The correct action is to create a dedicated guest interface/VLAN and bind it to the guest WLAN through the Catalyst 9800 policy profile. In Catalyst 9800 architecture, the WLAN defines the SSID and wireless security parameters, while the policy profile defines client forwarding policy, VLAN mapping, DHCP-related behavior, and access policy. Cisco's Catalyst 9800 VLAN configuration procedure places the VLAN selection under the Policy Profile > Access Policies section, where a VLAN or VLAN group is mapped to the WLAN policy profile. Cisco also documents that DHCP can be configured per interface or per WLAN and recommends using the DHCP server address assigned to the relevant interface for WLAN client addressing.
A dedicated guest VLAN backed by the 10.20.30.0/24 DHCP scope provides up to 254 usable addresses, satisfying the 200-client requirement while keeping guest users separated from corporate users at Layer 3/VLAN boundaries. Option A and C are wrong because a shared DHCP pool violates the requirement for a guest-only subnet; DHCP option 43 is for AP/controller discovery, not client addressing. Option D is not scalable and does not define DHCP allocation.

The failure is occurring during WPA/WPA2 key management, not during mobility anchoring. The radioactive trace shows Failed to validate eapol mic. MIC mismatch followed by Failed to validate eapol key m2, which means the authenticator and supplicant derived different key material during the PSK handshake. Cisco's Catalyst 9800 client-connectivity troubleshooting maps this log pattern directly to a wrong password condition and lists the corrective actions as fixing the password on the endpoint or on the SSID/WLAN. The 11r MIC validation failed phrase does not automatically make 802.11r the root cause; it only shows that the failed MIC validation occurred while Fast Transition key logic was in use. Disabling 802.11r would be a workaround only for client capability or FT interoperability issues, but the trace points to PSK mismatch. Removing the anchor WLC would break the intended DMZ anchoring design, and matching WLANs on foreign and anchor is required for anchor deployments, but it would not produce this EAPOL M2 MIC failure. The correct remediation is to ensure the client-entered PSK matches the WLAN PSK.

AAA override allows a RADIUS server to dynamically assign authorization attributes such as VLANs, ACLs, QoS policies, or session timeouts to authenticated users. This enables flexible user-based access control. The feature does not affect AP join behavior, RF tuning, or DHCP operations.

EAP-TLS uses certificates on both the client and authentication server, providing strong mutual authentication and eliminating password-based vulnerabilities. PEAP relies on passwords within a protected tunnel, while LEAP is deprecated due to known security weaknesses.

IEEE 802.11ax, also known as Wi-Fi 6, introduces several advancements to improve network performance, particularly in dense environments. Among these, OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access) is a key feature introduced by 802.11ax. OFDMA allows more efficient use of the available spectrum by enabling multiple users to share the same channel simultaneously. This is done by subdividing the channel into smaller sub-channels, allowing data to be transmitted to multiple devices at the same time, improving overall throughput and reducing latency.