thinQmaster Virtual testing partner Adaptive practice exams that find your weak spots and drill them. Every answer explained. From $69
Enroll

thinQmaster

Find your exam

Five questions free, before you decide.

Step 1 · choose a vendor

In one of our camps? Your practice exams come with the tuition — they are on your study page already.

Wireless & Mobility · Intermediate

Controller Discovery

The process by which a lightweight AP locates and joins a WLC.

Definition

Cisco APs discover controllers through Layer 2/3 broadcast, previously primed or configured controller addresses, DHCP option 43, DNS lookup of CISCO-CAPWAP-CONTROLLER.localdomain, and PnP. The AP then selects a WLC in order of configured primary, secondary, tertiary, and then load. After joining, it downloads firmware and configuration.

Exam tip

If APs are in a different subnet from the WLC, use DHCP option 43 or DNS for discovery.

Related terms