Product specifications

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The Cisco 5508 Wireless Controller supports Cisco Application Visibility and Control(AVC), the technology that
includes the Network-Based Application Recognition 2 (NBAR-2) engine, Cisco’s deep packet inspection (DPI)
capability. The NBAR-2 engine can classify applications, applies quality of service (QoS) setting 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 5508 also supports Bonjour
Services Directory to enable Bonjour Services to be advertised and utilized in a separate Layer 3 network.
Wireless Policy engine is a wireless profiler and policy feature on the Cisco 5500 Series Wireless Controller that
enables profiling of wireless devices and enforcement of policies such as VLAN assignment, QoS, ACL and time-
of-day-based access.
As a component of the Cisco Unified Wireless Network, this controller provides real-time communications between
Cisco Aironet
®
access points, the Cisco Wireless Control System (WCS), and the Cisco Mobility Services Engine
to deliver centralized security policies, wireless intrusion prevention system (IPS) capabilities, award-winning RF
management, and QoS.
Software Licensing Flexibility
Base access point licensing offers flexibility to add up to 500 additional access points as business needs grow.
The licensing structure supports a variety of business mobility needs as part of the basic feature set, including the
Cisco OfficeExtend solution for secure, mobile teleworking and Cisco Enterprise Wireless Mesh, which allows
access points to dynamically establish wireless connections in locations where it may be difficult or impossible to
physically connect to the wired network.
Table 1 lists the features of the Cisco 5500 Series
Wireless LAN Controllers.
Table 1. Cisco 5500 Series Wireless LAN Controller Features
Feature Benefits
Scalability
●
Supports 12, 25, 50,100, 250, or 500 access points for business-critical wireless services at locations of
all sizes
High Performance
●
Wired speed, nonblocking performance for 802.11n networks
RF Management
●
Provides both real-time and historical information about RF interference impacting network performance
across controllers, via systemwide Cisco CleanAir technology integration
OfficeExtend
●
Supports corporate wireless service for mobile and remote workers with secure wired tunnels to the Cisco
Aironet
®
1130 or 1140 Series Access Points
●
Extends the corporate network to remote locations with minimal setup and maintenance requirements
(zero-touch deployment)
●
Improves productivity and collaboration at remote site locations
●
Separate SSID tunnels allow both corporate and personal Internet access
●
Reduced CO2 emissions from decrease in commuting
●
Higher employee job satisfaction from ability to work at home
●
Improves business resiliency by providing continuous, secure connectivity in the event of disasters,
pandemics, or inclement weather
Comprehensive End-to-End
Security
●
Offers control and provisioning of wireless access points (CAPWAP)-compliant DTLS encryption to help
ensure full-line-rate encryption between access points and controllers across remote WAN/LAN links
Enterprise Wireless Mesh
●
Allows access points to dynamically establish wireless connections without the need for a physical
connection to the wired network
●
Available on select Cisco Aironet access points, Enterprise Wireless Mesh is ideal for warehouses,
manufacturing floors, shopping centers and any other location where extending a wired connection may
prove difficult or aesthetically unappealing
High Performance Video
●
Integrates Cisco VideoStream technology as part of the medianet framework to optimize the delivery of
video applications across the WLAN