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Figure 3. Comparison of Existing QoS and New QoS Architectures

The new QoS architecture also provides enhanced wireless bandwidth management, which uses the Cisco

approximate fair drop technology to make sure of bandwidth fairness for non-real time traffic.

Primary benefits of granular, multilevel QoS intelligence for wireless are better user experience and fair-share

bandwidth management for wireless. Before, wireless networks lack QoS visibility and enforcement at the edge

and were vulnerable to unfair bandwidth allocation because no QoS could be applied inside the wireless tunnels.

Now the Cisco Catalyst 3850 terminates the wireless tunnels, so QoS can be applied much closer to the user. It

also enables IT to apply QoS and bandwidth fair-share policies based on granular information such as access

point, radio, SSID and application throughout the entire wired and wireless network.

Migration to Converged Access

Customers considering purchase of the new Cisco Catalyst 3850 switches can easily migrate to the converged

access deployment mode with investment protection. This mode supports the existing 802.11n access point

models as well as 5508/WiSM2 controllers as mobility controller. Therefore, it allows customers with any of the

other deployment modes (standalone, FlexConnect, or centralized) to easily migrate to the converged access

mode and take advantage of the additional benefits.

Use Cases

Cisco Unified Access provides a highly scalable and resilient solution that can be deployed for any networks with

different sizes and scope. The following are three typical deployment use cases.

Small Branch Environment

This is normally a small site such as a satellite office or a chain store. There is typically no onsite IT support.

Network reliability is critical because most network services and resources are located at the central headquarters.

Any simplification and efficiency improvements at a single branch office can translate into significant savings for

companies when multiplied by their large number of sites. Converged access for a small branch site can be

implemented by a single stack of Cisco Catalyst 3850 switches to support local LAN and wireless needs. The

Cisco Catalyst 3850 switch stack serves as wireless mobility agent and mobility controller to support up to 50

access points and 2000 wireless clients. No dedicated WLC is needed.