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

1-37
Introduction
Radio Ports
The two radios on a single RP generally support the same WLANs, as shown
in Table 1-7. However, with advanced configuration you can enable different
WLANs on an RP’s two built-in radios; in this case, a single RP with two radios
can support up to 32 WLANs. Using advanced mode configuration raises
several concerns that are discussed in Chapter 3: Wireless Local Area Net-
works (WLANs).
Table 1-7. BSSIDs and WLANs on the ProCurve RPs
Beaconing
An RP broadcasts beacon frames to announce its presence to wireless sta-
tions. In an open system, a beacon includes the SSID for a WLAN to which the
RP offers a connection, as well other information about the WLAN such as:
■ the authentication and encryption method
■ a timestamp for synchronization
■ supported data rates and parameters for signaling frequencies
■ the interval at which stations should expect beacons
■ the delivery traffic indication message (DTIM), which informs power
saving stations whether they must “wake up” to receive buffered packets
■ if WMM is used, priority queue settings
In a closed system, beacons include all information except the SSID, which
stations must send in a probe request before they can associate to the WLAN.
The destination address for a beacon in the broadcast address. The source
address is the BSSID on which the RP carries traffic for the WLAN.
If the RP supports multiple WLANs, then it may send different beacons, each
containing a different SSID. However, the RP can transmit only as many
different beacon frames as it has BSSIDs. This means that even if a ProCurve
RP supports more than four WLANs, it can only advertise the first four.
ProCurve RP BSSID WLANs
(Normal
Mode)
WLANs
(Advanced
Mode)
210 4 16 16
220 8 (4 on each radio) 16 32
230 8 (4 on each radio) 16 32