A customer has two Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series WLCs named WLC-A and WLC-B in an N+1 configuration with the same WLANs but different Layer 3 interfaces for each WLC, and APs in local mode. WLC-A manages Building A APs and WLC-B manages Building B APs. The customer wants users to remain connected and retain their session state including the IP address when moving between buildings. How must this requirement be incorporated into the design?
Suggested Answer:
A
Explanation:
The requirement for users to retain their session state and IP address when roaming between buildings managed by different WLCs is a Layer 3 roaming scenario. In Cisco's wireless architecture, IP address preservation across controller boundaries is achieved through inter-controller mobility --- specifically the foreign-anchor mobility tunnel mechanism. When a client roams from Building A (WLC-A) to Building B (WLC-B), WLC-B becomes the foreign controller and WLC-A becomes the anchor controller. WLC-B tunnels the client's traffic back to WLC-A, allowing the client to retain its original IP address even while physically associated to an AP managed by WLC-B. This requires a mobility tunnel between WLC-A and WLC-B with both controllers configured in the same mobility group name --- the group name is the trust identifier that permits the mobility tunnel and anchor-foreign relationship to form. Without the same group name, the controllers will not form a trusted mobility peer relationship. AP groups (Option C) control SSID and VLAN assignments per AP cluster but have no impact on inter-controller roaming. HA cluster configuration (Option B) creates SSO redundancy, not roaming capability between separate N+1 controllers. Redundancy port connection (Option D) is used for SSO keepalive and state sync, not mobility tunneling. Reference: WLSD Study Guide --- Inter-Controller Mobility, Mobility Tunnels, Layer 3 Roaming and IP Address Preservation.