Wireless Access Points/Bridges

The Cisco Flex 7500 Series Cloud Controller is a highly scalable branch controller for multisite wireless deployments. Deployed in the private cloud the Cisco Flex 7500 Series Controller extends wireless services to distributed branch offices with centralized control that lowers total cost of operations.

The Cisco Flex 7500 Series Cloud Controller provides centralized control, management, and troubleshooting. It supports the Cisco FlexConnect™ solution for a lean branch network that uses access points connected to controllers in the data center over a wide area network. Data traffic from the access points is switched locally at the branch, so that in the rare event of a WAN failure at the branch, wireless clients remain connected on the network with access to local resources within the branch.

The Cisco Flex® 7500 Series Cloud Controller is a highly scalable branch controller for multisite wireless deployments. Deployed in the private cloud, the Cisco Flex 7500 Series Controller extends wireless services to distributed branch offices with centralized control that lowers the total cost of operations.

The Cisco 8500 Series Wireless Controllers support Cisco Application Visibility and Control (AVC). Cisco AVC includes the Network-Based Application Recognition 2 (NBAR-2) engine, Cisco's deep packet inspection (DPI) capability, which classifies applications, applies quality of service (QoS) settings to either drop or mark the traffic, and prioritizes business-critical applications in the network. Cisco AVC uses NetFlow Version 9 to export the flows to Cisco Prime™ Infrastructure or a third-party NetFlow collector.

The Cisco 8500 Series also supports Bonjour Services Directory to enable Bonjour Services to be advertised and utilized in a separate Layer 3 network. A wireless policy engine on the Cisco 8500 Series enables profiling of wireless devices and enforcement of policies such as VLAN assignment, QoS, access control lists (ACLs), and time-of-day- based access.

The Cisco 8500 Series Controller provides centralized control, management, and troubleshooting for high-scale deployments in service provider and large campus deployments. The 8500 series provides flexibility to support multiple architectures in the same controller - centralized controller switched for campus, Cisco FlexConnect™ for lean branches managed over the WAN as well as mesh support for deployments where full Ethernet cabling is unavailable.

Cisco 8500 Series Controllers automate wireless configuration and management functions and allow network managers to have the visibility and control needed to cost-effectively manage, secure, and optimize the performance of their branch networks. As a component of the Cisco Unified Wireless Network, this controller provides real-time communications between Cisco Aironet® access points, the Cisco Prime™ Infrastructure, and the Cisco Mobility Services Engine, and is interoperable with other Cisco controllers.