Cisco 3850 as Wireless Controller

[Syed Farhan Ali]

Dear Team,

Recently we have sell out Cisco 3850 Fiber Switches (24 and 12 Port) to one of our clients ("WS-C3850-24S-E" and "WS-C3850-12S-E"). These switches will act as Distribution Switches within their network. We have purchased these switches with IP Services Licenses. I would like to know if the 3850 switches can become wireless controller for their network with which they can uplink their PoE Access Switches. They have purchased PoE Access Switches for their entire network. The Access Points will be connected directly with these PoE Switches.

I would like to know if this setup will work ? What components and licenses will be required to make them run ? What will be the technical benefits for running this setup ? What if we buy them a separate Hardware Controller ? Will it be more beneficial than only purchasing licenses on the 3850 Switch ? If you can guide me on the BOM, that will also be helpful.

I will really appreciate your prompt response.

Regards,

Farhan.

[Moin Ilyas]

Please click HERE and scroll down to License and Warranty Section.

Also, for configuration, please refer to the following link:

http://mrncciew.com/2013/12/04/wlan-config-in-3850-part-1/

Hope this helps.

[Sandeep Choudhary]

1. Going with 3850 then:

• If you want to have wireless controller function in 3850 switch then make sure that all the AP must directly connect to 3850 switch in same Wireless management vlan.
•  3850 switch stack can support maximum 100 APs per swicth.
• You need to enable Mobility Controller (MC) functionality on it.

2. If you have a separate hardware controller (2500..5500 or any other) then you can connect AP to any access layer switch.

Now decide yourself which is better solution.

Regards

[mohanak]

Refer the link : https://supportforums.cisco.com/document/147426/redneck-guide-setting-cisco-3850-ios-controller