In the last article we talked about the Cisco Mobility Express Solution, including the main features and chief benefits. In detail, what does the Cisco Mobility Express Solution Require? Such as the supports, supported Cisco Aironet Access Points, supported Features and Software Release Information. So to continue discuss the Cisco Mobility Express Solution, we will share the Cisco Mobility Express Solution Release Notes, some information about the supported Cisco Aironet APs in this article.
Firstly, we should be clear that the Cisco Mobility Express wireless network solution is available starting from Cisco Wireless Release 8.1.120.0 only.
The Cisco Mobility Express wireless network solution provides a wireless LAN controller functionality bundled into, currently, the Cisco Aironet 1850 and 1830 series access points. This functionality provides a simplified WiFi architecture with limited enterprise-level WLAN capability to small and medium deployments.
In the Cisco Mobility Express wireless network solution, one access point, running the Cisco Mobility Express wireless controller, is designated as the Master AP. Other access points, referred to as Subordinate APs, associate to this master AP.
The master AP operates as a wireless LAN controller, to manage and control the subordinate APs, and also operates as an access point to serve clients. The subordinate APs behave as normal lightweight access points to serve clients.
Supported Cisco Aironet Access Points
| APs supported as Masters (support integrated wireless controller capability) | APs Supported as Subordinates |
| Cisco Aironet 1850 SeriesCisco Aironet 1830 Series | In addition to the following, all APs that are supported as master APs are also supported as subordinate APs.Cisco Aironet 700i Series
Cisco Aironet 700w Series Cisco Aironet 1700 Series Cisco Aironet 2700 Series |
Supported Features
- Scalability:
– Up to 25 APs
– Up to 500 clients
– Up to 16 WLANs
– Up to 100 rogue APs
– Up to 1000 rogue clients
- License—Does not require any licenses (Cisco Right-To-Use License or Swift) for access points.
- Operation— The master AP can concurrently function as controller (to manage APs) and as an AP (to serve clients).
- Initial configuration wizard.
- Priming at distribution site.
- Default Service Set Identifier (SSID), set from factory—Yes, for initial provisioning only.
- Management—Through a web interface monitoring dashboard.
- Cisco Wireless Controller Best Practices.
- Quality of Service (QoS).
- Multicast with default settings.
- Application Visibility and Control (AVC)—Limited HTTP, with only Application Visibility and not Control. Deep packet inspection with 1,500+ signatures.
- WLAN access control lists (ACLs).
- Roaming—Layer 2 roaming without mobility groups.
- IPv6—For client bridging only.
- High Density Experience (HDX)—Supported when managing access points that support HDX.
- Radio Resource Management (RRM)—Supported within AP group only.
- WPA2 Security.
- WLAN-VLAN Mapping.
- Guest WLAN login (Web Authorization).
- Local EAP Authentication (Local Radius Server).
- Local Profile.
- Network Time Protocol (NTP) Server.
- Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) and Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP).
- Clean Air.
- Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP).
- Management – SSH / Telnet / Admin users.
- Reset to factory defaults.
- Serviceability – Core file and core options, Logging and syslog.
- Cisco Prime Infrastructure.
- CMX 10.x – Only Location Presence.
- BYOD – On boarding only.
- UX Regulatory Domain.
- Allow Authentication, Authorization, Accounting (AAA) Override.
- IEEE 802.11k, 11r.
- Passive Client
- Voice with Call admission control (CAC), with Traffic Specification (TSpec)
- Fast SSID
- TACACS (Terminal Access Controller Access Control System)
- Management over wireless
- High Availability and Redundancy—Built-in redundancy mechanism to self-select a Master AP and to select a new AP as Master in case of a failure. Supported using VRRP.
- Software upgrade with pre image download
- Migration to controller-based deployment.
Compatibility with Other Cisco Wireless Solutions
See the Cisco Wireless Solutions Software Compatibility Matrix, at the following URL: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/wireless/compatibility/matrix/compatibility-matrix.html
Software Release Information
Cisco Mobility Express software for Cisco Wireless Release 8.1.122.0, is as follows:
| Software type and purpose | For AP 1850 | For AP 1830 |
| Mobility Express Network Software Bundle(for Mobility Express controller and network software update) | AIR-AP1850-K9-ME-8-1-122-0.zip | AIR-AP1830-K9-ME-8-1-122-0.zip |
| Mobility Express Controller-capable AP Software(for conversion from CAPWAP Lightweight AP type to Mobility Express) | AIR-AP1850-K9-8.1.122.0.tar | AIR-AP1830-K9-8.1.122.0.tar |
Installing Mobility Express Software
See the Getting Started section in the Mobility Express User Guide at the following URL: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/wireless/access_point/mob_exp/1/user_guide/b_ME_User_Guide.html
Caveats
The open caveats applicable to the Cisco Mobility Express solution are listed under the “Caveats” section. All caveats associated with the Cisco Mobility Express solution have Cisco Mobility Express mentioned in the headline.
As this is the first release, there are no closed caveats applicable to the Cisco Mobility Express solution.
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