9130 vs 9120 LAPs

[lcaruso]

We have a project to replace all legacy APs with new ones and 9800 based controllers in a hospital with medical branches connected. Are there any compelling reasons to go with the 9130s over the 9120s for this application? They seem very similar. 

[Arshad Safrulla · Accepted solution]

I would say go with 9120 as both have similar coverage size and probably you will need to quote similar number of AP's and also in a hospital I do not think there will be areas in hospital where you need 2Qty 5GHz radios and 1Qty 2.4GHz radio in a single AP. If dual 5GHz is required you can selectively convert XOR radios to 5GHz after making sure that the 2.4GHz coverage is sufficient. Best way to find out is doing an onsite survey. 

Make sure that you are not mixing these 2 AP models in a single roaming domain, my experience where I have 9120 and 9130 mixed, some clients are sticky in certain 9130 AP's (apple) and some are sticky to 9120, we ended up having lot of roaming issues.

[Leo Laohoo · Accepted solution]

9130 has BLE. 

A number of businesses now require BLE.  

NOTE:  Talk to your Cisco AM/SE/PSS and ask them about Catalyst 9136.

[lcaruso]

9130s not Wi-Fi 6? 

Taken from ordering guide:

C9130AXI-x
Cisco Catalyst 9130AXI Access Point, internal antennas; 802.11ax; 8x8:8 MIMO

C9120AXI-x
Cisco Catalyst 9120AXI Access Point, internal antennas; Wi-Fi 6; 4x4:4 MIMO

[Leo Laohoo · Accepted solution]

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@lcaruso wrote:

9130s not Wi-Fi 6? 

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The first Cisco WiFi6-capable AP is 9136.

9120/9130 are only "ax", hence the product ID has "AX". 

For "consistency", 9136 will be called "C9136I-x" where "X" is the Regulatory Domain.  There will also be a few new "Regulatory Domain", such as ROW (Rest Of the World).  

NOTE:  The info I have just provided is NOT "NDA".  

[Arshad Safrulla · Accepted solution]

Just to clarify @Leo Laohoo 

1. Both 9120 and 9130 has BLE radios

2. 802.11ax is Wi-Fi6 and both 9120 and 9130 are Wi-Fi6 certified (aka 802.11ax)

3. There is no confirmation on Cisco on the speculated Cat9136 (Supposedly Wi-Fi6E capable not certified yet) nor Cisco released any timeline publicly yet, so do not depend on it for now. Wi-Fi6E standard is not yet embraced by some regulatory domains, and we are still seeing Wave 1 AP's and N AP's in production,  so transition will be very slow. I would say invest in your wired infra to embrace Wi-Fi6E once it becomes available in GA,  wired infra must cover mGig switches and Cat6A cables.

Wi-Fi6E allowed countries

https://www.wi-fi.org/countries-enabling-wi-fi-6e

[vtaylor]

There's one thing that I didn't see mentioned.  The 9120 AP does not support WPA3 with GCMP 256 encryption.  If this is a requirement for your SSID, you'll need a 9130.  Trying these settings on a 9120 causes the AP to no longer host the SSID.