Objectives for Control and Provisioning of Wireless Access Points (CAPWAP)
RFC 4564
Network Working Group S. Govindan, Ed.
Request for Comments: 4564 H. Cheng
Category: Informational Panasonic
ZH. Yao
Huawei
WH. Zhou
China Mobile
L. Yang
Intel
July 2006
Objectives for
Control and Provisioning of Wireless Access Points (CAPWAP)
Status of This Memo
This memo provides information for the Internet community. It does
not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of this
memo is unlimited.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2006).
Abstract
This document presents objectives for an interoperable protocol for
the Control and Provisioning of Wireless Access Points (CAPWAP). The
document aims to establish a set of focused requirements for the
development and evaluation of a CAPWAP protocol. The objectives
address architecture, operation, security, and network operator
requirements that are necessary to enable interoperability among
Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) devices of alternative designs.
Govindan, et al. Informational [Page 1]
RFC 4564 CAPWAP Objectives July 2006
Table of Contents
1. Introduction ....................................................3
2. Terminology .....................................................3
3. Requirements Notation ...........................................4
4. Objectives Overview .............................................4
5. Objectives ......................................................5
5.1. Mandatory and Accepted Objectives ..........................5
5.1.1. Logical Groups ......................................5
5.1.2. Support for Traffic Separation ......................6
5.1.3. Wireless Terminal Transparency ......................8
5.1.4. Configuration Consistency ...........................8
5.1.5. Firmware Trigger ....................................9
5.1.6. Monitoring and Exchange of System-wide
Resource State .....................................10
5.1.7. Resource Control Objective .........................11
5.1.8. CAPWAP Protocol Security ...........................12
5.1.9. System-wide Security ...............................14
5.1.10. IEEE 802.11i Considerations .......................15
5.1.11. Interoperability Objective .......................17
5.1.12. Protocol Specifications ..........................18
5.1.13. Vendor Independence ..............................19
5.1.14. Vendor Flexibility ...............................19
5.1.15. NAT Traversal ....................................20
5.2. Desirable Objectives ......................................21
5.2.1. Multiple Authentication Mechanisms .................21
5.2.2. Support for Future Wireless Technologies ...........21
5.2.3. Support for New IEEE Requirements ..................22
5.2.4. Interconnection Objective ..........................23
5.2.5. Access Control ....................................24
5.3. Non-Objectives ............................................25
5.3.1. Support for Non-CAPWAP WTPs ........................25
5.3.2. Technical Specifications ...........................26
5.4. Operator Requirements .....................................27
5.4.1. AP Fast Handoff ....................................27
6. Summary and Conclusion .........................................27
7. Security Considerations ........................................28
8. Acknowledgements ...............................................29
9. Normative References ...........................................29
10. Informative References ........................................29
Govindan, et al. Informational [Page 2]
RFC 4564 CAPWAP Objectives July 2006
1. Introduction
The growth in large-scale Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN)
deployments has brought into focus a number of technical challenges.
Among them is the complexity of managing large numbers of Wireless
Termination Points (WTPs), which is further exacerbated by variations
in their design. Another challenge is the maintenance of consistent
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