Cisco Cisco 2000 Series Wireless LAN Controller White Paper

The LWAPP data frame header adds 6 bytes to the existing 802.11 packets. This header is added before the
encapsulated 802.11 frame and includes the following:

  Flags:                %00000000  [42−48]

                        00.. .... Version: 0

                        ..00 0... Radio ID: 0

                        .... .0.. C Bit − Data message  [0−29]

                        .... ..0. F Bit − Fragmented packet  [0−34]

                        .... ...0 L Bit − Last fragment  [0−30]

  Fragment ID:          0x00  [43−55]

  Length:               74  [44−52]

  Rec Sig Strngth Indic:183  dBm  [46−77]

  Signal to Noise Ratio:25  dB  [47−76]

Since LWAPP frames can be fragmented, a Fragment ID field is included. The total packet size can be
determined if you add the original frame and the IP Fragment. It is important to note that the IP Fragment is
not encapsulated in any LWAPP headers.

As evident by the findings in this traffic study, the operation of LWAPP does not introduce heavy bandwidth