AP Discovery Process

Below is the AP Discovery Process to find WLC.

Challenge for an AP is where to send CAPWAP Discovery messages so for that AP goes through hunting process to find WLC.

• AP will send DHCP discovery request to get IP address unless it has previously configured static IP.
• AP sends Layer 3 broadcast [255.255.255.255] to find WLC.
• It looks for WLC information in option 43 inside DHCP offer to send the discovery request.
• It will try to resolve CISCO-CAPWAP-CONTROLLER.local-domain or CISCO-LWAPP-CONTROLLER.local-domain to get the IP address of WLC.
• Previously known WLC IP, AP remembers upto 24 previously learnt WLC IP Address.
• Statically configured from WLC.
• Statically configured from AP CLI.