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LWAPP Control
The Light Weight Access Point Protocol (LWAPP) Control port, defined in RFC 5412, facilitates communication between lightweight wireless access points (APs) and a centralized wireless LAN controller. Operating primarily over UDP, it supports control plane messaging necessary for secure, scalable management of wireless infrastructures by decoupling management functions from the APs and consolidating configuration and policy enforcement..
Light Weight Access Point Protocol (LWAPP) is designed to streamline the deployment and management of wireless networks by centralizing control and configuration functions within a wireless LAN controller. The access points act largely as transmitters and receivers for wireless traffic, while complex management and authentication tasks are handled by the controller. This separation reduces AP cost and complexity.
Port 12223 is dedicated specifically to LWAPP control messages as outlined in RFC 5412. These control streams handle functions such as AP discovery, image management, configuration updates, and heartbeat signaling. Communication is typically initiated by the access points sending discovery requests, to which the controller responds, followed by a secure join and ongoing management communication.
LWAPP supports lightweight encryption and authentication mechanisms to maintain the integrity of control messages, though security depends heavily on the deployment environment and the correct configuration of both controllers and access points. By encapsulating management traffic over UDP on this port, LWAPP minimizes overhead while maintaining necessary responsiveness for wireless management.