CAPWAP versus LWAPP

CAPWAP and LWAPP are both wireless tunnelling protocols used between Access Point (AP) and Wireless LAN Controller (WLC). CAPWAP is based on LWAPP. So, these two protocols have many similarities. But what about the differences if we compare CAPWAP versus LWAPP? In this lesson, we will focus on these differences. You can also see these differences below in the comparison table.

Firstly, LWAPP supports both layer 2 and layer 3 mode. But CAPWAP supports only layer 3 mode.

Lightweight Access Point Protocol support IP Fragmentation but Control And Provisioning of Wireless Access Points has its own CAPWAP fragmentation.

CAPWAP supports MTU discovery but LWAPP no not support it.

LWAPP uses only AES -CCM for security. But CAPWAP supports AES-CCM with DTLS (Datagram Transport Layer Security). So, CAPWAP is more secure than LWAPP.

Both Lightweight Access Point Protocol and CAPWAP control plane traffic is encapsulated. But for data plane traffic, there is nor encryption for Lightweight Access Point Protocol. But, Control And Provisioning of Wireless Access Points data traffic encapsulation is optional.

These two wireless encapsulation protocols use UDP as transport layer protocol. But they use different ports of UDP.  LWAPP uses UDP 12222 port for control plane traffic and UDP 12223 port for data plane traffic. CAPWAP uses UDP 5246 port for control plane traffic and UDP 5247 port for data plane traffic.

In this CAPWAP versus LWAPP lesson, we have talked about the differences of two wireless tunneling protocols, CAPWAP Protocol and LWAPP Protocol. You can also check Access Point Discovery and Join Process overview to learn more about these protocols and their roles in wireless communication.

These two protocol are very important for the communication between AP (Access point) and  WLC (Wireless LAN Controller). If you learn these protocols good, you can troubleshoot your wireless network problems easier and quicker. Because of the fact that these protocols are important, Access Point Discovery and Join Process lesson is covered in CCNP ENCORE exam.

Become a Member!