Meraki MR44 or Cisco 9130 for Enterprise Deployment

[SNGreene]

I am currently conducting research to decide which way my organization will go with our wireless network upgrade. What are you experiences with the MR44 (good and bad, benefits, give and takes, could be better, need to be included, what makes it worth having over Cisco APs)? What are your experiences with the Cisco 9130 (or even the 2800 series)(good and bad, benefits, give and takes, could be better, need to be included, what makes it worth having over Meraki APs)?

Yes, I know that they are both under the same company umbrella, but they are two vastly different products. I am bias to Meraki, but am objective when it comes to receiving input from others.

The Meraki's will be connecting to Cisco 9300 switches, which Meraki has confirmed this is not issue and the AP's can work with this setup. As long as they have access to reach the Meraki Dashboard.

Thank each of you for you valuable insights. 

[Arshad Safrulla · Accepted solution]

1. Well for starters 9130 is tri radio and MR44 is dual radio.
2. 9130 has highly configurable radios compared to MR44.
3. 9130 has highly configurable RF ASIC which can provide industry leading RF and Spectrum intelligence while MR44 has a security radio which is ok for most of the use cases, but not dependable always. 
4. Meraki is good if you are not planning for any HD setup and 9130 has better antenna support.
5. MR44 is internal antenna only and 9130 can be ordered with internal or external antennas.
6. MR44 is 2x2:2 in 2.4 and 9130 is 4x4:4.
7. Meraki is easy to manage and give higher visibility compared to Cisco with a single license. Cisco can give the same level of visibility but require multiple solutions to be integrated and licenses.
8. Cisco supports Encrypted traffic Analysis with new 9000 series AP's and Meraki added NBAR recently.
9. Meraki RRM is very flunky and Cisco is better if you exclude the bugs.
10. Cisco supports FRA (Dual 5GHz radios), Meraki still doesn't have FRA capable AP's.
11.  Fully loaded 9130 will require uPOE and Meraki MR44 requires only POE+.
12. 9130 with WLC could be prone to more bugs compared to Meraki, Meraki also has bugs but considerably less than Cisco.
13. Software upgrades in Cisco can be tricky compared to Meraki which is mostly 2 or 3 clicks.
14. Cisco can comply to strong data protection laws by hosting and storing all the information locally, while Meraki being cloud managed it is difficult.
15. With Meraki you must allow AP management to Internet Access, which if misconfigured anywhere upstream can be exploited
16. If it is small scale Meraki can be cost wise cheaper and Cisco can be expensive fi quoted with WLC due to licensing. 
17. Meraki provides RMA and support within single license where in Cisco you have to pay for the support separately.

I would say check for MR56 if you are comparing with 9130 while MR44 can be compared with 9120

I can't think o

[Arshad Safrulla]

18. Cisco supports multiple deployment methods of Wireless such as HREAP(Flex), local, monitor, sniffer, mesh etc, Meraki supports Flex connect like setup by default, if you are looking for local mode like setup you need to have a WIreless concentrator (meraki MX) and this is called Layer 3 roaming. Layer 3 roaming has a bug for last 3 to 4 years where there is packet drops once in a while. 

[SNGreene]

We have MX so who would local mode be implemented as I believe we'll need to setup this way. Would we need to install MX 67s or another model at each site/building on campus? Can we some how setup to have them use our MX450?

[SNGreene]

Truly appreciate your insights! Taken into account your last  statement. Can you help understand the comparison between the 9130 and the MR56? Also we do not need external antennas. 

I've recently been asked about the following which I'm not sure how to determine if Meraki can support these:

Does the Meraki AP support SGT tagging?

Is implementation into the Fabric possible (DNAC) if trunk ports are not allowed to be configured? Are trunk ports needed/required?

What is the process for onboarding a client using a Meraki on a Cisco 9300 switch and ISE? Does it support VXLAN?

We have different networks for different Agencies can Meraki support this segmenting the network in this manner?

(You answered this one but I'd like to get a little better insight if possible)Does Meraki support the equal of RRM. When you flunky what do mean?

[Arshad Safrulla]

Does the Meraki AP support SGT tagging?

Yes. https://documentation.meraki.com/General_Administration/Cross-Platform_Content/Adaptive_Policy/Adaptive_Policy_and_Cisco_ISE

Is implementation into the Fabric possible (DNAC) if trunk ports are not allowed to be configured? Are trunk ports needed/required?

You can manage it via DNA center, last time I checked Fabric integration is not possible, it may change as DNA center keep evolving and new features are added in each new version.

What is the process for onboarding a client using a Meraki on a Cisco 9300 switch and ISE? Does it support VXLAN? Client onboarding process will be same in both environments as most of the processing is done at ISE. VXLAN is not supported.

We have different networks for different Agencies can Meraki support this segmenting the network in this manner? 

Yes, you can. You can do VLAN based segregation at Layer 2, by associating certain VLAN to a SSID or you can do dynamic VLAN assignment by Cisco ISE. If you are looking at Anchoring to DMZ scenario (foreign and anchor WLC scenario) you need to have a Meraki MX as wireless concentrator.

(You answered this one but I'd like to get a little better insight if possible)Does Meraki support the equal of RRM. When you flunky what do mean?

Sorry flunky is a slang we use to describe "not working perfectly". Compared to Cisco WLC RRM, Meraki RRM is still way behind and not responsive.

[SNGreene]

Yes, you can. You can do VLAN based segregation at Layer 2, by associating certain VLAN to a SSID or you can do dynamic VLAN assignment by Cisco ISE. If you are looking at Anchoring to DMZ scenario (foreign and anchor WLC scenario) you need to have a Meraki MX as wireless concentrator.

So if we go with the MR AP, we can use ISE to the VLAN assignment? As far as the MX being a wireless concentrator, are MX450 (in the DC) or we'll need an MX at each location/building?

You can manage it via DNA center, last time I checked Fabric integration is not possible, it may change as DNA center keep evolving and new features are added in each new version.

So currently we cannot deploy MR APs in the Fabric? Or we just cannot use DNA?

To compare apples to apples, will you for the run down for the MR56 comparing with 9130 since you mentioned this will be a more comparable. Will you do a run like you first post please and thank you

[Arshad Safrulla]

So if we go with the MR AP, we can use ISE to the VLAN assignment? Yes

As far as the MX being a wireless concentrator, are MX450 (in the DC) or we'll need an MX at each location/building? It depends on how you design the network. I don't see any value in concentrating traffic to MX at each branch. Again design, plan and deploy as per the requirement.

So currently we cannot deploy MR APs in the Fabric? No Fabric mode for now with Meraki

Or we just cannot use DNA? You can use it for monitoring only, so you will get all in one management dashboard for Catalyst and Meraki at one place.

Ok, comparison can be done in the below link

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/wireless/access-point-controller-selector.html

[Arshad Safrulla]

Also check out meraki community page https://community.meraki.com/t5/Technical-Forums/ct-p/enterprise

for more insight in to Meraki.