Communication Workflow

The figure below captures a high level end-to-end communication flow between RUCKUS APs, vSZ and vSZ-D/SZ100-D/SZ144-D.

Communication workflow between RUCKUS APs, vSZ, and vSZ-D/SZ100-D/SZ144-D

The following are the steps seen in the above figure.

  1. Update the vSZ controller to the latest release or perform a fresh install of the vSZ controller with the latest release
    Note: If you are upgrading the vSZ controller and the vSZ-D/SZ100-D/SZ144-D, RUCKUS recommends the update of vSZ controller before the update of vSZ-D/SZ100-D/SZ144-D
  2. Install vSZ-D/SZ100-D/SZ144-D and point it to the vSZ-E or vSZ-H controller by using the following options:
    • Set vSZ-E or vSZ-H control interface IP address or FQDN or configure the controller IP address via DHCP option 43.
    • For vSZ-E or vSZ-H configured with three (3) IP interfaces, the IP address to use is the vSZ control interface IP address.
  3. The vSZ-D/SZ100-D/SZ144-D management interface connects with the vSZ-E or vSZ-H controller control interface
  4. The vSZ-E or vSZ-H controller administrator approves the vSZ-D/SZ100-D/SZ144-D connection request
  5. The vSZ informs the AP of the vSZ-D/SZ100-D/SZ144-D data interface
  6. The vSZ-D/SZ100-D/SZ144-D is displayed as active and managed on vSZ-E or vSZ-H
  7. AP establishes a RUCKUS GRE tunnel with the vSZ-D/SZ100-D/SZ144-D data interface when a tunnelling WLAN is configured

Communication workflow between RUCKUS APs, vSZ, and vSZ-D/SZ100-D/SZ144-D depicts logical network architecture. In real-world deployments, there may be network routers, gateways, firewalls and other devices; these typical network devices are not shown in the figure to focus on the vSZ-D/SZ100-D/SZ144-D interfaces and communication protocol aspects between the various entities.

It is also important to note that support for distributed or centralized deployment topologies introduce NAT routers/gateway devices. The communication interfaces between RUCKUS APs, vSZ and vSZ-D/SZ100-D/SZ144-D are designed to support NAT traversal so as to support such deployment topologies.