WLAN protocol being pitched to smooth interoperability

Two wireless LAN companies this week will unveil a protocol for controlling WLAN access points and ask the IETF to consider it for a standard.

If the aim for this protocol sounds familiar, it should: It's the same as that addressed by Lightweight Access Point Protocol (LWAPP), which was created by a small group of vendors, including WLAN switch vendor Airespace . The vendors last year passed their work to the IETF for standards consideration.

The proposals are aimed at setting standards for WLAN access points and switches to smooth interoperability and give customers more freedom to switch vendors.

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Two wireless LAN companies this week will unveil a protocol for controlling WLAN access points and ask the IETF to consider it for a standard.

If the aim for this protocol sounds familiar, it should: It's the same as that addressed by Lightweight Access Point Protocol (LWAPP), which was created by a small group of vendors, including WLAN switch vendor Airespace . The vendors last year passed their work to the IETF for standards consideration.

The proposals are aimed at setting standards for WLAN access points and switches to smooth interoperability and give customers more freedom to switch vendors.

The IETF early this year chartered a working group on this subject, but not to write a protocol. Instead, the Control and Provisioning of Wireless Access Points (CAPWAP) group is focusing on analyzing current models of WLAN access points and how they connect to the network or other access points to forward traffic, and how switches or other network elements control them.

Those models include stand-alone - or fat - access points, and thin access points, which shift many of their functions to a WLAN switch or access controller. CAPWAP's work could lead to an architectural proposal and protocol development. The group's initial document is due in July.

The scheme being introduced this week is called the CAPWAP Tunneling Protocol (CTP), and it is currently in beta test. The backers are Chantry Networks, a WLAN switch vendor, and Propagate Networks, which has software that runs on WLAN gear to create self-organizing radio networks.

CTP covers a broader spectrum than LWAPP, which focused on 802.11, says Bob Myers, Chantry co-founder and CTO. "We want to support different radio technologies at the edge of the net," he says.

Other differences in CTP include a way for access points and switches to swap information about their features and capabilities as well as support for any topology such as direct connections.

Read more about lans & wans in Network World's LANs & WANs section.