Wireless Standards and Cisco Solutions
The number of wireless devices connected to the network increases yearly (roughly 11.930 billion mobile devices globally). This includes data and voice connectivity for the employees, wireless internet access for guests, and connectivity for IoT devices.
In this blog, we will explore wireless standards and terminologies and Cisco’s latest wireless solutions
Wireless Standards
| Standard | Frequencies | Max Data Rate (Theoretical) | Channels | Alternate Name | Year Introduced |
| 802.11 | 2.4 GHz | 2 Mbps | 11 (20 MHz) each | ||
| 802.11b | 2.4 GHz | 11 Mbps | 11 (20 MHz) each | 1999 | |
| 802.11a | 5 GHz | 54 Mbps | 45 (40/80 MHz) Each | 2003 | |
| 802.11g | 2.4 GHz | 54 Mbps | 2004 | ||
| 802.11n | 2.4/5 GHz | 600 Mbps | Wi-Fi 4 | 2009 | |
| 802.11ac | 5 GHz | 6.92 Gbps | Wi-Fi 5 | 2013 | |
| 802.11ax | 2.4/5/6 GHz | 9.6 Gbps | Wi-Fi 6 | 2019/2020 | |
| 802.11be | 6 GHz | 46 Gbps | 60 (320 MHz) | Wi-Fi 7 | 2021 |
Cisco’s next-generation wireless stack has the below main hardware and software components
- Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers (Includes Appliances, Virtual and Embedded)
- Cisco Catalyst 9100 Wi-Fi 6 Aps
- Cisco DNA Center (Assurance and Automation)
- Cisco DNA Spaces
Wireless Controller Platforms
| Platform | Throughput | Deployment Mode | Preferred Topology | Maximum Aps | Maximum Clients |
| 9800-80 | Up to 80 Gbps | Centralized, Flex connects, or SDA | Large Campus | 6000 | 64000 |
| 9800-40 | Up to 40 Gbps | Centralized, Flex connects, or SDA | Medium Campus | 2000 | 32000 |
| 9800-L | Up to 5 Gbps | Centralized, Flex connects, or SDA | Small Campus/Remote Sites | 250 | 5000 |
| 9800 with Embedded Catalyst 9000 series switches | Up to 9 Gbps | Centralized, Flex connects, or SDA | Small Campus/Remote Sites | 500 | 10000 |
| Virtual Controller for Small, Medium, or Large sites | Local Switching | SDA | SDA Small Distributed site | 200 | 4000 |
| 9800 with embedded on Catalyst 9100 Series access points(EWC) | Local Switching | Local Switching | Small remote site | 100 | 2000 |
| 9800-CL for public clouds | Local Switching | FlexConnect with Local Switching | Small remote site | 1000, 3000 or 6000 | 10000,32000 or 64000 |
| 9800-CL for private clouds | Up to 2.1 Gbps with Central Switching | Centralized, FlexConnect or SD-Access | Small, Medium, or Large sites | 1000,3000 (Central) or 6000 (Flex connect) | 10000,32000 (Central)or 64000 (FlexConnect) |
Indoor Wireless Access Points
| Use case/Feature | 9115AX | 9117AX | 9120AX | 9130AX |
| Best for | Small to Medium Deployments | Small to Medium Deployments | Mission critical high density, large size networks | Mission critical high density, large-size networks |
| Features | Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax), OFDMA, Uplink/Downlink MU-MIMO, BSS Coloring, Target Wake Time (TWT), Apple Features | Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax), OFDMA, Uplink/Downlink MU-MIMO, BSS Coloring, Target Wake Time (TWT), Apple Features | Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax), Cisco RF ASIC, Uplink/Downlink OFDMA, MU-MIMO, BSS Coloring, Target Wake Time (TWT), Intelligent Capture, Container support for applications, Apple Features | Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) certified, Cisco RF ASIC, Uplink/Downlink OFDMA, Uplink/Downlink MU-MIMO, BSS Coloring, Target Wake Time (TWT), Intelligent Capture, Container support for applications, Apple Features |
| Radios | Three radios: 2.4 GHz (4×4), 5 GHz (4×4), and BLE | Three radios: 2.4 GHz (4×4), 5 GHz (4×4), and BLE | Four radios: 2.4 GHz (4×4), 5 GHz (4×4), Cisco RF ASIC, and BLE/IoT | Four radios: 2.4 GHz (4×4), 5 GHz (8×8 and 4×4), Cisco RF ASIC, and BLE/IoT* |
| Antennas | Internal and external | Internal | Internal and external | Internal and external |
| Support for Catalyst 9800 EWC | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Multigigabit Ethernet Support | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| HDX Support | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Cisco Clean Air Technology | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Flexible Radio Assignment | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Combined Data Rate | Up to 5 Gbps | Up to 5 Gbps | Up to 5 Gbps | Up to 5 Gbps |
Outdoor & Industrial Wireless APs
| Use case and Features | Catalyst 9124AX | Catalyst IW9167 | IW6300 | IW3700 |
| Wi-Fi6 | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Tri-radio Architecture | No | Yes | No | No |
| Smart AP | No | Yes | No | No |
| Bluetooth 5 | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| GNSS | No | Yes | No | No |
Wireless Key Terminologies
| Terminologies | Descriptions |
| FlexConnect | It enables configuring and controlling access points (AP) in a branch or remote office from the corporate office through a wide area network (WAN) link without deploying a controller in each office. |
| Frequency | The number of times the signal makes one complete up and down cycle in 1 second. Frequency = 4 cycles/second = 4 Hertz |
| OFDM | In a traditional single-channel modulation scheme, each data bit is sent serially or sequentially one after another. In OFDM, several bits can be sent in parallel, or at the same time, in separate substream channels. |
| Beam Forming | Is a method to customize the transmitted signal to prefer one receiver over others. By leveraging MIMO, the same signal can be sent over multiple antennas to reach specific client locations more efficiently. |
| Wi-Fi Alliance | The Wi-Fi Alliance ( http://wi-fi.org ) is a nonprofit industry association for wireless manufacturers around the world, for promoting wireless use. It addresses the problem of incompatible wireless products, the Wi-Fi Alliance introduced the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED program in 2000. |
| MIMO | multiple-input, multiple-output – a Wi-Fi technology that uses multiple antennas to improve performance and transfer more data simultaneously. |
| Band steering | It helps to send data on both 2.4 and 5 GHz |
| CleanAir Management | It helps to send data on both 2.4 and 5-GHz |
To get the best outcome it is important to do the design/heatmap and solution correctly. Also to note, Cisco/Meraki has a market share of 40%. This makes Cisco the market leader in this space. Other key vendors in this space include HPE-Aruba, Ruckus, Extreme Networks, Fortinet, Arista, and Juniper. For more infrastructure blogs, please visit the Datacenter Networking and Storage section
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About Author
Muhammad Marakkoottathil(MM)
Expert in the field of SDN, cloud computing, virtualization, active-active data center design & migration. Passionate about helping organizations to achieve their digital transformation objectives with strong 15+ years of experience in design, deployment, and managing heterogeneous network solutions across the industry verticals. Major Industry Certifications: Cisco CCIE, CCDP, VMware VCAP-NV_DESIGN, TOGAF, ITIL, NUTANIX NCSE, Google Cloud Architect, Azure Fundamentals More info please visit my page @ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/contactmm/
helpful to understand the overview.