So, as mentioned in the challenge itself, there aren't going to be a lot of
wrong answers
here.
We could probably come up with something that is so outlandish that should
never be done.
But we want to think back to those deployment models and what we learned about
capwap tunnels
and lightweight architecture in general and put some thought into where we
might put the
wireless LAN controllers.
And again, I would expect that there could be several valid options here.
So let's talk through some of those.
So first of all, let's talk about a centralized option. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
So first of all, let's talk about a centralized option.
The centralized option says we're going to deploy a single pair of HA
controllers.
And we probably want to pick a site that has a lot of access points to be our
centralized
location.
Again, we should never deploy a wireless LAN controller into a layer 3 core.
We ideally don't deploy it into a data center, although sometimes it does make
the most
sense to do so.
And so instead, what I would do from an outward design perspective is I would
place those
controllers here in this distribution block at site 2. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
controllers here in this distribution block at site 2.
And the reason for that is it has a lot of access points.
So that would be a purely centralized model.
We would put the wireless LAN controller here.
And again, it would be an HA pair.
Now the upside to that is it's a single wireless LAN controller I have to
manage.
The downside is we've got everything from remote sites to WAN sites.
So I guess sites connected directly via the core versus sites that have to go WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
So I guess sites connected directly via the core versus sites that have to go
through
the WAN block.
And a lot of that is going to potentially cause us some problems, at least as
far as WAN
sites go down and those kinds of things or WAN links go down.
Now we could also look at a distributed model.
If we look at the distributed model, then that's right there in the name,
distribute distribution.
We'd probably want to deploy wireless LAN controllers in all three of these
distribution
blocks. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
blocks.
This way the access points only connect locally to a wireless LAN controller.
They also live on subnets that are attached to the actual distribution blocks
that are
associated with their locations.
And then we'd have to figure out what to do about these remote sites, whether
they're
going to come into, well specifically, this wireless LAN controller or this
wireless LAN controller
pair.
And we could have primary and second areas.
So we've got a lot of options there.
The downside is I have three different wireless LAN controllers that I have to WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
The downside is I have three different wireless LAN controllers that I have to
manage, but
three is not too bad.
And so that would be a perfectly valid option as well.
Now we could have also suggested we just go with a cloud architecture.
This would mean that we have no wireless LAN controllers in the entire
environment.
Instead the access points are going to connect out through wherever the
internet is to connect
to the cloud.
The downside to that is if our internet goes down or we have problems with that
cloud provider,
that we might actually see our wireless network impacted. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
that we might actually see our wireless network impacted.
But cloud is a very valid architecture that a lot of organizations rely on.
And again, Cisco does have an architecture for that with their Miracchi
platform.
Now lastly, we could also consider something special over here with these rem
otes.
And that would be leveraging FlexConnect.
I would argue that in all of these, well maybe not cloud because cloud is a
little different,
both centralized and distributed models, I would argue that FlexConnect should WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
both centralized and distributed models, I would argue that FlexConnect should
be used
with both of those.
Because if I'm centralized here or I'm decentralized either way, there's not a
wireless LAN controller
out here at the remote sites.
Now if you suggested that we put a small wireless LAN controller out here, that
's probably fine.
The four access points, we do have very small controllers for that.
Twenty starts to get a little bit larger.
We're going to want to explore an HAPAR.
And in a lot of cases, it's pretty clear that it doesn't warrant the expense of WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
And in a lot of cases, it's pretty clear that it doesn't warrant the expense of
taking
that distributed model and applying that to the remote sites that are out the W
AN links.
So instead we can find a happy compromise here.
Whether it was centralized or distributed, we can then deploy FlexConnect.
And that's going to make sure that our wireless access points stay online in
the event of a
WAN outage.
It also makes it so we don't have to have wireless LAN controllers locally.
And even better, the traffic gets dropped off locally, meaning that my wireless WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
And even better, the traffic gets dropped off locally, meaning that my wireless
client
traffic doesn't have to exist on a subnet that belongs to a different location.
So as we see here, we alluded to it earlier, the location of the wireless LAN
controller
matters greatly.
And as everything to do with those KAPWF tunnels, as well as just having a
redundant, easy to
access location, we need to think about whether we're going to deploy a
centralized or distributed
model.
We need to think about deploying potentially a cloud solution.
FlexConnect is a very important part of wireless architecture. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
FlexConnect is a very important part of wireless architecture.
And all of this is going to just give us a lot of different things to think
about when
we're deciding where to deploy wireless LAN controllers, whether we should
deploy them
at all.
And in the end, what are wireless architectures going to look like?
I hope this has been informative for you and I'd like to thank you for viewing.