Bind APs

Introduction

You can bind a wireless service to multiple radios and bind multiple wireless services to each radio. By binding a wireless service to a radio of an AP or AP group, the radio will create a wireless service BSS based on the bound service. BSS is the basic unit that provides wireless services. In the service area of a BSS (which refers to the range covered by radio signals), clients can communicate with each other.

Operating mechanism

When binding a wireless service, you can configure the following:

• Assign a VLAN group to the BSS. Clients in the BSS will be equally allocated across all VLANs in the group. This setup not only places clients in different multicast domains but also fully utilizes non-consecutive address sections to allocate IP addresses to clients.

• Bind a Network Access Server Port Identifier (NAS-Port-ID) and a Network Access Server Identifier (NAS-ID) to identify the client access location provided by the service provider to distinguish traffic sources. According to the service provider's standard, different NAS-Port-IDs correspond to different location information.

• Configure to hide the SSID. To prevent clients from coming online or to restrict other clients from accessing the network, hide the SSID. The AP broadcasts an empty SSID in Beacon frame, protecting the network from attacks.

Application scenarios

Use the AP group binding feature in scenarios where many APs use the same wireless service.

Use the AP binding feature in scenarios where a specific AP requires a specific wireless service.

Restrictions and guidelines

The number of wireless services that can be bound to a radio varies by device model.

Configuration guide

Basic configuration

Bind an AP group

1. From the left navigation pane, select Configure > Wireless Services > Wireless Services > Bind APs.

2. In the Basic Configuration section, click Add.

3. Configure AP group parameters.

   Table-1 Parameters for binding an AP group or AP

   Parameter	Description
   AP Group Name (Required)	Select the AP group to bind with the wireless service.
   Radio (Required)	Select the type of radios to bind with the wireless service. Options include: 2.4GHz 5GHz After configuration, the wireless service will be bound to all radios of the specified type on APs in the AP group.
   VLAN/VLAN Group (Optional)	Select the VLAN or VLAN group bound to the wireless service. Once configured, clients accessing the wireless service will join the VLAN or a VLAN in the VLAN group. If you specify a VLAN group, the clients accessing the wireless service will be evenly allocated across all VLANs in the group.
   Hide SSID (Optional)	With this feature enabled, clients cannot discover the wireless service by scanning.
   NAS-ID (Optional)	When a client comes online, the system uses the NAS-ID attribute carried in RADIUS requests sent to the RADIUS server to identify the client access location.
   NAS-Port-ID (Optional)	When a client comes online, the system uses the NAS-Port-ID attribute carried in RADIUS requests sent to the RADIUS server to identify the client access location.

Bind an AP

1. From the left navigation pane, select Configure > Wireless Services > Wireless Services > Bind APs.

2. In the Basic Configuration section, click Click to Bind APs.

3. Click Add. Specify the AP name, radio, and VLAN. For more information about the parameters, see Table-1.