass all the devices (such
as stations, RPs, access points [APs], Wireless Edge Services zl Modules, and
wireless services-enabled switches) involved in your organization’s wireless func-
tions.
The term Wireless LAN System refers to a Wireless Edge Services zl Module and
all of its adopted RPs, which function together as a single entity.
The Wireless Edge Services zl Module acts the Wireless LAN System’s brain. The
RPs produce the wireless signal, but the module enforces wireless authentication,
generates and encrypts wireless frames, and sets all other policies in the Wireless
LAN System as a whole. A large part of the Wireless Edge Services zl Module’s
duties lie in establishing the settings for WLANs.