What is the difference between the virtual controller vWLC (L-AIR-CTVM-5-K) and the physical controller C9800-L ?

[AlexandreOppermann]

What is the difference between the virtual controller vWLC (L-AIR-CTVM-5-K) and the physical controller C9800-L ?

[Sandeep Choudhary]

Hi,

VWLC: As per my knowledge there are some feature restrictions, performance limitations, and extra hassles getting APs joined up.

A couple of the bigger feature limitations are that the APs all must be in FlexConnect mode, and the vWLC cannot be an anchor controller.  From a performance perspective, you are supposedly limited to 500 Mbps of throughput.  APs also can't just join up to a vWLC out of the box.  There is some staging work that needs to be done before hand. 

So unless virtualization is really important, most people(including me) would probably find the ease of working with a physical controller worth the small extra investment.

Regards

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[marce1000]

 - Aligned with other reply , business critical parameters on the Intranet , may require more robust wireless infrastructure (or not indeed). 

 M.

[Leo Laohoo]

vWLC is AireOS

9800 is the new IOS-XE

Translation:  vWLC do not have long before the entire OS goes EoS.  The new direction is IOS-XE for everything. 

[Manuka Rajapaksha]

Try this comparison Tool: 

Access points and wireless controllers - Cisco