Cisco 3850 Wirelless controller AP licenses

[pe1egrim]

Hello! I have Cisco 3850 Switch, i want use it as wirelless controller with 10 lightweight access points. What type of licenses i need for it? As i know i should have at least IP Base license for Cisco device. What about licenses for Access Points, which connect to WC? I should it buy licenses for they too or not? Because acording to configuration instruction, i should activate IP base license and Ap count license.

[Leo Laohoo]

Some APs can become wireless controllers themselves and they can support between 50 to 100 APs and the AP licenses are FREE.  

What APs are you planning to use?

[pe1egrim]

I going to use 10 APs - AIR-CAP2702E-R-K9 with Wirelless controller.

[Leo Laohoo · Accepted solution]

The AP license for the 3850 is "L-LIC-CTIOS-1A" (e-license).  This is just an adder license for 1 AP.  So if you have 10 APs, then you'll need to purchase 10 x L-LIC-CTIOS-1A. 

A few gotchas that you may encounter: 

1.  The APs are 2702E.  This means the APs do not have an internal antenna.  The external antenna are optional purchase. 

2.  Depending on the firmware/IOS-XE version in the switch, the wireless controller is not supported from 16.3.X and beyond.  

[pe1egrim]

Thank you so much. This information is a really useful for me.

[Leo Laohoo]

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