WESM zl Management and Configuration Guide WT.01.XX and greater

4-15
Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs)
Configuration Options: Normal Versus Advanced Mode
Manually Assigning WLANs to the Radio Adoption Default
Configuration. Configure the radio adoption default configuration to cus-
tomize the WLANs that the Wireless Edge Services zl Module sends to all newly
adopted radios. This configuration actually divides into two parts—one for
802.11a radios and one for 802.11bg radios.
Note If you decide to use advanced mode configuration after the module has already
adopted RPs, any WLAN assignments established in the radio adoption default
configurations will not apply to these RPs. You must instead assign the WLANs
to specific radios, as explained in “Manually Assigning WLANs to a Specific
Radio” on page 4-18.
You should configure the radio adoption default configurations when you
want all RPs in your network to support the same WLANs (as they would with
normal mode configuration), but for some reason the normal WLAN assign-
ment is inadequate.
For example:
■ You have added several WLANs to your network. You now want RP
beacons to include one of the new WLANs in preference to one of the old,
but the new WLAN has an index number higher than 4.
■ You have temporarily disabled several WLANs and you want to spread the
others more evenly over the BSSIDs.
■ You want to enable more than 16 WLANs on a single RP, so you assign
some of the WLANs to 802.11a radios and some to 802.11bg radios.
■ You want to configure different WLAN settings for stations that use
different 802.11 types.
If you are using advanced mode to restrict one WLAN to a certain area, then
you can create WLAN assignments in the radio adoption default configura-
tions for all other, non-restricted WLANs.
For example, to restrict WLAN 1 to one building, you will explicitly assigned
that WLAN to RPs in that building, as described in “Manually Assigning WLANs
to a Specific Radio” on page 4-18. All other RPs in the wireless network should
support WLANs 2 through 5. You create a default configuration for both types
of radios (802.11a and 802.11bg), in which you assign these WLANs.
Figure 4-9 displays an environment such as this. This figure also shows the
option of enabling SSID A (WLAN 1) on the default configuration, but having
SSID E (WLAN 5) be the primary WLAN. (Stations in WLAN 1 can then roam
into areas in which WLAN 1 operates in closed system.) In this example,
WLAN 1 is less a restricted WLAN than a WLAN that is primarily used by
employees in one area.