Cisco Catalyst 9115 and 9117 access points

[vashishthavikas481]

Hi

Cisco have introduced new catalyst series controllers 9800 and access points wifi6.So, can the new catalyst access points be compatible with existing cisco 8500 series wireless controllers ? or they are only compatible with new cisco 9800 catalyst controllers?

Second, why cisco has come up with catalyst series in wireless ? is there any iOS difference between Cisco catalyst and Wireless catalyst, Catalyst 9800 Wireless Controllersnon-catalyst wireless controllers and access points ?

[Leo Laohoo]

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@vashishthavikas481 wrote:

can the new catalyst access points be compatible with existing cisco 8500 series wireless controllers

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Only if the controllers support 8.9.X. 

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@vashishthavikas481 wrote:

is there any iOS difference between Cisco catalyst and Wireless catalyst, Catalyst 9800 Wireless Controllersnon-catalyst wireless controllers and access points

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AeroOS will not have long "to live".  It will be replaced by IOS-XE which is what the 9800 is running on.  

[vashishthavikas481]

Hi Leo

Thanks for the reply.

But what about the catalyst access points with AireOS controllers like 8510 or 5508?

[Ric Beeching]

You cannot connect 9100 series APs to legacy AireOS WLCs like 8510 or 5508.
Ric

[Leo Laohoo]

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@vashishthavikas481 wrote:

But what about the catalyst access points with AireOS controllers like 8510 or 5508?

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If the controllers won't support 8.9.X then they (WLC) won't be able to support the new 9115/9117.

[Ric Beeching]

Hi,

The 9100 series APs are compatible with the 9800, 8540, 5520, and 3500 WLCs as per the datasheet. Note that does not seem to include the slightly older 8510 WLC model. It does not say what software version but I wouldn't be surprised if it was 8.5 minimum or possibly even 8.8 as they are required for SDA access.

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/wireless/catalyst-9100ax-access-points/datasheet-c78-741988.html

To answer your second question, this is my opinion. It's a mix of marketing and product evolution. Cisco tried to integrate wireless into switches years ago with their converged model but that wasn't quite so good and eventually it was discontinued. This is the second attempt to merge wired and wireless under a single banner with the lessons learned from last time and it has obviously had a lot more put into it. The AireOS/Aironet fleet has been around for many years and evolved well but 'new' sells and Cisco are marketing it all under fabric-enabled WiFi etc.
The biggest benefit of this approach will be the single policy across wired/wireless but there will also be some painful migration steps as the new product evolves and development on the old fades out.

There is a different in IOS on the APs, although there actually already as APs run AP-COS OS under software 8.5 or higher. I assume they run something similar with catalyst controllers but not sure atm.

Cheers,
Ric

[vashishthavikas481]

Thanks Ric :)

[stepcoop]

These Wi-Fi 6 APs will be supported on AireOS 8.9 code, which is only supported on 3504/5520/8540 WLCs.

[vashishthavikas481]

Thanks

[Andrey_voronkov]

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/wireless/compatibility/matrix/compatibility-matrix.html#pgfId-147162

Table 2 (Cisco Catalyst 9800 Wireless Controller and Supported Access Points) don't contain APs c9115 and c9117. 

Are the newest AP not supported by the newest controller?

[stepcoop]

Yes, of course.  IOS-XE 16.11 supports the Catalyst 9115 & 9117 access points on the Catalyst 9800 wireless LAN controllers.

[Leo Laohoo]

Support for the Catalyst 9100 starts with WLC firmware 8.9.X.X and 16.11.X.