Background Information
The Cisco MSE provides the ability to track the physical location of Network Devices, both wired and wireless, using wireless LAN controllers (WLCs) and Cisco Aironet Lightweight Access Points (LAPs). This solution allows a customer to track any Wi-Fi device, including clients, active RFID tags, and rogue clients and access points (APs). It was designed with these requirements in mind:
- Manageability—Cisco Wireless Control System (WCS) is used to administer and monitor the MSE. Moreover, the MSE integrates directly into the wireless LAN architecture, which provides one unified network to manage instead of multiple disparate wireless networks.
- Scalability—The Cisco MSE series can simultaneously track up to 18,000 network elements. The WCS can manage multiple Mobility Services Engines for greater scalability. The controller, WCS, and MSE are implemented through separate devices to deliver greater scalability and performance.
- Security—The MSE, WCS, and wireless LAN controller provide robust secure interfaces and secure protocols to access data. The MSE records historical location information that can be used for audit trails and regulatory compliance.
- Open and standards based—The MSE has a SOAP/XML API that can be accessed by external systems and applications that can leverage location information from the MSE.
- Easy deployment of business applications—The MSE can be integrated with new business applications such as asset tracking, inventory management, location-based security, or automated workflow management.
MSE Specification
As per table 6 of the documentation Cisco MSE Virtual Appliance Product Specifications we understand that :
Feature | Cisco MSE Virtual Appliance |
VMware ESXi version (virtual appliance on a customer-supplied server) | VMware ESX\ESXi version 4.1 or 5.0 |
Minimum server requirements | Cisco MSE High-End Virtual Appliance - ● Base Location license: 5000 access points
- ● CMX license: 5000 access points
- ● wIPS license: 10,000 access points
- ● Maximum number of tracked devices: 50,000 (regardless of number of access point licenses)
- ● Minimum RAM: 24 GB
- ● Minimum hard disk space allocation: 500 GB with SAS drivers and 1600 I/O operations per second (IOPS)
- ● Processors: 16 vCPUs at 2.0 GHz or faster and a passmark ( cpubenchmark.net) no less than 4000
- ● Cisco UCS ® ref: Cisco UCS C240 M3 Rack Server or C460 M2 High-Performance Rack Server
|
Cisco MSE Standard Virtual Appliance - ● Base Location license: 2500 access points
- ● CMX license: 2500 access points
- ● wIPS license: 5000 access points
- ● Maximum number of tracked devices: 25,000 (regardless of number of access point licenses)
- ● Minimum RAM: 16 GB
- ● Minimum hard disk space allocation: 500 GB with SAS drivers and 1000 IOPS
- ● Processors: 8 vCPUs at 2.0 GHz or faster and a passmark ( cpubenchmark.net) no less than 4000
- ● Cisco UCS ref: Cisco UCS C240 M3 Rack Server
|
Cisco MSE Low-End Virtual Appliance - ● Base Location license: 200 access points
- ● CMX license: Does not support CMX license
- ● wIPS license: 2000 access points
- ● Maximum number of tracked devices: 2000 (regardless of number of access point licenses)
- ● Minimum RAM: 8 GB
- ● Minimum hard disk space allocation: 250 GB with SAS drives and 900 IOPS
- ● Processors: 4 vCPUs at 2.0 GHz or faster and a passmark ( cpubenchmark.net ) no less than 4000
|
So which will be:
Cisco MSE Virtual Appliance
| A Cisco MSE High-End Virtual Appliance with Base Location license for 5000 access points, can track 50,000 clients. (5000 * 10) |
| A Cisco MSE Standard Virtual Appliance with Base Location license for 2500 access points, can track 25,000 clients. (2500 * 10) |
| A Cisco MSE Low-End Virtual Appliance with Base Location license for 200 access points, can track 2,000 clients. ( 200 * 10) |
This means, MSE can track 10 clients per AP : (1 * 10)
However, it doesn't mean that via MSE, per AP, can be tracked maximum of 10 clients only. Rather, it means, via MSE, per AP can be tracked at least 10 clients.
(This is for the simple reason being that more than 10 clients also can associate a single AP) (So, it stand to reason that some clients of a given AP will be tracked by MSE and some won't)
Hence, via MSE, not only per AP can be tracked more than 10 clients, but also each AP can help to track different number of clients.
Example
MSE can track maximum of 20 clients via two APs : 04,16 clients from the first,second AP, respectively. (04+16 =20)
MSE can track maximum of 30 clients via three APs : 11,09,10 clients from the first,second,third AP, respectively. (11+09+10 =30)
MSE can track maximum of 40 clients via four APs : 14,12,08,06 clients from the first,second,third,fourth AP, respectively (14+12+08+06=40)
This also infers then that the maximum limit of trackeable devices depend on the count of the APs (where each AP may track different number of clients, where-in, the total of all the tracked devices of N number of APs won't exceed
N *50 devices, in version 7.4
N *10 devices, in version 7.5 and higher
So,
- Prior to version 7.4
the total count of all the tracked devices of N number of APs, didn't depend on the 'count of APs'.
- for version 7.4
the total count of all the tracked devices of N number of APs, does depend on the 'count of APs'.
the total of all the tracked devices of N number of APs won't exceed N*50 devices but shall remain less than or equal to N*50 devices.
- for version 7.5 and onwards
the total of all the tracked devices of N number of APs, does depend on the 'count of APs'.the total of all the tracked devices of N number of APs won't exceed N*10 devices but shall remain less than or equal to N*10 devices.
Just to add prior to MSE code 7.4 license were elements based however from 7.4 onwards its AP based.
Where 1 AP=50 Elements.
And from 7.5 onwards its 1 AP = 10 Elements.
Source
