Wireless Access

Hi community.

Suppose I have a centralized deployment of APs and a cluster of 2 Mobility Controllers (MCs). Suppose I am managing a branch office and its APs thru these MCs and a WAN link.
What happens with the client connections if the WAN router in the remote office fails and connection from the APs to the MCs is lost?
Is there any survival mode that the APs can use so that:

• The APs can switch traffic locally
• The APs can authenticate new users someway or make use of a survival profile enabling a temporal predefined PSK for users to access the network.

Thanks in advance for your support.

If survival is a requirement, Aruba Instant is your answer in general.

There are some things that you can do with RAPs like Always SSIDs and Backup SSIDs, but you should avoid that and just use Instant for more consistent service.

Hi Joseph,

I know Central is a better option here, but this is a special customer, it is a government one. They are deploying Mobility Controllers 7200 and AP-315 and they want to have an alternative just in case the branch WAN CPE fails. Is it possible to give the customer a solution for this case?

What are "Always SSIDs" and "Backup SSIDs"?. Do they begin to be available only in case of WAN failure?

Regards

The "backup" and "always" options are only available if the AP is configured as a Remote AP.  An instant AP with an IAP-VPN back to the controller might be an option.

If this is a government customer and there are security implications, I would have a word with your Aruba Sales Engineer.  I am only stating a few options that I know about, but I cannot hope to give you all of the options that this customer might have.