Cisco offers a comprehensive line of wireless LAN products and software tools designed to enable continual connections to data and other resources and to facilitate teamwork among workers, partners, suppliers, and clients. Cisco's wireless products include Cisco's Small Business, Aironet and Meraki lines of access points (APs), plus Cisco's Wireless LAN Controller modules and appliances. Progent's Cisco-certified wireless consultants can help organizations of any size to deploy Cisco wireless products to support the new model of BYOD computing by converging their tethered and untethered environments to achieve easy configuration, predictable performance, centralized management, uniform policy, fault tolerance, and advanced protection.

Aironet Wireless Consultants

Cisco Converged Security Solution for BYOD and Wired/Wireless Access

The Cisco Unified Wireless solution can expand to up to 18,000 access points with Layer 3 mobility across central or remote locations like enterprise campuses, college lecture halls, branch offices, and home offices. Cisco's 802.11x access points and controllers are part of Cisco's Unified Wireless Network and are engineered to deliver the same degree of protection, throughput, and ease of management for wireless LANs that businesses expect in their wired networks. This technology incorporates integrated mobile services such as IP voice, high-definition IP video, and safe guest connectivity. Cisco's Unified Wireless architecture enables companies to build Wi-Fi ecosystems that improve the way they work and improve productivity via a dynamic and collaborative employee base.

Progent's Cisco-certified network consultants can provide online or on-premises expertise to help you to design, configure, manage, expand, and troubleshoot converged wired/wireless network infrastructure of any size and for any venue. In addition, Progent offers affordable online and onsite wireless site surveys to assist you to plan and deploy a wireless network with customized wireless access point clustering optimized for your specific work area layout, building structure, and intended application.

Small Business, Aironet and Meraki Access Points (APs)
Cisco and Meraki Access Points ConsultantsCisco's Small Business, Aironet and Meraki families of access points enable businesses to integrate wired and wireless infrastructure to provide the accessibility, capacity, throughput, security and ease of management required to support practically any environment. Cisco's wireless access points start at bare bones, single-band 802.11b/g/n units with data rates of 300 Mbps designed for very small businesses or telecommuters to dual-radio 802.11ac wireless access points capable of supporting 200 or more clients per AP and offering data rates of up to 1.9 Gbps. Cisco's latest selection of access points can be clustered to provide the capacity to handle environments with high client density and with high usage rates of video-intense apps.

Small Business Series of Wireless Access Points
Cisco Small Business Wireless Access Points ConsultantsCisco's Small Business Family of access points are Linux-based devices engineered as value-priced 802.11n wireless APs for light workloads. Many models in Cisco's Small Business portfolio of wireless access points work with Cisco's Single Point Setup technology, which makes it possible to set up, control and troubleshoot a cluster of wireless access points from a single AP via a simple browser-based interface. All versions support POE and feature Quality of Service (QoS), rogue access point awareness, and bridging for wirelessly connecting to a second network.

Cisco's Small Business WAP121 Wireless-N Access Point is a wall-mountable, single-band 2.4GHz unit able to support 16 802.11n clients, includes a Fast Ethernet port, permits up to 4 AP devices and 40 active clients in a cluster, and supports data rates of up to 300 Mbps. Cisco's WAP131 is a desktop dual-radio 802.11n AP that can handle 16 wireless clients per radio for a total of up to 32 wireless clients, includes a 10/100/1000 Ethernet port, and delivers sustained data rates of up to 300 Mbps per radio. The WAP131 does not allow AP clustering. The Cisco WAP150 is an entry-level dual-radio 802.11ac/n AP that features a one Gbit Power over Ethernet (PoE) port and can handle up to 16 clients per radio with 867 Mbps throughput for AC clients and 300 Mbps for 802.11n clients. The Cisco WAP1501 allows 4 access points per cluster.

Cisco's Small Business WAP321 Wireless-N Access Point is a wallmount single-band (either 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz) 802.11a/b/g/n device with support for 80 active clients in an 8-device cluster. The WAP321 features a 10/100/1000 Ethernet interface and can deliver a data rate of 300 Mbps for the activated radio. The Cisco WAP351 is a dual-radio 802.11a/b/g/n AP that includes a 5-port Gigabit Ethernet interface and can handle 32 wireless clients on each radio for up to 64 clients, and deliver sustained throughput of 300 Mbps for each radio. The WAP351 does not support clustering. The Cisco WAP361 is a dual-band 802.11ac wireless access point that includes a 5-port Gigabit Ethernet LAN switch, can support 32 clients on each radio, and delivers 867 Mbps performance for 802.11ac devices and 300 Mbps for 802.11n clients. Cisco's Small Business WAP361 supports eight access points for each cluster. Cisco's wall-mountable Small Business WAP371 Wireless-AC/N is a dual-radio AP that works with 802.11a/b/g/n as well as the new 802.11ac Wi-Fi specification. The WAP371 Wireless-AC/N has a Gigabit Ethernet interface, can support up to 32 active clients on each radio, and eight APs per cluster.

The Cisco WAP561 Wireless-N Dual Radio Selectable Band wireless access point includes a GE interface and two concurrent radios that deliver 450 Mbps performance per radio, support 64 clients for each radio, and allow up to 16 wireless access points per cluster. The Cisco WAP551 is similar to Cisco's WAP 561 but features a single selectable band. Cisco's WAP571 and WAP571E (a weather-proof outdoor version) are dual-band 802.11ac Wave 1 access points incorporating two Gb Ethernet LAN interfaces with link aggregation (LAG), 3x3 MIMO, and up to 1.9 Gbps throughput with 1300 Mbps on 11ac and 600 Mbps over 802.11n. Both units can handle 32 clients on each radio and 16 wireless access points per cluster.

Cisco's Aironet Line of Wireless Access Points
Cisco Aironet Access Point Consulting ServicesMeraki Access Points ConsultantsCisco's Aironet family of indoor and outdoor wireless access points has consistently been the leading access point solution. Aironet APs range from value-priced entry-level devices to enterprise-class units. The Aironet family span several generations of devices compliant with the evolving 802 standard. The current portfolio of Aironet wireless access points support Cisco's Unified Wireless Network architecture and incorporate 802.11ac Wi-Fi support, which delivers three times the speed plus greater distance and density than the previous generation of devices. The latest dual-frequency Aironet APs continue to support 802.11n at 2.4 GHz for clients without 802.11ac radios.

The oldest Aironet APs are now legacy units that have come to end-of-life status and are not fully supported by Cisco. Progent continues to support the complete Aironet family of APs and can help your company to maintain your existing Aironet Wi-Fi system or upgrade smoothly to the latest Aironet technology. For more information about Progent's support for current and legacy Aironet access points, refer to Cisco Aironet wireless access points consulting.

Meraki Wireless Access Points
Cisco Meraki Access Point ConsultantsMeraki AP Configuration ConsultantsCisco's portfolio of Meraki dual-band indoor wireless access points range from value-priced models for general use to advanced units supporting up to 2.5 Gbit/sec throughput. Each Meraki indoor access point offers high-end features like self-configuring plug-and-play deployment, in-depth security, Bring-Your-Own-Device support, extensive traffic analysis, zero-touch web-based updates, and unified cloud management via an intuitive dashboard. Each Cisco Meraki indoor wireless access point also includes dual powerful radios with boosted receive sensitivity as well as a dedicated radio that provides (WIDS/WIPS) security for RF analysis and deep packet inspection at line rate.

Meraki outdoor APs are IP67 certified, built to withstand rugged outdoor environments, and tested to withstand dust particles, vibration and humidity. Meraki outdoor access points include a 1 x Gbit Ethernet port and deliver advanced features that include cloud-based management with multi-site visibility and control, 802.1X and native Active Directory integration, built-in antivirus scan, 1-click guest access and guest isolation firewall, application-aware traffic shaping, plus self-configuring mesh with MIMO and beamforming. For details about Progent's support for Meraki wireless access points and management, refer to Cisco's Meraki access points consulting.

Cisco Wave 2 802.11ac WiFi LAN Controllers
Cisco Wave 2 wireless controllers allow realtime data exchange, deployment, control, analysis and debugging for Cisco Wi-Fi appliances and services. Cisco has developed both physical and software-based wireless controllers for unified administration of wireless environments, but networks with many wireless access points are better served by physical Wi-Fi controllers. Wave 2 Wi-Fi controller appliances from Cisco offer major benefits over Wave 1 and earlier products including greater throughput, concurrent support for 1G and 10G Ethernet, improved application visibility and control, and hardened, integrated security.

Cisco 3504 Wi-Fi Controller Integration ConsultantsThe Cisco 3504 WiFi Controller is a value-priced device with a desktop body and intended for smaller businesses. You can use the 3504 in a centralized WLAN environment such as in lean branch and remote offices managed across the wide-area network via Cisco FlexConnect, or in mesh deployments where Ethernet cabling is sparse. The 3504 wireless controller supports up to 150 WiFi access points and 3,000 client users, delivers 4 Gbps performance, and supports 4,096 VLANs. The 3504 WiFi controller includes a multi-gigabit Ethernet interface (up to 5 Gigabit Ethernet) and four 1-Gigabit Ethernet ports. APs can be connected to the WiFi controller through two Power over Ethernet (PoE) ports. The 3504 Wi-Fi controller features subsecond failover for access points and users, which allows high availability for applications. As with other current Wave 2 wireless controllers from Cisco, the 3504 model has the built-in ability to communicate with Cisco Prime Infrastructure, Cisco Mobility Services, and Cisco 5520 and 8540 WLAN controllers.

Cisco 5520 Wi-Fi Controller Integration ConsultingCisco's 5520 WiFi Controller, offered in a 1 rack unit (RU) form factor, is intended for larger organizations and campus environments and can be used in centralized, distributed, and mesh architectures. The 5520 Wi-Fi controller supports up to 1,500 Wi-Fi access points and 20,000 users, delivers 20 Gbps performance, and supports 4,096 VLANs. The 5520 WiFi controller features two 10 GE interfaces and incorporates solid-state storage, redundant fans, optional redundant power supplies, and subsecond failover for uninterrupted availability.

Cisco 8540 Wireless Controller Integration ConsultantsCisco's 8540 Wireless Controller, available in a 2 rack unit package, is a top-of-the-line WiFi controller intended to support large enterprises, service providers, and large campus environments. The 8540 Wireless controller can be run in centralized, distributed, and mesh architectures and can handle up to 6,000 APs and 64,000 client users. The 8540 WiFi controller can deliver data rates as high as 40 Gbps and supports up to 4,096 VLANs. The 8340 includes four 1-GB or 10GE ports and features SSD storage, dual power supplies, redundant fans, and subsecond failover.

Wave 1 Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers
Wireless LAN Controllers Configuration and Support ConsultingCisco wireless network controllers reduce the time and cost required to configure, manage, and operate wireless networks by offering single-point control of critical tasks such as provisioning access points, enforcing consistent policies across converged wired/wireless LANs, supporting enterprise-wide Quality of Service (QoS) for voice and HD video, monitoring and optimizing network performance, implementing wireless intrusion prevention system (wIPS) capabilities to guard against cyber break-ins and Denial of Service attacks, and managing IPv6 clients. Cisco has designed wireless network controllers for organizations of any size and offers standalone desktop controllers, modular plug-in controllers for Cisco ISR routers and Catalyst switches, and switches with built-in wireless LAN controllers.

Cisco Wireless LAN Controller Module Configuration and Support ConsultingCisco's Wave 1 WiFi LAN controllers incorporate Cisco CleanAir technology to avoid RF interference and create self-healing wireless LANs for maximum 802.11n and 802.11ac throughput and security. Built-in Bonjour Gateways enable discovery throughout WLAN, LAN and WAN for Apple-based applications. For high availability (HA), Cisco wireless LAN controllers support wireless access point and client stateful failover by permitting a standby HA wireless controller to synchronize with a primary controller for access point license count, CAPWAP state and roaming keys, and AP CAPWAP state. In case the primary wireless controller stops working, thousands of wireless access points and clients can switchover immediately to the backup wireless controller.

Cisco's Wireless Controller Module for ISR G2 Routers with UCS-E provides basic 802.11n and 802.11ac support for Cisco 2900 and 3900 routers used by small to medium-sized organizations and branch offices. This affordable and expandable module can support from five to 200 APs and as many as 6000 wireless clients. (To learn about Progent's remote and onsite consulting and troubleshooting support for Cisco routers, refer to Cisco router configuration and management support.)

Catalyst 3650 Series are 1RU switches intended for SMBs and satellite offices and have an integrated wireless controller with the ability to handle 40 Gb of wireless capacity for each switch and 25 access points and 1000 clients on each switch or stack. Catalyst 3850 Series are 1RU rackmount switches intended for midsize and large organizations and include a built-in wireless controller supporting up to 40 Gb of wireless capacity per switch and the ability to handle up to 50 access points and 2000 wireless clients. The Wireless Services Module2 (WiSM2) is a plug-in blade for Catalyst 6500 Series switches that include an integrated wireless LAN controller intended for mid-to-large size enterprises and capable of 20 Gbps performance and able to handle 1000 wireless access points and as many as 15,000 clients. (To find out about Progent's consulting services for Cisco switches, refer to Cisco switches deployment and management services.)

Cisco 2500 Series Wireless Controllers are economical desktop appliances that simplify the deployment and management of Wi-Fi networks for small and midsize businesses and branch offices. The Cisco 2500 Series wireless LAN controller can handle 5 to 75 wireless access points and up to 1000 clients and can deliver sustained data rates of 1 Gbps.

Cisco Wireless Controllers Online ConsultingCisco's 5500 Wireless Controller is an expandable 1RU appliance designed for mid-to-large sized organizations and campus environments and can manage 500 APs and 7,000 wireless clients while providing 8 Gbps performance. Cisco's 5760 Series Wireless Controller is a 1RU appliance intended for mid-to-large campuses with support for 1000 access points and 12,000 clients and providing performance of 60 Gbps to handle high client densities and high amounts of video-intensive mobile applications.

The Cisco Flex 7500 Series Wireless Controller is designed to enable centralized management of thousands of wireless branches from a single location, avoiding the costs of a Wi-Fi controller at every remote site. The 1RU rackmount Flex 7500 allows you to create a private cloud to configure, monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot as many as 6000 wireless access points and 64,000 clients while handling 1 Gbps throughput. The Cisco 8500 Wireless Controller is a 1RU device designed to monitor and manage wireless networks for very large campuses or service providers and can scale to support 6000 APs and 64,000 clients while delivering 10 Gbps throughput.

For more information about Cisco WiFi controllers, see Cisco wireless controllers consulting services.

Legacy Cisco APs, LAN Bridges and Wi-Fi Controllers Supported by Progent
The 802.11ac standard for wireless connectivity largely made obsolete the previous generations of Wi-Fi products for venues that support high numbers of clients and high usage of video-intensive applications. Even for organizations who do not currently require the bandwidth efficiency of 802.11ac, many of Cisco wireless products have reached end-of-life status, which can pose significant service and regulatory compliance issues. Progent's Cisco-certified consulting experts offer online and on-premises support services for a wide range of older-generation Cisco wireless products. Progent can in addition help organizations to assess the business case for upgrading up-of-date wireless infrastructure and can assist in designing and carrying out affordable, seamless upgrades. The following are a sample of Cisco older-generation Wi-Fi devices that Progent's consulting experts still support.

Legacy Cisco Aironet Wireless Access Points
Aironet 1000/1130AG Series wireless access points are designed for conventional workplaces and other venues which have little environmental instability. These products have built-in antennas that provide predictable radio range patterns. The Cisco Aironet 1130G family device is available for regulated domains that do not permit 802.11a/5GHz operation.

Aironet 1230AG or 1240AG Series wireless access points are designed for more challenging radio frequency environments like manufacturing plants or above ceiling structures which commonly require flexible external antennas and ruggedized cases. The Cisco 1240G Series product is available for controlled domains that do not allow 802.11a/5GHz operation.

Cisco Aironet 1500 family lightweight outdoor mesh LAN access points deliver an affordable, scalable, protected outdoor Wi-Fi mechanism for enterprise campuses and for public sites that require access for mobile phones or computers.

Legacy Cisco Wireless Bridges
Cisco Aironet Wireless LAN Bridges Support ServicesCisco Aironet wireless bridges offer a high-speed and feature-rich technology for integrating numerous local area networks in a metro area or public wireless environment. Cisco wireless LAN bridges provide a versatile, easy-to-use technology that satisfies the protection requirements of wide-area networking specialists. They manage both PTP and PTMP deployments with excellent coverage and support for data rates as high as 54 Mbps.

Cisco wireless bridges offer throughput significantly higher than E1/T1 links for much lower expense, avoiding the requirement for expensive leased lines when linking separate offices. Because wireless bridges carry no ongoing costs, savings on connection services quickly cover the startup hardware investment. Self-installed private lines and even leased lines using copper or optical cable often require high startup costs in cases where they are impeded by barriers such as freeways, railroads, or bodies of water. Cisco wireless bridges can be installed rapidly with a fast ROI.

Cisco 1300 outdoor access points/bridges can be implemented as independent wireless access points, wireless bridges, or wireless group bridges. These devices have a tough cover and provide fast, cost-effective wireless interfaces between numerous fixed or mobile networks and users.

Cisco Aironet 1400 Series wireless bridges provide fast, reliable outside bridging for LOS applications. These devices are housed in a durable enclosure that can hold up to harsh outside conditions and can function within wide temperature ranges.

Legacy Cisco Wireless Network Controllers
Cisco Wireless Controllers Consulting FirmCisco Wireless Network Controllers centralize the management of wireless LANs by simplifying the handling of common technologies including integrated intrusion prevention system (IPS), fast RF management, zero touch configuration, and full N+1 redundancy. Wireless LAN controllers work with lightweight access points to deliver enhanced performance and advanced control functions.

Cisco WLAN Controllers provide the manageability, scalability, security, and reliability that network managers require to build safe, enterprise-scale wireless networks, from satellite locations to small companies to main campuses. Cisco's first-generation Wireless Network Controllers can be clustered to offer accommodation for as many as 2400 access points per roaming domain.

The Cisco WLCM or WLCM-E Wireless LAN Controller Module for IS Routers offers small-to medium businesses and enterprises a cost effective solution to implement and control secure wireless networks at branch offices. These wireless controllers manage up to twelve Cisco APs and are installable in 2800/3800 Series IS Routers and 3700 Routers. (To find out concerning Progent's online and onsite support for Cisco routers, see Cisco router configuration and management consulting.)

How Progent's Consultants Can Help You with Cisco Wireless Products
Progent can provide access to a Cisco-certified CCIE consultant to assist you to design, deploy, maintain and repair a converged wired/wireless infrastructure incorporating a wide range of wireless technologies that provide the same protection, expandability, and manageability you expect from your wired network. Progent can assist you to support legacy Wi-Fi products from Cisco or upgrade efficiently to current 802.11ac Wi-Fi technology. Progent's CISA and ISSAP security specialists can advise you about how to build protection into your wireless network and into your company's operations. Progent's disaster recovery consultants and business continuity planning consultants can show you how to configure the high availability (HA) technology incorporated into Cisco's wired/wireless products so your converged network delivers non-stop business value.

Progent’s Wireless Site Survey helps you to design and deploy a state-of-the-art wireless network customized for your facilities, offering a Wi-Fi ecosystem that provides comprehensive coverage, high performance and density, QoS to support IP video, advanced security and compliance, and easy management. Progent's Wi-Fi Site Survey can be performed remotely to cut time and expense, or on premises to deal with more complex environments.

For a more in-depth discussion of Progent's wireless consulting capabilities, visit Progent's Wireless LAN Support.

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