Tutorial introduction

This Packet Tracer 7.1 wireless tutorial will show you how to configure the Wireless LAN controller and the
associated Lightweight Access Points embeded in Cisco Pcket Tracer 7.1 including :

 WLC 2504 intial setup

 SSID and VLAN configuration on th WLC 2504
 Security configuration using 802.1x
 LightWeight Access Points 3702i automatic registration

This tutorial will be based on the following network topology :

Management IP addressing (Vlan 1 / 192.168.1.0/24)

 Cisco WLC 2504 : 192.168.1.254

 Catalyst L3 switch : 192.168.1.1 (vlan 1 default gateway / DHCP server)
 Management laptop : dynamic IP address from DHCP
 Lightweight Access Points : dynamic IP address from DHCP

1
Cisco WLC 2504 initial setup
Connect to the WLC 2504 using the web browser of the management laptop using http://192.168.1.254 and
configure the admin username and password. The admin credentials will be login: admin, password :
P@ssw0rd in this tutorial. Make sure to connect using HTTP (unsecure), not HTTPS, for this first
connection.

Packet Tracer 7.1 issue : Access to the web interface can fail several times before allowing showing the
following page. It works after a random number of tries.

The second step is to configure time, location, and management IP address of the WLC before creating the
first protected Wireless network. Please note that the Guest Network function is not supported in Packet
Tracer 7.1.

2
3
After this initial setup, reconnect to the Cisco WLC using HTTPS (https://192.168.1.254). If you try to
connect using HTTP (unsecure) the WLC resets the connection but doesn't automatically redirect the
connection to the HTTPS url.

SSID and VLAN configuration on the WLC

WLAN creation and SSID to VLAN mapping is configured on the WLAN tab of the WLC configuration.
Each WLAN SSID is associated to a VLAN previously created and linked to a pysical interface on
Controller tab. Packet Tracer 7.1 supports the following security options :

 No security
 WPA2 Personal
 WPA2 Enterprise (802.1x)
 Static WEP
 Static WEP + 802.1x
 CKIP
 None + EAP Passthrough

LightWeight Access Points automatic registration

Cisco Lightweight access points are directly connected to the layer 3 Catalyst 3560 switch and are PoE
power supplied by the switch, making deployment quite easy. Attention is required for the access switch
deployment which needs reduncdant power supplies and suffisant power budget from the closet to power up
all the connected WLC.
4
Switch#show power inline
Available:370.0(w) Used:15.0(w) Remaining:355.0(w)

Interface Admin Oper Power Device Class Max

(Watts)
--------- ------ ---------- ------- ------------------- ----- ----
Fa0/1 auto on 5.0 Light Weight Access Point0n/a 15.4
Fa0/2 auto on 5.0 Light Weight Access Point1n/a 15.4
Fa0/3 auto on 5.0 Light Weight Access Point2n/a 15.4

Lightweight Access Points automatically discover the WLC address using DHCP option 150 configured on
the DHCP which has been configured on the Catalyst switch for Vlan 1.

ip dhcp excluded-address 192.168.1.1 192.168.1.9

!
ip dhcp pool MGMT
network 192.168.1.0 255.255.255.0
default-router 192.168.1.1
option 150 ip 192.168.1.254

The WLC displays thesuccessfully registered Access Points with thir IP address. detailed data is not
available as this function has not been implemented in Packet Tracer 7.1

Known issues
When configuring the WLC port to trunk mode and applying a static IP to the WLC, connection to the
management interface of the WLC fails. The issue has been identified by Cisco and it's correction has been
integrated in the next development rally of Packet Tracer 7.1.1