Introduction to the Latest Cisco Wireless Controllers

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Cisco Wireless Controllers 2016

What can the Cisco Wireless Controllers (WLC) exactly do for you?

Wireless networks have become a necessity today as more and more organizations have higher requirements for the network designs and solutions.

WLC is a device that assumes a central role in the CUWN (Cisco Unified Wireless Network). Traditional roles of access points, such as association or authentication of wireless clients, are done by the WLC. Access points, called Lightweight Access Points (LAPs) in the unified environment, register themselves with a WLC and tunnel all the management and data packets to the WLCs, which then switch the packets between wireless clients and the wired portion of the network. All the configurations are done on the WLC. LAPs download the entire configuration from WLCs and act as a wireless interface to the clients.

To help ensure an exceptional end-user experience on the wireless network, Cisco Wireless Controllers provide a variety of capabilities, including:

Integrated Cisco CleanAir technology, which protects 802.11n and 802.11ac performance by creating a self-healing and self-optimizing wireless network
Cisco ClientLink technology specifically for on mixed-client networks. ClientLink optimizes overall network capacity by helping to ensure that 802.11a/g, 802.11n and 802.11ac clients operate at the best possible rates
Cisco Adaptive wIPS provides robust protection for the entire wireless network, including detection, location, and mitigation of security penetration and DoS threats
Single-point of policy across wired and wireless networks with Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE). Cisco ISE enables enterprises to adapt to the exponential growth in mobile smartphones, tablets, and laptops.

Cisco ISE meets the varied demands of the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) trend with secure, relevant access for employees, guests, and contractors through a single, centralized point of management

Cisco Wireless Controllers for Large Multisite or Single-Site Enterprises and Service Providers

Optimize the performance of your large wireless network with centralized visibility and control. The Cisco 8500 Series Controller and the Cisco 5760 Wireless Controller are designed to cost-effectively manage, secure, and optimize the performance of sizeable wireless networks. Ideal for service provider and large campus deployments, the 8500 Series Controller and the Cisco 5760 Wireless Controller enables high-scalability on an as-needed basis.

The 8500 Series Wireless Controller offers:

High scale with the industry’s largest scalability in a single rack-unit space (1RU). A centralized touch-point for up to 6000 access points, 64,000 clients, and 6000 branch locations
High speed with 10 Gigabit Ethernet connectivity support: 2 x 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports for redundancy
High availability with subsecond access point and client stateful failover, helping to ensure access point and client state maintenance and avoiding the reinitialization process
High resiliency with redundant dual power supplies
The architectural flexibility to support centralized controller switched architecture for campuses. The Cisco FlexConnect solution provides a lean branch network that uses access points connected to controllers in the data center over a wide area network, as well as mesh support in a single controller

Table1. Cisco 8500 Series Wireless Controller for Large Campus or Service Provider Deployments

Cisco 5700 Series Wireless Controllers

Designed for mid-to-large campus deployments, the Cisco 5760 Wireless LAN Controller offers:

802.11ac optimized, wire-speed 60 Gbps throughput with advanced network services per controller
High resiliency with N+1 clustering, link aggregation groups (LAG) and redundant power supplies
IOS based wireless controller with rich feature set like Flexible Netflow, Hierarchical QoS with four hardware wireless queues, downloadable ACLs, etc.

Table2. Cisco 5760 Wireless Controller for Large Campus or Service Provider Deployments

The Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series WiSM2 is a highly scalable, integrated blade switch that extends the same policies and security from the wired network core to the wireless edge. It lowers hardware costs and offers flexible configuration options that can reduce the total cost of operations and ownership for wireless networks.

Cisco Wireless Controllers for Mid-Sized and Large, Single-Site Enterprises

You can cost-effectively manage and secure your wireless networks with the high-performance Cisco 5500 Series Wireless Controller, Cisco Wireless Service Module 2 (WiSM2) Controller on Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Switches and the Cisco Catalyst 3850 Switch with integrated Wireless LAN Controller.

As the industry’s most deployed controller, the Cisco 5500 Series Wireless Controller provides the highest performance, security, and scalability to support business communications today and in the future.

Benefits include:

Seamless, high-quality mobile experience: Efficient roaming capabilities help ensure consistent experience on any smart mobile device with voice and video applications.
Reliability: Cisco 5500 Series Wireless Controllers provide industry-leading IPv6 roaming with secure access.
Flexibility to pay as you grow: The Cisco 5500 Series offers software license flexibility to add additional access points as business requirements change.
Versatility: Supports advanced services for any network use case, campus or branch, including Cisco OfficeExtend solutions for secure mobile teleworking and Cisco Enterprise Wireless Mesh solutions, which allow access points to dynamically establish wireless connections in hard-to-connect locations.

Deploy the Cisco Wireless Service Module 2 (WiSM2) Controller on the Catalyst 6500 Series Switches to help enable systemwide wireless functions in medium-sized to large enterprise environments.

Designed for Small-to-large enterprise deployments, the Cisco Catalyst 3850 Switch with Integrated Wireless LAN Controller offers:

IOS based wireless controller integrated within 3850 switch offering a rich feature set such as Flexible Netflow, Hierarchical QoS with four hardware wireless queues, Downloadable ACLs, etc.
High resiliency with AP SSO, Multiple Link Aggregation (LAG), redundant power supplies, and redundant fans

Table3. Cisco Wireless Controllers for Mid-Sized and Large, Single-Site Enterprises

Cisco Wireless Controllers for Branch Environments and Multisite Deployments

Consolidate your wireless branch network with the Cisco Flex 7500 Series Wireless Controllers to help network managers cost-effectively manage branch networks. Its robust scalability significantly lowers operating expenses by providing the visibility and control needed to manage thousands of wireless branches from a single location.

The Cisco Flex 7500 Series is ideally suited for supporting smaller, leaner branch environments. The Cisco 7500 Series is:

A cost-effective solution that does not require a local controller at each branch location
A consolidated, remote management system that allows scaled and consistent control over thousands of branches
A way to provide secure, centralized policy management of distributed guest and employee access
A solution that helps ensure business continuity in each local branch by providing resiliency in WAN failures
A solution that provides efficient networking with local switching of data traffic, allowing WAN optimization and QoS policies without requiring tunneling across the WAN

Table4. Cisco Wireless Controllers for Multisite Deployments

Cisco Wireless Controllers for Small and Mid-Sized Enterprises

Cisco 2500 Series Wireless Controllers, Cisco Virtual Wireless Controller, and the Cisco Wireless Controller Module for Cisco Integrated Services Router Generation 2 (ISR G2) and the Cisco Catalyst 3650 Series Switch provide small branch or singlesite enterprise WLAN deployments with entry-level wireless for data.

They are ideal for improved mobility with laptops, providing guest access for vendors or customers or offering limited hotspot coverage. Now you can enhance the productivity of your growing mobile workforce, and scale and add services over time. These controllers offer deployment flexibility onsite, with virtual machines, or through integration with a router.

Other benefits include:

802.11n and 802.11ac performance and scalability at an attractive entry-level price
Support for award-winning Cisco CleanAir technology for RF management
Support for scanners and kiosks for Payment Card Industry (PCI) certified customers
Support for highly secure guest access, voice, location services, and other collaboration applications

Table5. Cisco Wireless Controllers for Small Enterprises