Netgear WC9500 Reference Manual

ProSAFE Wireless Controller WC9500

Reference Manual

January, 2015 202-11224-05

350 East Plumeria Drive San Jose, CA 95134 USA

ProSAFE Wireless Controller WC9500

Support

Thank you for selecting NETGEAR products.

After installing your device, locate the serial number on the label of your product and use it to register your product at

https://my.netgear.com. You must register your product before you can use NETGEAR telephone support. NETGEAR

recommends registering your product through the NETGEAR website.

For product updates and web support, visit http://support.netgear.com.

Phone (US & Canada only): 1-888-NETGEAR.

Phone (Other Countries): Check the list of phone numbers at http://support.netgear.com/general/contact/default.aspx.

Compliance

For regulatory compliance information, visit http://www.netgear.com/about/regulatory.

See the regulatory compliance document before connecting the power supply.

Trademarks

Revision History

Publication Part Number

202-11224-05 January 2015 Corrected the number of access points in the trial license (see Licenses) and

202-11224-04 January 2015 Added the following features:

Publish Date Comments

added a note about port 8443 (see page 45).

• Support for additional access points (see Supported NETGEAR Access Points)

• Support for antennas (see Supported NETGEAR Antennas)

• RF planning, including support for heat maps (see Chapter 3, RF Planning

and Deployment)

• Controller redundancy

Manage Stacking and Redundancy)

• Support for the “Rest of the world” transmission power feature (see

Configure the General Settings)

• Capability to change the building and floor assignments for multiple access

points simultaneously (see Assign Access Points to Buildings, Floors, and

Advanced Profile Groups).

• Band steering (see Configure Radio Frequency Management for the Basic Profile Group and Configure Radio Frequency Management for an Advanced Profile Group)

• High-density bandwidth (see Configure Wireless Settings for the Basic Profile Group and Configure Wireless Settings for an Advanced Profile Group)

• Management of LED behavior for WN370 access points (see Manage the

WN370 LED Behavior for the Basic Profile Group and Manage the WN370 LED Behavior for an Advanced Profile Group)

• Capability to print a logo and message on captive portal user information

(see Add a Logo and Message on Captive Portal User Information)

• Capability to add multiple captive portal users simultaneously (see Add Multiple Captive Portal Users Simultaneously)

, including 1:1 and N:1 redundancy (see Chapter 1

ProSAFE Wireless Controller WC9500

202-11224-04 (continued)

202-11224-03 January 2014 Added the following features:

202-11224-02 May 2013 Color correction and minor nontechnical edits. 202-11224-01 April 2013 First publication.

January 2015 (continued)

Added the following features: (continued)

• Capability to locate and monitor an active WiFi client on a deployed floor

plan (see View the Clients in the Network, View Clients on Access Points

that the Wireless Controller Manages, and Monitor Local Clients in the Network)

• Support for extended storage (see Manage External Storage)

• Support for additional access points (see Supported NETGEAR Access

Points)

• Link aggregation (see Manage the IP, VLAN, and Link Aggregation Settings)

• Multicast rate limiting, broadcast rate limiting, and

Configure W Wireless Settings for an Advanced Profile Group)

• Preferred band selection (see Manage the Preferred Bands)

• Stacking (see Chapter 11, Manage Stacking and Redundancy)

• Monitoring for a network with a stack of wireless controllers (see Monitor

the Network)

In addition, revised and refined many procedures.

ireless Settings for the Basic Profile Group and Configure

ARP suppression (see

Chapter 1 Introduction

Chapter 2 System Planning and Deployment Scenarios

Key Features and Capabilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12

Package Contents. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14

Hardware Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Front Panel Ports, Slots, and LEDs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14

Back Panel Features. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16

Bottom Panel with Product Label . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

WC9500 Wireless Controller System Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Supported NETGEAR Access Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Supported NETGEAR Antennas. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21

What Can You Do with the WC9500 Wireless Controller? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21

Licenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23

aintenance and Support. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23

Basic and Advanced Setting Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25

Profile Group Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26

Basic Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Advanced Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

System Planning Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28

Preinstallation Planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28

Before You Configure a Wireless Controller. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

High-Level Configuration Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31

Single Controller Configuration with Basic Profile Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31

Single Controller Configuration with Advanced Profile Groups . . . . . . . . . . .32

Stacked Controller Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Management VLAN and Data VLAN Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34

High-Level Deployment Scenarios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36

Scenario Example 1: Network with Single VLAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36

Scenario Example 2: Advanced Network with VLANs and SSIDs . . . . . . . . . .38

Scenario Example 3: Advanced Network with Redundancy . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41

Chapter 3 RF Planning and Deployment

RF Planning Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46

Planning Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46

Recommended RF Planning Procedure for a Building . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48

Manage a Building and Floors for an RF Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49

Add a Building and Floors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

ProSAFE Wireless Controller WC9500

Add a Single Floor to a Building. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Scale a Floor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Add a WiFi Coverage or WiFi Noncoverage Zone to a Floor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Remove a WiFi Coverage or WiFi Noncoverage Zone from a Floor. . . . . . . . 55

Add a WiFi Building Obstacle to a Floor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Remove a Building Obstacle from a Floor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Add a WiFi Obstruction Area. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Remove a WiFi Obstruction Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Change the Name, Map, or Dimensions of a Floor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Change the Name of a Building. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Duplicate an Entire Building with All Floors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Duplicate a Single Floor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Remove a Single Floor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Remove an Entire Building with All Its Floors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Use the WiFi Auto Planning Advisor to Generate an RF Plan for a Floor . . . . . . 64

Manually Add and Manage Access Points on a Floor Map for an RF Plan . . . . . 69

Manually Add and Manage Antennas on a Floor Map for an RF Plan. . . . . . . . . 72

Display and Recalculate the WiFi Coverage for a Heat Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Display or Change the WiFi Inventory for an RF Plan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Download a Report for an RF Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

View the Heat Map for a Deployed Floor Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Chapter 4 Installation and Configuration Overview

Connect Your Computer to the Wireless Controller. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Roadmap for Initial Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Roadmap for Configuring Management of Your Wireless Network. . . . . . . . . . 88

Choose a Location for the Wireless Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Deploy the Wireless Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Chapter 5 Configure the System and Network Settings and

Configure the General Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Manage the Time Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Manage the IP, VLAN, and Link Aggregation Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Management VLAN Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Untagged VLAN Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Link Aggregation Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Configure the IP, VLAN, and Link Aggregation Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Manage the DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

Add a DHCP Server. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Change the Settings for a DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Remove a DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .102

Configure the License Server Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Manage Certificates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

ProSAFE Wireless Controller WC9500

Configure Log, Syslog, Alarm Notification, and Email Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Configure Log Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Configure Syslog Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Configure Alarm Notification Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

Configure the Email Notification Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Chapter 6 Manage Security Profiles and Profile Groups

Wireless Security Profile Concepts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

Small WLAN Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

Large WLAN Networks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Profile Naming Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Considerations Before You Configure Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Basic and Advanced Security Configuration Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

Manage Security Profiles for the Basic Profile Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Configure a Profile in the Basic Profile Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Change the Settings for a Profile in the Basic Profile Group . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Remove a Profile From the Basic Profile Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Manage Security Profiles for Advanced Profile Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Add an Advanced Profile Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Remove an Advanced Profile Group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

Configure a Profile in an Advanced Profile Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

Change the Settings for a Profile in an Advanced Profile Group . . . . . . . . . 131

Remove a Profile From an Advanced Profile Group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

Network Authentication and Data Encryption Options. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

Manage Authentication Servers and Authentication Server Groups. . . . . . . . 136

Authentication Server Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Configure Basic Authentication Server Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Configure a RADIUS Authentication Server Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

Remove a RADIUS Authentication Server Group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

Manage MAC Authentication and MAC Authentication Groups. . . . . . . . . . . . 142

Guidelines for External MAC Authentication. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Configure Basic Local MAC Authentication Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Remove a MAC Address from a Wireless Client List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

Import a MAC List from a File. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

Configure a Local MAC Authentication Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

Remove a Local MAC Authentication Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

Select an ACL for a Profile in the Basic Profile Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

Select an ACL for a Profile in an Advanced Profile Group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

Chapter 7 Discover and Manage Access Points

Access Point Discovery Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

General Discovery Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

Layer 3 Discovery Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

Discover Access Points with the Discovery Wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

Discover Access Points in Factory Default State and Access

Points in a Layer 2 Subnet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

Discover Access Points Installed and Working in

ProSAFE Wireless Controller WC9500

Standalone Mode in Different Layer 3 Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

Manage the Managed AP List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

View the Managed AP List. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

Change Access Point Information on the Managed AP List . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

Remove Access Points from the Managed AP List. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

Assign Access Points to Buildings, Floors, and Advanced Profile Groups . . . . 169

Chapter 8 Configure Wireless and QoS Settings

Basic and Advanced Wireless and QoS Configuration Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Configure the Radio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Configure the Radio for the Basic Profile Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Configure the Radio for an Advanced Profile Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

Configure Wireless Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

Configure Wireless Settings for the Basic Profile Group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

Override Channel and Transmission Power in the Basic Profile Group . . . . 180

Configure Wireless Settings for an Advanced Profile Group . . . . . . . . . . . . 182

Override Channel and Transmission Power in an Advanced

Profile Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

Configure Channels. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188

Specify Radio Frequency Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

Radio Frequency Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

WLAN Healing Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

Configure Radio Frequency Management for the Basic Profile Group . . . . 192

Configure Radio Frequency Management for an Advanced

Profile Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

Manage the Preferred Bands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

Configure the Preferred Band for WNDAP620 Access

Points in the Basic Profile Group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

Configure the Preferred Band for WNDAP620 Access

Points in an Advanced Profile Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Manage Quality of Service for an Advanced Profile Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

Quality of Service Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

Configure Quality of Service for a Profile Group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

Manage Load Balancing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204

Load Balancing Concepts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204

Configure Load Balancing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

Manage Rate Limiting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206

Rate Limiting Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206

Configure Rate Limiting for the Basic Profile Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

Configure Rate Limiting for an Advanced Profile Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208

Manage the LED Behavior of WN370 Access Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209

Manage the WN370 LED Behavior for the Basic Profile Group. . . . . . . . . . 209

Manage the WN370 LED Behavior for an Advanced Profile Group . . . . . . 210

Chapter 9 Manage Rogue Access Points,

Guest Network Access, and Users

Manage Rogue Access Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

ProSAFE Wireless Controller WC9500

Rogue Access Point Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

Configure Basic Rogue Detection Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

Classify Rogue Access Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214

Import a List of Known Access Points from a File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216

Manage Guest Network Access. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217

Portal Concepts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217

Configure a Portal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218

Manage Users, Accounts, and Passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222

User and Account Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222

Add a Management User . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

Add a WiFi User . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224

Add a Captive Portal Account . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226

Add a Logo and Message on Captive Portal User Information. . . . . . . . . . . 228

Add a Captive Portal User . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230

Add Multiple Captive Portal Users Simultaneously . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232

Change the Settings for a User or Account . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

Remove Users or Accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236

Export a List of Users or Accounts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236

Chapter 10 Maintain the Wireless Controller and Access Points

Manage the Configuration File or Upgrade the Firmware. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239

Back Up the Configuration File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239

Restore the Configuration File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240

Upgrade the Firmware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

Reboot the Wireless Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244

Reset the Wireless Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245

Manage External Storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246

Manage Remote Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247

Specify Session Time-Outs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249

Manage the System Logs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250

Query the System Logs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250

Save the System Logs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252

Clear the System Logs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253

View Alerts and Events. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253

View System Alerts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254

View Radio Frequency Events. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255

View Load-Balancing Events. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256

View Rate-Limit Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

View Redundancy Events. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259

View Stacking Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260

Manage Licenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261

View Your Licenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261

Retrieve Your Licenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263

Reboot Access Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264

Configure Multicast Firmware Upgrade for Access Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265

Change the Multicast Firmware Upgrade Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266

Disable Multicast Firmware Upgrade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267

ProSAFE Wireless Controller WC9500

Chapter 11 Manage Stacking and Redundancy

Stacking Concepts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269

Configure a Stack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271

Remove a Wireless Controller from a Stack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

Select Which Wireless Controller in a Stack to Configure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274

Manage Redundancy for a Single Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278

VRRP Redundancy Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278

Configure a Single Controller with Redundancy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280

Manage a Redundancy Group with N:1 Redundancy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282

VRRP N:1 Redundancy Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282

Configure a Redundancy Group with N:1 Redundancy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .285

Change a Redundant Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287

Remove a Redundancy Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289

Chapter 12 Monitor the Wireless Network and Its Components

Monitor the Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291

View the Network Summary Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291

View the Wireless Controllers in the Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293

View the Access Points in the Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .295

View the Clients in the Network. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300

View the Profiles in the Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304

Monitor the Wireless Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306

View the Wireless Controller Summary Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306

View Wireless Controller Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308

View Access Points that the Wireless Controller Manages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310

View Clients on Access Points that the Wireless Controller Manages . . . . 315

View Neighboring Clients that the Wireless Controller Detects . . . . . . . . . 319

View Neighboring Access Points that the Wireless Controller

Does Not Manage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .321

View Security Profiles That the Wireless Controller Manages. . . . . . . . . . . 322

View DHCP Leases That Are Provided by the Wireless Controller . . . . . . . 324

View Captive Portal Users on Access Points That the

Wireless Controller Manages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325

Monitor the SSIDs on the Wireless Controller. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327

Monitor Local Clients in the Network. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332

Chapter 13 Troubleshooting

Troubleshoot Basic Functioning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338

Power LED Is Not Lit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338

Status LED Never Turns Off . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338

Ethernet Port LEDs Are Not Lit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338

Troubleshoot the Web Management Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339

Check the Ethernet Cabling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339

Check the IP Address Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339

Check the Internet Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340

Troubleshoot a TCP/IP Network Using the Ping Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340

ProSAFE Wireless Controller WC9500

Use the Reset Button to Restore Default Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341

Resolve Problems with Date and Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341

Resolve Problems with Access Points. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342

Resolve Discovery Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342

Resolve Connection Problems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342

Network Performance and Rogue Access Point Detection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343

Use the Diagnostic Tools on the Wireless Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343

Ping an Access Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343

Trace a Route to an Access Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344

Appendix A Factory Default Settings, Technical Specifications,

and Passwords Requirements

Factory Default Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347

Technical Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348

Password Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349

Index

1. Introduction

This chapter includes the following sections:

• Key Features and Capabilities

• Package Contents

• Hardware Features

• WC9500 Wireless Controller System Components

• Supported NETGEAR Access Points

• Supported NETGEAR Antennas

• What Can You Do with the WC9500 Wireless Controller?

• Licenses

• Maintenance and Support

Note: For more information about the topics covered in this manual, visit the

support website at support.netgear.com.

Note: Firmware updates with new features and bug fixes are made

available from time to time on downloadcenter.netgear.com. Some products can regularly check the site and download new firmware, or you can check for and download new firmware manually. If the features or behavior of your product do not match what is described in this guide, you might need to update your firmware.

ProSAFE Wireless Controller WC9500

Key Features and Capabilities

The NETGEAR ProSAFE Wireless Controller WC9500 is a high-capacity, secured wireless controller intended for medium- to large-sized businesses, higher education institutions, hospitals, and hotels.

One standalone wireless controller with the appropriate licenses can support up to 300 access points. In a stacked configuration, one wireless controller with the appropriate licenses can support up to 200 access points. A stack can support three wireless controllers.

The wireless controller supports the IEEE 802.1

future deployment. The wireless controller allows you to manage your wireless network from a central point, implement security features centrally, support Layer 2 and Layer 3 fast roaming, configure a guest access captive portal, and support voice over Wi-Fi (VoWi-Fi).

The wireless controller is equipped with one RJ-45 Gigabit Ethernet port and two 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) slots with standard SFP+ form factor for optional 10GBASE or 1000BASE GBICs. These ports are available to access the wireless controller for management and for data and control communications between the wireless controller and the access points.

The wireless controller provides the following key features and capabilities:

• Scalable architecture with stacking

- Purchased licenses in increments of 10, 50, 100, or 200 access points allow for

support of up to a maximum number of 300 access points on a single wireless controller in a configuration without a stack.

- A maximum of three stacked wireless controllers allows for up to 600 access points

(200 on each wireless controller in a stacked configuration) in a single network.

- Support of 802.1 1a, 802.1

for future deployment.

- Support for an extra power supply.

• Autodiscovery of access points

- Autodiscovery of access points in the same Layer 2 domain.

- Autodiscovery of access points across a Layer 3 domain.

- Automatic download of wireless controller–based firmware to discovered access

points that are added to the managed access point list.

• Centralized management

- Single point of management for the entire wireless network.

- Automatic firmware upgrade to all managed access points.

- DHCP server for IP address provisioning.

- Configurable management VLAN.

1b, 802.1 1g, and 802.1 1n modes. Ready for 802.11ac mode

1a/b/g/n protocols and is 802.11ac ready for

Introduction

ProSAFE Wireless Controller WC9500

• Security

- Identity-based security authentication with an external RADIUS or LDAP (Active

Directory) server, or with an internal authentication server

- Support for nine access point profile groups (one basic and eight advanced) on one

wireless controller.

- Support for up to 8 profiles per access point profile group and 8 profiles per radio

(therefore, dual-band access points can support up to 16 profiles in one access point profile group).

- Support for up to 144 profiles on one wireless controller (8 profiles per access point

group and eight groups per radio). Each profile supports settings for SSID, network authentication, data encryption, client separation, VLAN, MAC

ACL, and wireless

QoS.

- Rogue access point detection and classification.

- Guest access and captive portal access with cost and expiration accounting.

- Scheduled wireless on/off times.

• Wi-Fi Multimedia Quality of Service and advanced wireless features

- Wi-Fi Multimedia (WMM) support for video, audio, and voice over Wi-Fi (VoWi-Fi).

- WMM power save option.

- Automatic WLAN healing mechanism ensures seamless coverage for wireless users.

- Layer 2 and Layer 3 seamless roaming support.

- Local Layer 2 traf

fic switching and Layer 3 traf

fic processing at access point level for

fast processing.

• Wireless and Radio Frequency (RF) management

- Automatic control of access point transmit power and channel allocation to reduce

interference.

- Automatic load balancing of clients across access points.

- Rate limiting per profile.

- Multicast and broadcast rate limiting

- ARP suppression

• Monitoring and reporting

- Monitoring of the status of the network, wireless controllers, WLANs, and clients, and

network usage statistics.

- Specific health monitoring of access points.

- Logging and emailing of system events, RF events, load-balancing events, and

rate-limiting events.

For a list of all features and capabilities of the wireless controller, see the datasheet that you can download from

http://support.netgear.com/product/WC9500.

Introduction

ProSAFE Wireless Controller WC9500

Package Contents

The ProSAFE Wireless Controller WC9500 product package contains the following items:

• ProSAFE Wireless Controller WC9500 appliance

• One

• Rubber feet (four) with adhesive backing

• One rack-mount kit

• Straight-through Category 5 Ethernet cable

• ProSAFE W

AC power cable

ireless Controller WC9500 Installation Guide

If any of the parts are incorrect, missing, or damaged, contact your NETGEAR dealer the carton, including the original packing materials, in case you need to return the product for repair.

Hardware Features

The front panel ports, slots, and LEDs, back panel components, and bottom label of the wireless controller are described in this section.

Front Panel Ports, Slots, and LEDs

The following figure shows the front panel of the wireless controller.

Figure 1. Front panel

The following figure shows a close-up of the left side of the front panel.

. Keep

USB port

Reset

Power

Status

Fan

Stack Master

USB

Digital access point counter

LED Mode: Green= Link at 10G, Blink Green=10G Active, Yellow=Link at 1G, Blink Yellow=1G Active

Reset button LEDs (top to bottom): Power, Status, Fan, Stack Master

Figure 2. Front panel close-up

Slots and LEDs

for optional

SFP GBIC modules

Introduction

LED Mode: Left LED: Green=Link at 1G E, Yellow=Link at 10/100M Right LED:Green=Link, Green Blink=Active

Ethernet port and LEDs

ProSAFE Wireless Controller WC9500

From left to right, the wireless controller’s front panel shows the following counter, LEDs, button, ports, and slots:

• Digital counter. Displays the number of connected access points that are in a healthy

state.

• From top to bottom:

- Power LED

- Status LED

- Fan LED

- Stack Master LED

These LEDs are described in Table 1 on page 15.

• Reset button. Using a sharp object, press and hold this button for about 10 seconds until

the Status LED blinks and the wireless controller returns to factory default settings. If you reset the wireless controller, all configuration settings are lost and the default password is restored.

• USB port.

• SFP slots

Allows for external storage for floor heat maps.

. T

wo SFP slots for optional 10GE SFP+ or 1G SFP gigabit interface

converters (GBICs), each slot with an LED.

• Ethernet port. One 10/100/1000 Mbps LAN Ethernet port with an RJ-45 connector, left

LED, and right LED.

The Ethernet port provides switched N-way, automatic speed

negotiating, auto MDI/MDIX technology.

• Console port. RS232 port for connecting to an optional console terminal. The port

provides a DB9 male connector

. The default baud rate is 9600 K. The configuration is 8 bits, no parity, and 1 stop bit. The console port is for debugging under guidance of NETGEAR technical support only.

The function of each LED is described in the following table.

Table 1. LED functions

LED Status Description Power LED Green The wireless controller is on.

Off The wireless controller is off.

If the power LED is not lit when the wireless controller is on, check the connections and check to see if the power outlet is controlled by a wall switch that is turned of

Status LED Yellow The wireless controller is initializing. After approximately two minutes, when

the wireless controller completes its initialization, the Status LED turns green. If the Status LED remains yellow

LED Never T

urns Off on page 338).

Power LED Is Not Lit on page 338).

f (see

, the initialization failed (see Status

Green The wireless controller completed its initialization successfully. The Status

LED is steady green during normal operation.

Introduction

ProSAFE Wireless Controller WC9500

Table 1. LED functions (continued)

LED Status Description

Status LED (continued)

Fan LED Green The fans are functioning correctly.

Stack Master LED

SFP slot LEDs Green The slot is operating at 10G.

Left Ethernet port LED

Right Ethernet port LED

Off The wireless controller is not receiving power. Blinking yellow Firmware is being upgraded.

Yellow One or more fans are not functioning correctly.

Green The wireless controller is functioning as the master controller in a stack.

Yellow The wireless controller is functioning as a slave controller in a stack.

Blinking green Data is being transmitted or received at 10G.

Yellow The slot is operating at 1G.

Blinking yellow Data is being transmitted or received at 1G. Off The port is not connected to a powered-on Ethernet device (see Ethernet

Port LEDs Are Not Lit on page 338).

Green The port detected a link with a connected Ethernet device. Blinking green Data is being transmitted or received. Off The port is not connected to a powered-on Ethernet device (see Ethernet

Port LEDs Are Not Lit on page 338).

Green The port is operating at 1000 Mbps.

Yellow The port is operating at 100 Mbps or 10 Mbps.

Back Panel Features

The wireless controller comes with a single internal power supply but supports an optional second power supply for power redundancy. The power supplies are hot-swappable.

The following figure shows the back panel of the wireless controller with a single internal power supply, the power supply connector, and two double fans.

Power supply connector

Figure 3. Back panel

Slot for an optional second power supply

Introduction

ProSAFE Wireless Controller WC9500

From left to right, the wireless controller’s back panel components are as follows:

• Power supply. 100–240V, 5A, 47–63 Hz power supply, which includes the following

external components:

- AC power socket

not provide an on/off power switch.)

- Handle

- LED. The LED is lit green when the power supply functions correctly

power is not supplied to the power supply, or a problem occurred.

• Fans

. The handle allows for easy removal and insertion.

. Two double fans, each of which can be easily exchanged.

. Attach the power cord to this socket. (The wireless controller does

. If the LED is off,

Bottom Panel with Product Label

The product label on the bottom of the wireless controller’s enclosure displays the default IP address, default user name, and default password, as well as regulatory compliance, input power, and other information.

Figure 4. Product label

WC9500 Wireless Controller System Components

A WC9500 wireless controller system consists of one or more wireless controllers and a collection of access points that are organized into groups based on location or network access.

The wireless controller system can include a single wireless controller or a group of up to three stacked wireless controllers that can function in a redundant configuration.

Introduction

ProSAFE Wireless Controller WC9500

The WC9500 wireless controller system supports the following NETGEAR ProSAFE access point models:

• WN370 ProSAFE Wall Mount Wireless N Access Point

• WNAP210v2 ProSAFE Wireless-N Access Point

• WNAP320 ProSAFE Wireless-N Access Point

• WND930 Outdoor Dual Band Wireless-N

• WNDAP350 ProSAFE Dual Band Wireless-N

Access Point

• WNDAP360 ProSAFE Dual Band Wireless-N Access Point

• WNDAP380R ProSAFE Dual Band Wireless-N Access Point with RFID support

• WNDAP620 ProSAFE Premium 3x3 Dual Band Wireless-N Access Point

• WNDAP660 ProSAFE Premium 3x3 Dual Band Concurrent Wireless-N Access Point

Supported NETGEAR Access Points

Y ou can connect access points to the wireless controller either directly with an Ethernet cable through a router or switch, or remotely through a VPN network. After you use the automatic discovery process and add access points to the managed access point list on the wireless controller, the wireless controller converts the standard access points to dependent access points by pushing firmware to the access points. From then on, you can centrally manage and monitor the access points.

The following table lists the minimum firmware versions that must run on the standalone access points before you convert them to managed access points:

Table 2. Minimum firmware versions

Access Point Model Minimum Firmware Version on

Standalone Access Point

WN370 All firmware versions are supported. WNAP210v2 All firmware versions are supported. WNAP320 2.1.1 or a newer version is supported. WND930 All firmware versions are supported. WNDAP350 2.1.7 or a newer version is supported. WNDAP360 2.1.6 or a newer version is supported. WNDAP380R All firmware versions are supported. WNAP620 2.0.4 or a newer version is supported. WNDAP660 2.0.2 or a newer version is supported.

Introduction

ProSAFE Wireless Controller WC9500

A WC9500 wireless controller system supports the following access points:

• WN370 ProSAFE Wall Mounted W

- Supports concurrently 802.11b, 802.1

ireless-N Access Point

1g, and 802.11n network devices.

- Supports speeds of up to 300 Mbps for 802.11n network devices.

- Supports Power over Ethernet (PoE) with a power consumption that complies with the

802.3af standard.

- Operates in the 2.4 GHz radio band.

For product documentation and firmware, visit http://support.netgear

• WNAP210v2 ProSAFE W

- Supports 802.11b, 802.1

ireless-N

Access Point

1g, and 802.11n network devices.

.com/product/WN370.

- Supports Power over Ethernet (PoE) with a power consumption of up to 5.8W.

For product documentation and firmware, visit

http://support.netgear

.com/product/WNAP210.

Note: The WNAP210v1 cannot function in a WC9500 wireless controller

system, but the WNAP210v2 can.

• WNAP320 ProSAFE W

- Supports 802.11b, 802.1

ireless-N

Access Point

1g, and 802.11n network devices.

- Supports Power over Ethernet (PoE) with a power consumption of up to 5.8W.

- Accepts optional antennas.

For product documentation and firmware, visit

http://support.netgear

• WND930 Outdoor Dual Band W

- Supports 802.11a, 802.1

.com/product/WNAP320.

ireless-N

1b, 802.11g, and 802.11n network devices.

- Supports speeds of up to 300 Mbps for 802.11n network devices.

- Supports Power over Ethernet (PoE) with a power consumption that complies with the

802.3af or 802.3at standards.

- Operates concurrently in the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz radio bands.

For product documentation and firmware, visit

http://support.netgear

• WNDAP350 ProSAFE Dual Band W

- Supports 802.11a, 802.1

.com/product/WND930.

ireless-N

1b, 802.11g, and 802.11n network devices.

Access Point

- Supports Power over Ethernet (PoE) with a power consumption of up to 10.75W.

- Operates concurrently in the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz radio bands.

- Accepts optional antennas.

For product documentation and firmware, visit

http://support.netgear

.com/product/WNDAP350.

Introduction

ProSAFE Wireless Controller WC9500

• WNDAP360 ProSAFE Dual Band Wireless-N Access Point

- Supports 802.11a, 802.1

1b, 802.11g, and 802.11n network devices.

- Supports Power over Ethernet (PoE) with a power consumption of up to 10.51W.

- Operates concurrently in the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz radio bands.

- Accepts optional antennas.

For product documentation and firmware, visit

http://support.netgear

.com/product/WNDAP360.

• WNDAP380R ProSAFE Dual Band W

- Supports 802.11a, 802.1

1b, 802.11g, and 802.11n network devices.

ireless-N

Access Point with RFID support

- Supports Power over Ethernet (PoE) with a power consumption of up to 10.51W.

- Operates concurrently in the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz radio bands.

- Accepts an RFID module for support of RFID devices and tags.

For product documentation and firmware, visit

http://support.netgear

• WNAP620 ProSAFE Premium 3x3 Dual Band W

- Supports concurrently 802.11a, 802.1

.com/product/WNDAP380R.

1b, 802.11g, and 802.11n network devices.

ireless-N

Access Point

- Supports 3x3 multiple input, multiple output (MIMO).

- Supports speeds of up to 450 Mbps for 802.1

1n network devices

- Supports Power over Ethernet (PoE) with a power consumption that complies with the

802.3af standard.

- Operates in either the 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz radio band.

- Accepts optional antennas.

For product documentation and firmware, visit

http://support.netgear

• WNDAP660 ProSAFE Premium 3x3 Dual Band Concurrent W

- Supports 802.11a, 802.1

.com/product/WNDAP620.

1b, 802.11g, and 802.11n network devices.

ireless-N

Access Point

- Supports 3x3 multiple input, multiple output (MIMO).

- Supports speeds of up to 450 Mbps for 802.1

1n network devices.

- Supports Power over Ethernet (PoE) with a power consumption that complies with the

802.3at standard.

Note: If your network does not include a PoE device that can provide the

WNDAP660 access point with PoE power according to the 802.3at standard, you can instead use two ports of a PoE device that complies with the 802.3af standard. (The WNDAP660 access point provides two Ethernet ports that accept PoE.)

- Operates concurrently in the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz radio bands.

- Accepts optional antennas.

Introduction

ProSAFE Wireless Controller WC9500

For product documentation and firmware, visit

http://support.netgear.com/product/WNDAP660.

Supported NETGEAR Antennas

A WC9500 wireless controller system supports the following antennas:

• ANT2409 ProSAFE Indoor/Outdoor 9 dBi Omni-directional Antenna

- 9 dBi omni-directional antenna for indoor or outdoor use

- WiFi signal 802.1

- Frequency range 2400–2485 MHz

- Maximum range 1

- Polarization vertical

For product documentation and firmware, visit

http://support.netgear

1.5 km (7.2 miles)

.com/product/ANT2409v2.

• ANT224D10 ProSAFE 10 dBi 2x2 Indoor/Outdoor Directional

- 10 dBi directional antenna for indoor or outdoor use

- WiFi signal 802.1

- Frequency range 2400–2500 MHz

- Maximum range 8.5 km (5.28 miles)

- Polarization linear; vertical

For product documentation and firmware, visit

http://support.netgear

.com/product/ANT224.

Antenna

What Can You Do with the WC9500 Wireless Controller?

You can perform the following tasks with a WC9500 wireless controller:

• Organize the Network

- Create access point profiles. Organize access points in profiles to dif

between SSIDs, client authentication, authentication settings, and wireless QoS settings.

- Create access point profile

profile groups to differentiate between buildings, floors, businesses, business divisions, and so on. Easily assign access points to profile groups or change assignments.

groups. Organize access point profiles in access point

ferentiate

For more information, see

Chapter 6, Manage Security Profiles and Profile Groups.

Introduction

ProSAFE Wireless Controller WC9500

• Discover Access Points in the Network and Provision IP Addresses and Firmware

- Discover access points in the network. The access points can be in factory default

state or functioning in standalone mode, but after discovery by the wireless controller and addition to the managed access point list, the access points become dependent (managed) access points.

- Provision IP addresses to the access points

. Use the internal DHCP server to

provision IP addresses to all or selected managed access points in the network.

- Upgrade access point firmware. Update and synchronize new firmware versions to

all managed access points in the network.

For more information, see Chapter 7, Discover and Manage Access Points.

• Centrally Manage Security in the Network

- Manage secure access to the network and secure data transmission. Manage

client authentication, encryption, wireless client security separation, and MAC authentication in access point profiles.

- Manage authentication servers for the network. Manage all internal and external

authentication servers for the entire network or for access point profile groups.

- Manage MAC authentication. Specify trusted and untrusted MAC addresses for the

entire network.

- Manage rogue access points. Manage rogue access points and their associated

clients in the network.

- Manage guest access. Manage guest access and captive portal access to the

network.

For more information, see Chapter 9, Manage Rogue Access Points, Guest Network

Access, and Users.

• Centrally Manage the W

- Schedule the radios

point profile groups to go of

ireless Settings for the Network

. Schedule the entire network to go offline, or schedule access

fline.

- Manage wireless settings and channel allocation. Manage the wireless settings

such as wireless mode, data rate, and channel width for the entire network or for access point profile groups, and manage channel allocation for the entire network.

- Manage QoS settings. Manage QoS queue settings for data, background, video,

and voice traffic for access point profile groups.

- Configure RF management settings

. Configure WLAN healing and wireless

coverage hole detection for the entire network or for access point profile groups.

For more information, see Chapter 8, Configure Wireless and QoS Settings.

• Manage Other Wireless Controllers in the Network

- Manage stacking

. Specify the master and slave wireless controllers in a stack and

synchronize information between the wireless controller.

For more information, see Chapter 11, Manage Stacking and Redundancy.

Introduction

ProSAFE Wireless Controller WC9500

• Monitor the Network and Its Components

- Monitor the status of all wireless devices. View the status of the wireless

controllers, access points, clients, access point profiles, and the entire network, and view network usage statistics.

- Monitor network health

down or compromised.

For more information, see Chapter 12, Monitor the Wireless Network

and Its Components.

. See which access points are healthy and which ones are

Licenses

By default, the wireless controller comes with a trial license for two access points. You must purchase and register licenses for the access points in your network. Licenses are tied to the serial number of the wireless controller.

You can purchase a single 200–access point license or licenses in 10–, 50–, or 100–access point increments for support of up to 300 access points on a single wireless controller:

• 10–AP license. WC10APL

• 50–AP license. WC50APL

• 100–AP license. WC100APL

• 200–AP license. WC200APL

If you installed three wireless controllers in a stack and want to support the maximum number of 600 access points in a stacked configuration, you must purchase three WC200APL licenses (or a combination of other licenses that add up to a total of 600 access points).

For more information, see the datasheet that you can download from

http://support.netgear.com/product/WC9500.

For information about how to register and manage your licenses, see Register Your Licenses on page 103 and Manage Licenses on page 261.

Maintenance and Support

NETGEAR offers technical support seven days a week, 24 hours a day. Information about support is available on the NETGEAR ProSupport website at

http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/212.

Introduction

2. System Planning and Deployment

Scenarios

This chapter includes the following sections:

• Basic and Advanced Setting Concepts

• Profile Group Concepts

• System Planning Concepts

• High-Level Configuration Examples

• Management VLAN and Data VLAN Strategies

• High-Level Deployment Scenarios

ProSAFE Wireless Controller WC9500

Basic and Advanced Setting Concepts

Y ou can deploy the wireless controller in a small wireless network with 10 or 20 access points or in a large wireless network with up to 600 access points. Small networks require a basic configuration, but large networks can become complex and require you to configure the advanced features of the wireless controller.

Depending on your network configuration, use basic settings or advanced settings to manage your access points:

• Basic settings for a typical network. The basic settings work with most common

network configurations. For example, all access points on the WLAN are for the same organization or business and therefore adhere to the same policies and use a few service set identifiers (SSIDs, or network names).

• Advanced settings for access point profile groups. In a large wireless network, or if

separate networks share a single WLAN, use the advanced settings to set up multiple access point profile groups with multiple security profiles (SSIDs with associated security settings). For example, a shopping mall might need several access point profile groups if several businesses share a WLAN but each business maintains its own network. Larger networks could require multiple access point profile groups to allow dif building or department. The access points could support dif building and department, for example, one for guests, one for management, and one for sales.

ferent security profiles per

ferent policies per

Note: Access point profile groups are also referred to as just profile groups.

Profiles, security profiles, and SSIDs (that is, SSIDs with associated security settings) are terms that are interchangeable.

To accommodate all types of networks, almost all configuration menus of the web management interface are divided into basic and advanced submenus. The following figure shows an example of the Configuration > Security > Basic submenu on the left and the Configuration > Security > Advanced submenu on the right:

Figure 5. Basic and advanced submenus

System Planning and Deployment Scenarios

ProSAFE Wireless Controller WC9500

Before you start the configuration of your wireless controller, decide whether you can use a basic configuration (that is, follow the Basic submenus) or need to use an advanced configuration (that is, follow the Advanced submenus). Once you make your choice, configuring the wireless controller can be fairly easy if you consistently follow either the Basic submenus or the Advanced submenus.

Profile Group Concepts

Each access point can support up to eight security profiles (16 for dual-band access points), each with its own SSID, security settings, MAC ACL, rate-limiting settings, WMM, and so on.

The wireless controller follows the same architecture. A profile group on the wireless controller includes all the features that you can configure for an individual access point: up to 8 profiles (16 for dual-band access points), each of which supports its own SSID, security, MAC ACL, rate-limiting settings, WMM settings, and so on.

Basic Profile

The basic profile includes all the settings that are required to configure a fully functional access point with up to eight security profiles (16 for dual-band access points).

After you use the automatic discovery process and add access points to the managed AP list

on the wireless controller, the access points are assigned by default to the basic profile group.

If your network requires the wireless controller to manage multiple access points with different configurations, use the advanced profile.

Advanced Profile

The advanced profile lets you configure up to eight access point profile groups. Each group includes all the settings that are required to configure a fully functional access point with up to eight security profiles (16 for dual-band access points).

For example, if your company site includes four buildings, each with a different wireless network, you simply create four profile groups. Y building to one profile group, all access points in another building to a second profile group, and so on.

For each profile group, you can create an individual radio on/off schedule, RF management settings, MAC ACL authentication, and an authentication server group (2.4 GHz radio and 5 GHz radio), you can create individual wireless settings, WMM, and rate-limit settings.

ou then assign all access points in one

. For each radio in a profile

The following figure shows the advanced profile group architecture. The structure that is shown under Group-1 is implemented in all profile groups (that is, Group-2 through Group-8):

System Planning and Deployment Scenarios

ProSAFE Wireless Controller WC9500

Group-1

Group-2

Group-3

Group-4

2.4 GHz radio

5678

Security profiles

Figure 6. Advanced profile group architecture

Group-5

5 GHz radio

Group-6

Security profiles

Group-7

Group-8

The following figure shows an example of three access point profile groups, in which the first profile group (Group-1) supports five security profiles. For each profile in this profile group, the profile name, radio mode, and authentication setting are shown. (Group-1 is the default group in the advanced profile group configuration; you must create the other profiles groups.)

Figure 7. Example of profile groups with security profiles

System Planning and Deployment Scenarios

ProSAFE Wireless Controller WC9500

System Planning Concepts

This section includes the following subsections:

• Preinstallation Planning

• Before You Configure a Wireless Controller

Preinstallation Planning

Before you install any wireless controllers, determine the following:

• Number of access points required to provide seamless coverage

• Number of licenses required to cover all access points that must be managed

• Number of wireless controllers required

• 802.1

NETGEAR recommends that you perform a site survey:

1 frequency band and the channels that are optimal for WiFi usage

• To determine the current RF behavior and detect both 802.11 and non-802.11 noise, run

a spectrum analysis of the channels of the site.

• To determine the maximum throughput that is achievable on the client, run an access

point-to-client connectivity test.

• Identify potential RF obstructions and interference sources.

• Determine areas where denser coverage might be required because of heavier usage.

Before You Configure a Wireless Controller

These sections assume that you deployed at least one wireless controller in your network and are ready to configure the wireless controller. For information about how to deploy the wireless controller in your network, see the ProSAFE Wireless Controller WC9500 Installation Guide that you can download from http://support.netgear.com/product/WC9500.

For many configurations, you can use the default wireless settings. The IP address, VLAN, DHCP server, client authentication, and data encryption settings are specific to your environment. Following are short sections that describe these settings (except for IP address settings, which are self-explanatory). For information about how to configure these settings, see the relevant sections.

Management VLAN

The management VLAN is the dedicated VLAN for access to the wireless controller. All traf fic that is directed to the wireless controller, including HTTP, HTTPS, SNMP, and SSH traffic, is carried over the management VLAN.

If the management VLAN is also configured as a tagged VLAN (the most common configuration), the packets to and from the wireless controller carry the 802.1Q VLAN header with the assigned VLAN number. If the management VLAN is marked as untagged, the

System Planning and Deployment Scenarios

ProSAFE Wireless Controller WC9500

packets that are sent from the wireless controller do not carry the 802.1Q header, and all untagged packets that are sent to the wireless controller are treated as management VLAN traffic.

Note: Use a tagged VLAN or change the tagged VLAN ID only if the hubs

and switches on your LAN support 802.1Q. If they do not, and you did not configure a tagged VLAN with the same VLAN ID on the hubs and switches in your network, IP connectivity might be lost.

The management VLAN must provide IP connectivity between the wireless controller and the access points. If the wireless controller and the access points are on different management VLANs, external VLAN routing must allow IP connectivity between the wireless controller and the access points.

For information about how to configure management VLANs, see Manage the IP

Link Aggregation Settings on page 95.

, VLAN, and

Client VLANs

Each authenticated wireless user is placed into a VLAN that determines the user’s DHCP server, IP address, and Layer 2 connection. Although you could place all authenticated wireless users into the single VLAN that is specified in the basic security profile, the wireless controller allows you to group wireless users into separate VLANs based on the wireless SSID to differentiate access to network resources. For example, you might place authorized employee users into one VLAN, and itinerant users, such as contractors or guests, into a separate VLAN. To use different VLANs, you must create different security profiles.

For information about how to configure regular VLANs, see Manage the IP, VLAN, and Link

Aggregation Settings on page 95.

DHCP Server

The wireless controller can function as a DHCP server and assign IP addresses to both wireless and wired devices that are connected to it. You can add up to 64 DHCP server pools, each assigned to a different VLAN.

Client Authentication and Data Encryption

A user must authenticate to the WLAN to be able to access WLAN resources. The wireless controller supports several types of security methods, including those methods that require an external RADIUS or LDAP authentication server.

System Planning and Deployment Scenarios

ProSAFE Wireless Controller WC9500

The encryption option that you can select depends upon the authentication method that you selected. The following table lists the authentication methods available, with their corresponding encryption options:

Table 3. Authentication and encryption options

Authentication Method Encryption Option Authentication Server

Open System 64-bit, 128-bit, or 152-bit WEP None Shared Key 64-bit, 128-bit, or 152-bit WEP None WPA-PSK TKIP or TKIP+AES None WPA2-PSK AES or TKIP+AES None WPA-PSK and WPA2-PSK TKIP+AES None WPA TKIP or TKIP+AES One of the following authentication servers:

• External RADIUS server

• Internal authentication server

• External LDAP server

WPA2 AES or TKIP+AES One of the following authentication servers:

• External RADIUS server

• Internal authentication server

• External LDAP server

WPA and WPA2 TKIP+AES One of the following authentication servers:

• External RADIUS server

• Internal authentication server

• External LDAP server

For information about how to configure client authentication, data encryption, and authentication servers, see Chapter 6, Manage Security Profiles and Profile Groups.

System Planning and Deployment Scenarios

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