Migrate WLC 5508

[jmprats]

Hello, WLC 5508 is almost EOL so we need to think in how to migrate.

We have a WLC 5508 with 30 AP's and Cisco Prime for guest access. With this number of AP's I think is not necessary to buy a new pair of hardware WLC's.

I'm thinking in migrate to Mobility Express or in a virtual WLC like Catalyst 9800-CL Cloud. But this virtual WLC is limited to a throughput of 1.5 Gbps, so it seems a best option choosing Mobility Express.

What do you think?

[Ric Beeching]

If you are deploying ME then all data will be switched locally at the AP, which is the recommended deployment for a vWLC or 9800-CL as well.

Either way, 1.5 Gbps should be more than sufficient for 30 APs' worth of clients if you do deploy with central switching.

Cheers,
Ric

[jmprats]

Thanks for your answer.

So maybe now, with the rising speed of wifi it has no sense anymore to use a centralized deployment with CAPWAP tunnels to the controller and it's better to choose switch data locally?

Taken into account the speed that a 802.11ac AP can reach, a 1.5 Gbps limit in a new product looks like a very low limit.

So now I think I have 3 options:

- Mobility Express

- 9800-CL with data locally switched

- or Switch Catalyst 9800 Embedded WLC

Opinions?

[patoberli]

With just 30 APs I would go for ME. You could even drop Prime in this case and use some 3rd party guest portal.
If you do require all the statistics from Prime, I suggest you use some virtual WLC or a 3504 SSO HA pair.