Access Point (Controller-based) - What is tunnel mode & Tunnel Mode Support on NXCs

What is Tunnel Mode?

Tunnel-mode is a feature of APs managed by a NXC-controller which first forwards the WiFi stations' traffic to the NXC-controller. This is particularly useful when you need to use the NXC's Captive Portal functionality, but haven't the NXC deployed as the default gateway of the network. 

The benefits of tunnel mode are as the following.

1. Tunnel mode is used for captive portal of specific clients.

For example, when the NXC controller is not the gateway and the network manager wants the clients to authenticate via captive portal, the SSID used by clients for connection should be set to tunnel mode to make sure the traffic from the clients go through the NXC controller.

2. Monitor the traffic of all managed APs.

3. If the SSID is set as a VLAN ID, you don't have to set the VLAN on the switch because the traffic from the AP goes to the controller directly in tunnel mode.

Which Access Points support Tunnel Mode

Tunnel-Mode is not supported by all Access Points - please see below chart for compatibility as of April 2019:

KB-00414