Wireless/Redundant Edge Services xl Module Management and Configuration Guide WS.01.03 or greater

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Introduction
Radio Ports
Radio Ports
Because one of the Wireless Edge Services xl Module's duties is to deploy
configurations to RPs, you should understand how these RPs function.
The Wireless Edge Services xl Module can manage the ProCurve RPs 210, 220,
and 230. The RP 210 includes one 802.11bg radio, but two omnidirectional
diversity antennas. The RPs 220 and 230 include two radios, one 802.11a and
one 802.11bg. The RP 230 includes two omnidirectional diversity antennas on
each radio, while the RP 220 is designed for use with external antennas.
Using their radios and Ethernet interfaces, these IEEE 802.11-compliant RPs
grant wireless stations connections to one or more WLANs and eventually to
your Ethernet network.
These devices are “thin” APs, which ProCurve Networking refers to as RPs to
distinguish them from its “thick” APs.
Note This guide will generally use the term RP instead of AP, even when discussing
general concepts that apply to both, to remind you that you connect RPs to
the Wireless Edge Services xl Module.
RPs provide the physical connection to wireless users, but little intelligence.
For example, an RP receives 802.11 frames from wireless stations, encapsu-
lates them, and forwards them to the Wireless Edge Services xl Module; the
module handles filtering the traffic and tagging it for a specific VLAN.
In addition, you can configure the RPs through the Wireless Edge Services xl
Module instead of separate management interfaces.
The advantage of such a deployment—thin RPs managed by a module installed
in a switch—is that the wireless network can be controlled efficiently for
consistent and transparent network access for all users.
802.11
802.11 is the IEEE standard for wireless networks. It specifies Physical Layer
standards such as radio channel frequencies and the modulation techniques
used to encode data. At the Data Link Layer, it also specifies the format for
802.11 frames.