So do you have a few independent WAPs or are you trying to cover a wide area with an array of WAPs? If it is the latter you will need a WLC
A WLC will use one of 2 protocols:
LWAPP: Light Weight Access Point Protocol or
CAPWAP: Control and Provisioning of Wireless Access Points
WAP's Come in 4 flavors:
Access Point Based (no WLC)
Cloud Based (Cloud WLC) (Meraki)
Virtual Controller Based (virtual WLC)
Physical Controller Based (physical WLC)