VLAN Workgroups and Traffic Management
The AP assigns clients to a VLAN based on a Network Name (SSID). The AP can support up to 9 SSIDs per
radio interface, with a unique VLAN configurable per SSID.
The AP matches packets transmitted or received to a network name with the associated VLAN. Traffic
received by a VLAN is only sent on the wireless interface associated with that same VLAN. This eliminates
unnecessary traffic on the wireless LAN, conserving bandwidth and maximizing throughput.
In addition to enhancing wireless traffic management, the VLAN-capable AP supports easy assignment of
wireless users to workgroups. In a typical scenario, each user VLAN represents a department workgroup; for
example, one VLAN could be used for a marketing department and the other for a human resource
department.
In this scenario, the AP would assign every packet it accepted to a VLAN. Each packet would then be
identified as marketing or human resource, depending on which wireless client received it. The AP would
insert VLAN headers or “tags” with identifiers into the packets transmitted on the wired backbone to a
network switch.
Finally, the switch would be configured to route packets from the marketing department to the appropriate
corporate resources such as printers and servers. Packets from the human resource department could be
restricted to a gateway that allowed access to only the Internet. A member of the human resource
department could send and receive e-mail and access the Internet but would be prevented from accessing
servers or hosts on the local corporate network.
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