How is 802.11 traffic handled in a fabric-enabled SSID?

Question

Options

• Acentrally switched back to WLC where the user traffic is mapped to a VXLAN on the WLC
• Bconverted by the AP into 802.3 and encapsulated into VXLAN
• Ccentrally switched back to WLC where the user traffic is mapped to a VLAN on the WLC
• Dconverted by the AP into 802.3 and encapsulated into a VLAN

• A
  4% (2)
• B
  83% (43)
• C
  10% (5)
• D
  4% (2)

Explanation

Fabric-Enabled SSID Traffic Handling

In a fabric-enabled SSID, the AP itself converts wireless 802.11 frames into wired 802.3 Ethernet frames, then encapsulates them into VXLAN (Virtual Extensible LAN) tunnels for transport across the SD-Access fabric - this is the core concept of local switching at the AP edge, which is why B is correct.

Why the distractors are wrong:

• A and C are incorrect because fabric-enabled SSIDs use local switching (not centralized switching back to the WLC); centralized switching describes the older, traditional FlexConnect or local mode architecture
• A is additionally wrong because mapping happens via VXLAN on the fabric edge node (border/edge nodes), not on the WLC itself
• D is incorrect because fabric uses VXLAN (an overlay tunnel mechanism), not a simple VLAN tag, which wouldn't provide the scalability and segmentation that SD-Access requires

Memory Tip: Think of the acronym "AP converts, VXLAN transports" - in a fabric SSID, the AP does the heavy lifting by converting 802.11→802.3 and wrapping it in VXLAN, keeping traffic local to the fabric rather than hauling it back to a central WLC.

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