N10-009 Question 176
Single answerAutonomous vs. lightweight APA company is opening a temporary training facility with six wireless access points. The site has a small IT budget, no wireless controller, and only one local admin who can make occasional configuration changes. The company needs the APs to continue serving clients even if the WAN link to headquarters goes down. Which deployment choice best meets these requirements?
- A
Deploy autonomous APs so each AP can be configured and operated independently on-site
- B
Deploy lightweight APs because they provide full local configuration and do not rely on a controller
- C
Deploy lightweight APs and disable PoE so the APs will continue operating during a WAN outage
- D
Deploy autonomous APs because they require a wireless LAN controller for SSID and security settings
Show answer and explanation
Correct answer: A
Explanation
The best answer is to deploy autonomous APs. In Network+ terms, autonomous APs are standalone devices that are configured individually and are well suited for smaller environments or temporary sites where centralized wireless management is unnecessary or unavailable. Lightweight APs are intended for controller-based deployments, where a WLC provides centralized administration, policy consistency, and scalability across many APs. In a six-AP temporary facility with no controller, limited budget, and a requirement to keep wireless service available during a WAN outage, autonomous APs align better with operational needs. This matches common enterprise wireless design guidance: use controller-based/lightweight APs for larger environments needing centralized management and roaming optimization, and use autonomous APs when simplicity and local independence are more important than centralized control.
- A. Correct.
Correct. Autonomous APs are self-contained devices that handle their own configuration, management, and client services locally. In a small site with only a few APs and no controller, they are often the practical choice. Because forwarding and control functions are local to the AP, they can continue serving wireless clients even if the WAN link to headquarters fails, assuming local network services remain available.
- B. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Lightweight APs are typically designed to be centrally managed by a wireless LAN controller (WLC) or similar controller-based architecture. Their main advantage is centralized configuration and policy management across many APs, not full independent local configuration. Without a controller, a lightweight deployment is generally not the best fit for this scenario.
- C. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Power over Ethernet (PoE) is a power-delivery method, not a feature that determines whether an AP depends on a controller. Disabling PoE would not make a lightweight AP independent of centralized control, and it could actually prevent the AP from powering on if no other power source is available. This option mixes two unrelated concepts.
- D. Incorrect.
Incorrect. This reverses the roles of the AP types. Autonomous APs do not require a wireless LAN controller; they are managed individually. Lightweight APs are the ones commonly associated with controller-based deployments for centralized management of SSIDs, security policies, RF settings, and firmware.