SoftGRE Tunneling Support

Software Generic Routing Encapsulation (SoftGRE) tunneling involves transmitting encapsulated data packets in WLAN deployments to manage and direct AP traffic to a centralized gateway.

Feature Overview

This technique encapsulates the original data packets within GRE packets, creating a virtual point-to-point link over the existing network infrastructure, which adds security and enables centralized traffic distribution by establishing a tunnel from the APs to a SoftGRE gateway.

Managing and directing traffic efficiently is crucial for maintaining optimal network performance. SoftGRE tunneling plays a pivotal role in achieving this by encapsulating data packets and transmitting them over various network types.

The SoftGRE Tunneling Support feature allows you to:

  • Create a SoftGRE tunnel profile
  • Bind the profile to a specific venue and Wi-Fi network for tunneling AP traffic to a SoftGRE gateway
  • Enable a SoftGRE tunnel profile on an Ethernet port

Following are the benefits:

  • Enhanced flexibility: Adaptability to different network environments to work with various types of networks.
  • Centralized traffic management and efficiency: Centralized control of network traffic, enabling more efficient and consistent application of network policies.

Requirements

This feature has no special hardware or software requirements for feature enablement or usage.

Considerations

  • A maximum of 64 SoftGRE tunnel profiles can be created per RUCKUS One tenant account, but only three can be enabled per venue and only one enabled per Wi-Fi network.
  • Each SoftGRE profile name must be unique.
  • All the gateway addresses in the enabled SoftGRE profiles must be different, including primary and secondary gateway IP addresses in a single SoftGRE profile.
  • SoftGRE tunneling is not supported on a Captive Portal network.
  • Network Address Translation (NAT) is not supported because SoftGRE does not use higher-layer protocols such as UDP or TCP, which typically precede GRE in the networking stack.
  • SoftGRE clients cannot ping each other, regardless of being connected through different APs, if they are associated with the same SoftGRE gateway within the same VLAN.
  • A SoftGRE profile cannot be deleted after it is activated in a venue.
  • Client Isolation setting at the venue, network, and AP port levels works as expected when SoftGRE tunnel is configured.
  • VLAN setting at the venue, AP port (Edit Venue/AP > Networking > LAN Ports > Ethernet Port Profile) and network levels (Wi-Fi Networks > Add/Edit Network > More Settings > VLAN tab) works as expected when SoftGRE tunnel is configured.

Best Practices

This feature has no special recommendations for feature enablement or usage.

Prerequisites

This feature has no prerequisites to feature enablement or usage.

Limitations

  • Create a SoftGRE profile by navigating to Network Control > Policies & Profiles > SoftGRE > Add SoftGRE Profile and then enable SoftGRE tunnel at the venue and AP levels.