Summary

Question

How does Cloudpath learn Client Mac address to store in Mac Registration List during Hotspot Redirection to Workflow URL ?

Customer Environment

Troubleshooting Steps

N/A

Workaround

N/A

Resolution

When the client associates to the Hotspot WLAN and is unauthorized, the AP's CPD process (or the SZ Captive Portal module) intercepts the client's HTTP/HTTPS traffic and responds with a 302 redirect to the configured external portal URL (Cloudpath Workflow URL). During this redirect, the AP/SZ appends the client MAC address as a query parameter (client_mac=XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX) to the redirect URL, along with other attributes (UE IP, SSID, AP MAC, NBI IP, etc.). Cloudpath parses the client_mac parameter from the incoming URL to learn the client's MAC address and stores it in the MAC registration list upon successful enrollment.

Important: MAC encryption must be disabled on the SZ/WLAN (no encrypt-mac-ip) for this to work, as Cloudpath expects the MAC in clear-text format.

Following PCAP screenshot is an example of this - 

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