Wireless Access Points/Bridges

Optimized for high-performance wireless networking, the Cisco 5500 Series Controller offers improved mobility and prepares the business for the next wave of mobile devices and applications. The 5500 Series supports a higher density of clients and delivers more efficient roaming, with at least nine times the throughput of existing 802.11a/g networks.

The 5500 Series automates wireless configuration and management functions and allows network managers to have the visibility and control needed to cost-effectively manage, secure, and optimize the performance of their wireless networks. With integrated Cisco CleanAir® technology, the 5500 Series protects 802.11n performance by providing cross-network access to real-time and historic RF interference information for quick troubleshooting and resolution.

The Cisco 5520 Wireless Controller provides centralized control, management, and troubleshooting for high-scale deployments in service provider and large campus deployments. It offers flexibility to support multiple deployment modes in the same controller: for example, centralized mode for campus, Cisco FlexConnect^™ mode for lean branches managed over the WAN, and mesh (bridge) mode for deployments where full Ethernet cabling is unavailable. As a component of the Cisco Unified Wireless Network, this controller provides real-time communications between Cisco Aironet^® access points and Cisco Catalyst^® access points, the Cisco Prime^® Infrastructure, and the Cisco Mobility Services Engine, and is interoperable with other Cisco controllers.

The Cisco Digital Network Architecture (Cisco DNA) is an open and extensible, software-driven architecture that accelerates and simplifies your enterprise network operations. The programmable architecture frees your IT staff from time-consuming, repetitive network configuration tasks so they can focus instead on innovation that positively transforms your business. SD-Access, as part of Cisco DNA, enables policy-based automation from edge to cloud with foundational capabilities. Cisco DNA Assurance, also part of Cisco DNA, provides a single source to monitor, modify, and manage your network and application data.

Features and benefits

• The Cisco 5520 Wireless Controller, optimized for 802.11ac Wave 2 performance, high scale, and enhanced system uptime, supports:
• Intent-driven programmability and streaming telemetry.
• Subsecond access point and client failover for uninterrupted application availability.
• Extraordinary visibility into application traffic, using Cisco Application Visibility and Control (AVC), the technology that includes the Network-Based Application Recognition 2 (NBAR2) engine, Cisco's Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) capability. This allows to mark, prioritize, and block to conserve network bandwidth and enhance security. Customers can optionally export the flows to Cisco Prime Infrastructure or a third-party NetFlow collector.
• Embedded wireless Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) policy classification engine that allows classification of client devices and application of user group policies.
• Deployment of guest access and Bonjour and Chromecast services in centralized deployments.
• Software-defined segmentation with Cisco TrustSec^® technology, reducing Access Control List (ACL) maintenance, complexity, and overhead.
• Integrated Cisco CleanAir^® technology, providing the industry's only self-healing and self-optimizing wireless network.
• Simplified GUI wizard for quick setup and intuitive dashboards for monitoring and troubleshooting.
• Cisco DNA and SD-Access Wireless, as well as Cisco DNA Assurance.

The 5760 Wireless Controller can operate in both converged access mode and centralized mode. Converged access mode provides a hierarchical network design that distributes the wireless data plane at the access layer on Cisco Catalyst® switches for maximum performance and scale. Converged access mode provides maximum resiliency by constraining outages to smaller failure domains. Additionally, converged access mode delivers high availability with access point stateful failover (access point SSO), making sure SSIDs are highly available and have minimal effect on wireless clients.

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 Flex 7500 Series Cloud Controllers can manage wireless access points in up to 6000 branch locations. This controller allows IT managers to configure, manage, and troubleshoot up to 6000 access points and 64,000 clients from the data center. The Cisco Flex 7500 Series Cloud Controller supports secure guest access, rogue detection for Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance, and in-branch (locally switched) Wi-Fi voice and video.

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.