Capwap Mailing List: Re: Comments on -02 version of capwap spec

[Abhijit Choudhury (Abhijit]

Title: Re: [Capwap] Comments on -02 version of capwap spec

            [Puneet]: My main concern is the way 802.11 Management traffic
            is handled today. It wasn't clear to me why we (the group) specified to
            carry them in CAPWAP Data frames. I would have thought that they would
            be carried in CAPWAP Control Frames as they would most likely be handled
            by the CAPWAP Control entity (and not necessarily the CAPWAP Data
            entity). Hence sending such packets to the CAPWAP Data entity seems like
            a waste and it would eventually need to be sent to the CAPWAP control
            entity.

        <PRC> I think architecturally, I disagree. I believe that the CAPWAP
              Control entity handles the base spec - maintaining that connection and
              configuration with the peer. The CAPWAP Data entity, on the other hand,
              is the one that actually understands the subtleties of 802.11 (or
              whatever wireless binding). It handles the user associations, the 802.1x
              state machine, etc. Further, as I noted above, it becomes complex to
              decide what's management and what's not. Clearly, an 802.11 MAC
              management frame would be a candidate, but what about EAPOL? What about
              IAPP? This would require use to do an extensive protocol survey and list
              the proper destination for each.

 

I agree with Pat here. The current architecture hands it

cleanly. Sending 802.11 management traffic on the control

channel would cause lots of problems unless the 802.1X

and 4-way handshake were also carried on the control channel.

Since the latter are carried in 802.11 data packets, they

definitely belong on the data channel.

 

I think the real problem is that the 802.3 tunneling mode

has not been fully specified.  It's not clear how the

802.11 management frames will be carried in the data channel

in 802.3 tunneling mode. 

 

Thanks,

   Abhijit