Справочник Пользователя для SonicWALL 5.8.1

Chapter 40: 

This chapter describes the Virtual Access Point feature and includes the following sections:

This section provides an introduction to the Virtual Access Point feature for SonicWALL UTM 
appliances equippped with internal wireless radios.

This section contains the following subsections:

A Virtual Access Point is a multiplexed instantiation of a single physical Access Point (AP) so 
that it presents itself as multiple discrete Access Points. To wireless LAN clients, each Virtual 
AP appears to be an independent physical AP, when in actuality there is only a single physical 
AP. Before the evolution of the Virtual AP feature support, wireless networks were relegated to 
a One-to-One relationship between physical Access Points and wireless network security 
characteristics, such as authentication and encryption. In other words, an Access Point 
providing WPA-PSK security could not simultaneously offer Open or WPA-EAP connectivity to 
clients, and if the latter were required, they would had to have been provided by a separate, 
distinctly configured Access Points. This forced WLAN network administrators to find a solution