Cisco Wireless Technology Consultants

Cisco wireless controllers streamline the administration of Wi-Fi environments by centralizing the deployment and management of wireless access points, maximizing wireless throughput by minimizing the impact of radio interference, improving Wi-Fi availability with rapid auto-failover, and hardening protection by detecting threats and filtering traffic content based on user ID and location.

Cisco's wireless controllers work with Cisco's Prime Infrastructure and DNA Center management solutions and can accommodate as many as 6,000 wireless access points and 64,000 users. Cisco's family of Wi-Fi controllers are offered at price points and with feature sets suitable for networks that run from small offices to service provider networks, multi-site enterprises, and dense campus deployments. Cisco's 802.11ax and 802.11ac controllers and APs are designed to deliver the same level of security, performance and robustness that users are accustomed to from their wired network. Cisco's technology includes integrated mobility services like IP voice, HD video, and safe guest access. Cisco's Prime Infrastructure and DNAC architecture allow organizations to build environments that combine wired and wireless networks into a centrally managed solution that provides a seamless and productive user experience.

Progent's seasoned Wi-Fi consultants can help your organization to assess the business benefits of deploying Cisco Wi-Fi controllers to administer wireless environments of any scale. Progent can help you to maintain and debug your current Cisco Wi-Fi ecosystem or assist you to plan and carry out an efficient transition from older Wi-Fi controllers to current products to get enhanced functionality and security and to streamline management.

Progent's Cisco-certified network consultants can provide affordable remote consulting and support services across the U.S. to help businesses to build and refine Wi-Fi solutions. Progent can also provide onsite consulting in major metropolitan areas across the U.S. and in Toronto, Canada. In addition, Progent can provide online predictive and onsite Wi-Fi Site Surveys to help you to plan a Wi-Fi network with wireless access points placed and set up optimally for your particular office environment, application workloads, and user density.

Cisco 9800 Series Wi-Fi 6 Wireless Controllers
Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wi-Fi 6-supported wireless controller appliances help you automate and manage modern Wi-Fi environments that incorporate 802.11ax APs. The 802.11ax standard, also called Wi-Fi 6, builds on previous generation 802.11ac (called Wi-Fi 5) appliances by providing less latency and more predictable performance, allowing higher client user density, providing greater protection, saving energy for battery-powered handheld devices, and offering more versatility for supporting new kinds of Internet-of-Things endpoints. Cisco's Catalyst 9800 family Wi-Fi controllers feature always-on availability with transparent software updates, hot patching, and the ability to add access points with zero downtime. Enhanced security technologies include Cisco Wireless Intrusion Prevention System (WIPS), secure boot, and Cisco Software-Defined Access. Streaming telemetry permits you to track and understand network and client health. All controllers in the Catalyst 9800 family are powered by Cisco's IOS XE Software and operate with Cisco's DNA Center or with Prime Infrastructure network management tools. Cisco's Catalyst 9800 wireless LAN controllers can support Cisco Aironet 802.11ac Wave 1 and Wave 2 APs as well as Cisco Catalyst 9100 802.11ax APs.

Cisco's 9800-L Wi-Fi 6 Controller is an entry-level appliance available in a half-width 1RU form factor that permits side-by-side installation in a standard 19-in rack. Designed for smaller businesses, the 9800-L controller offers enhanced throughput and scale if you purchase a Performance license option. The 9800-L can handle 250 APs and 5,000 clients (500 Wi-Fi access points and 10,00 users if you have a Performance license). The 9800-L controller offers 5 Gbps throughput (10 Gbps with a Performance license), and supports up to 4,096 VLANs. Deployment modes include Centralized, Cisco FlexConnect for branch office deployments, and fabric. Fixed uplinks include four 2.5G/1G ports and either two 10G/Multigigabit copper (Catalyst 9800-L-C) or two 10G/Multigigabit fiber ports (Catalyst 9800-L-F). Other ports include an RJ-45 console interface and a Micro USB console port for out-of-band management, a USB 3.0 interface for plugging in external memory, an RJ-45 management port, and an RJ-45 high-availability redundancy interface used for SSO.

The Cisco Catalyst 9800-40 Wi-Fi 6 Controller, offered in a 1RU form factor, is intended to support midsize campus environments. The 9800-40 can handle 2,000 APs and 32,000 users. The 9800-40 delivers 40 Gbps throughput and supports up to 4,096 VLANs. Deployment scenarios include Centralized, FlexConnect, and Fabric Wireless. Fixed ports include four GE SFP/10 GE SFP+ or SFP interfaces and an SFP Gigabit Ethernet redundancy interface. Other fixed ports include RJ-45 and USB 3.0 console interfaces, an RJ-45 management interface, an RJ-45 redundancy interface used for SSO, and two USB 3.0 ports for adding external RAM memory.

The Cisco Catalyst 9800-80 Wi-Fi 6 Controller, available in a 2 rack unit (RU) form factor, is an expandable, high-end wireless controller intended to manage large campus and service provider deployments. The 9800-80 supports 60,00 APs and 64,000 users. The 9800-80 controller delivers up to 80 Gbps throughput and supports up to 4,096 VLANs. Deployment options include Centralized, Cisco FlexConnect, and Fabric Wireless. Integrated uplink ports include eight 10G SFP+ interfaces or six 10G ports plus two 1G interfaces. Supported hot swappable uplink add-in modules provide 18 1GE ports, 10 10GE ports, a 40GE port, two 40GE interfaces, or a 100GE interface. Additional fixed ports include RJ-45 and USB 3.0 console ports, an RJ-45 management interface, an SFP Gigabit Ethernet redundancy port used for stateful switchover, an RJ-45 redundancy interface used for stateful switchover, and two USB 3.0 interfaces for plugging in external RAM memory.

Cisco Wave 2 Wi-Fi 5 Network Controllers
Cisco Wave 2 Wi-Fi 5 controllers allow fast communication, provisioning, control, analysis and debugging for Cisco Wi-Fi devices and services. Cisco offers both physical and software-based Wi-Fi controllers for unified administration of wireless environments, but WLANs with many wireless access points typically require hardware-based wireless controllers. Wave 2 wireless controller appliances from Cisco deliver significant advantages over Wave 1 and older models including greater performance, concurrent support for both 1G and 10G interfaces, improved application visibility and control (AVC), and hardened, built-in protection.

The Cisco 3504 WiFi Controller is a value-priced device available in a desktop enclosure and designed for smaller organizations. You can install the 3504 in a centralized WLAN environment such as in small branch and home-based offices administered across the wide-area network with Cisco FlexConnect, or in bridge installations where Ethernet cabling is sparse. The 3504 Wi-Fi controller supports up to 150 access points and 3,000 clients, delivers 4 Gbps throughput, and supports 4,096 VLANs. Cisco's 3504 controller includes a multi-gigabit Ethernet interface and four 1-Gigabit Ethernet connections. Access points can be attached to the controller through two Power over Ethernet ports. The 3504 Wi-Fi controller features fast failover for access points and users, which allows high availability for apps. Like other current Wave 2 wireless controllers from Cisco, the 3504 device has the built-in capability to communicate with Cisco Prime Infrastructure, Cisco Mobility Services, and Cisco 5520 and 8540 wireless controllers.

Cisco's 5520 WiFi Controller, offered in a 1 rack unit (RU) form factor, is intended for midsize to large enterprises and campus environments and can be run in centralized, distributed, and mesh deployments. The 5520 Wi-Fi controller supports up to 1,500 access points and 20,000 users, offers 20 Gbps performance, and supports up to 4,096 VLANs. The 5520 WiFi controller includes two 10 GE interfaces and features solid-state storage, backup fans, optional redundant power supplies, and rapid failover for high availability.

The Cisco 8540 Wireless Controller, available in a 2RU enclosure, is a top-of-the-line wireless controller designed to support large enterprises, service providers, and large campus environments. The 8540 WiFi controller can be run in centralized, distributed, and mesh deployments and can handle as many as 6,000 wireless APs and 64,000 users. The 8540 Wireless controller offers data rates as high as 40 Gbps and supports up to 4,096 VLANs. The 8540 controller includes four 1-GB or 10GE ports and features solid-state storage, dual power supplies, backup fans, and rapid failover.

Wave 1 Cisco WiFi LAN Controllers
Cisco wireless LAN controllers reduce the effort and expense needed to deploy, monitor, and operate Wi-Fi networks by offering single-point control of functions such as provisioning APs, applying consistent policies across converged wired/wireless networks, supporting enterprise-wide QoS for IP voice and HD video, tracking and troubleshooting system performance, activating intrusion prevention capabilities to defend against unauthorized access and Distributed Denial of Service attacks, and handling IPv6 clients. Cisco has designed wireless network controllers for organizations of all sizes and offers desktop or rackmount controllers, modular plug-in wireless controllers for Cisco routers and Catalyst switches, and Catalyst switches with integrated wireless network controllers.

Cisco's Wave 1 wireless LAN controllers include Cisco CleanAir tools to minimize signal interference and produce self-healing wireless networks for maximum 802.11n and 802.11ac performance and protection. Integrated Apple Bonjour Gateways allow discovery and policy across WLAN, LAN and WAN for Apple applications. For fault tolerance, Cisco wireless network controllers allow AP and client stateful switchover by enabling a backup HA wireless controller to synchronize with a main controller for AP license count, CAPWAP state and roaming keys, and AP CAPWAP state. In case the main controller goes down, thousands of wireless access points and wireless clients can failover in less than a second to the secondary wireless LAN controller.

Cisco's Wireless Controller Module for ISR Routers with UCS-E provides basic 802.11n and 802.11ac support for 2900 and 3900 Series routers deployed by smaller organizations and satellite offices. This value-priced and expandable solution can handle from five to 200 access points and as many as 6000 clients. (For information concerning Progent's online and onsite consulting support services for Cisco routers, see Cisco router deployment and troubleshooting services.)

Cisco Legacy Wi-Fi Network Controllers
Cisco Catalyst 3650 Series are 1RU switches designed for small to mid-size businesses and branches and have a built-in wireless LAN controller with the ability to handle 40 Gb of wireless throughput per switch and 25 APs and 1000 wireless clients per switch. Catalyst 3850 Series are 1RU rackmount switches designed for midsize businesses and large enterprises and include a built-in wireless controller supporting up to 40 Gb of wireless capacity on each switch and the ability to handle up to 50 access points and up to 2000 clients. The Wireless Services Module2 (WiSM2) is a plug-in blade for Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series switches with a built-in wireless network controller designed for mid-to-large size enterprises and capable of 20 Gbps performance and able to handle up to 1000 APs and 15,000 wireless clients. (To find out concerning Progent's consulting services for Cisco Catalyst switches, see Cisco Catalyst switches deployment and management services.)

Cisco 2500 Series Wireless Controllers are entry-level desktop units that simplify the provisioning and operation of Wi-Fi networks for SMBs and satellite offices. The Cisco 2500 wireless network controller can handle 5 to 75 wireless access points and up to 1000 clients and can deliver sustained performance of 1 Gbps.

Cisco's 5500 Series Wireless Controller is a scalable 1RU appliance intended for medium-sized to large organizations and campus environments and can support 500 access points and 7,000 clients while providing 8 Gbps performance. Cisco's 5760 Wireless Controller is a 1RU appliance designed for mid-to-large campuses with the ability to manage up to 1000 APs and 12,000 wireless clients and providing throughput of 60 Gbps to accommodate high client densities and high usage of video-intensive applications.

Cisco's Flex 7500 Series Wireless Controller is designed to manage thousands of wireless remote sites from one datacenter, eliminating the costs of a Wi-Fi controller at each branch. The 1RU rackmount Flex 7500 appliance lets you build a private cloud to configure, monitor, manage, and repair as many as 6000 access points and up to 64,000 clients while supporting 1 Gbps throughput. The Cisco 8500 Series Wireless Controller is a 1RU appliance engineered to manage wireless networks for very large campuses or for service providers and can be expanded to handle up to 6000 APs and 64,000 clients while delivering 10 Gbps throughput.

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