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The Cisco 2500 Series Wireless Controller is a cost-effective, systems-wide wireless solution for retail, enterprise branches, and small and medium-sized businesses. The controller can scale in a network as the network grows.
The Cisco 2500 Series Wireless Controller blends into the Cisco Unified Wireless Network (CUWN) and works with both Cisco lightweight access points (LAPs) and the Cisco Wireless Control System (WCS) or Cisco Network Control System (NCS) or Prime Infrastructure (PI) to provide system-wide wireless LAN functions. The Cisco 2500 Series Wireless Controller provides real-time communication between wireless APs and other devices to deliver centralized security policies, guest access, wireless intrusion prevention system (wIPS), context-aware (location), Radio Frequency (RF) management, and quality of services (QoS) for mobility services, such as voice and video, and Office Extend Access Point (OEAP) support for the teleworker solution.
The Cisco 2500 Series Wireless Controller supports a maximum of 50 lightweight APs in increments of 5 AP licenses with a minimum of a 5 AP license, which makes it a cost-effective solution for retail and small and medium-sized businesses. The Cisco 2500 Series Wireless Controller offers robust coverage with 802.11 a/b/g or delivers unprecedented reliability with the use of 802.11n, 802.11ac, and Cisco Next-Generation Wireless Solutions and Cisco Enterprise Wireless Mesh.
The information in this document was created from the devices in a specific lab environment. All of the devices used in this document started with a cleared (default) configuration. If your network is live, ensure that you understand the potential impact of any command.
The Cisco 2500 Series Wireless Controller physically has the same form factor as the Cisco 2106 controller. The CPU on a Cisco 2500 Series Wireless Controller is a multi-core CPU and can handle both data plane and wireless data traffic. The CPU can handle control plane application, which handles all the management traffic needed to control a wireless network.
The Cisco 2500 Series Wireless Controller has 1 GB of system memory. Two types of memory devices are supported to store software images. The boot flash contains the boot code, and the compact flash contains the application code that can store multiple images. The front panel houses four Gigabit Ethernet ports. Two of the ports are 802.3af capable. All ports transfer the traffic to and from the wireless network.
Local TFTP server (required in order to download the OS software updates). Cisco uses an integral TFTP server. This means that third-party TFTP servers cannot run on the same workstation as the Cisco WCS because Cisco WCS and third-party TFTP servers use the same communication port.
If the controller is brought up for the first time with no prior configuration, it automatically enters into a wizard that asks you a series of configuration information questions. The wizard first prompts for user ID and password. This wizard cannot be bypassed and you must enter all the information requested.
Before you can configure the controller for basic operations, connect it to a PC that uses a VT-100 terminal emulator (such as HyperTerminal, ProComm, Minicom, or Tip). Complete these steps to connect the PC to the controller console port:
An interface is a logical entity on the controller. An interface has multiple parameters associated with it; which include the IP address, default-gateway (for the IP subnet), primary physical port, secondary physical port, VLAN tag, and DHCP server. Since LAG is not used, each interface is mapped to at least one primary physical port and an optional secondary port. Multiple interfaces can be mapped to a single Wireless Controller port.
The management interface is the default interface for in-band management of the controller and connectivity to enterprise services, such as Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting (AAA) servers. The management interface is also used for communications between the controller and APs. The management interface is the only consistently pingable in-band interface IP address on the controller. The management interface acts like an AP manager interface by default.
The dynamic interface with the Dynamic AP Management option enabled on it is used as the tunnel source for packets from the controller to the AP, and as the destination for CAPWAP packets from the AP tno the cotroller. The dynamic interfaces for AP manager must have a unique IP address. Typically, this is configured on the same subnet as the management interface, but this is not necessarily a requirement. In the case of the Cisco 2500 Series Wireless Controller, a single dynamic AP manager can support any number of APs. However, as a best practice, it is suggested to have 4 separate dynamic AP manager interfaces and associate them to the 4 Gigabit interfaces. By default, the management interface acts like an AP manager interface, as well and it is associated to one Gigabit interface. As a result, if you use the management interface, you need to create only 3 more dynamic AP manager interfaces and associate them to the 3 Gigabit interfaces that remains.
The virtual interface is used to support mobility management, DHCP relay, and embedded Layer 3 security, such as guest web authentication and VPN termination. The virtual interface must be configured with an unassigned and unused gateway IP address. A typical virtual interface is 192.0.2.1. The virtual interface address is not pingable and must not exist in any routing table in your network.
Dynamic interfaces are created by users and are designed to be analogous to VLANs for wireless LAN client device. The Cisco 2500 Series Wireless Controller supports up to 16 dynamic interfaces. Dynamic interfaces must be configured on a unique IP network and VLAN. Each dynamic interface acts as a DHCP relay for wireless clients associated to wireless LANs (WLANs) mapped to the interface. A WLAN associates a Service Set Identifier (SSID) to an interface and is configured with security, QoS, radio policies, and other wireless network parameters. There can be up to 16 WLANs configured per controller. Management servers, such as a RADIUS server and NTP server, must not be in a dynamic interface subnet, but must be either in the management interface subnet or any other subnet not added to the WLC.
By default, all four ports on the Cisco 2500 Series Wireless Controller are 802.1Q trunk ports. The controller is always connected to a Gigabit Ethernet port on the neighboring switch. The neighbor switch port is configured as an 802.1Q trunk and only the appropriate VLANs are allowed on the trunk. All other VLANs are pruned. This is not necessary, but is a deployment best practice because when irrelevant VLANs are pruned, the controller only processes relevant frames which optimizes performance.
The Cisco 2500 Series Wireless Controller does not have any licenses installed. Without any installed licenses, the APs cannot join the controller. It is recommended to install appropriate licenses on the Cisco 2500 Series Wireless Controller to work with the controller as you go forward. The Cisco 2500 Series Wireless Controller is shipped with an evaluation license for a period of 60 days (that is, 8 weeks 4 days). The evaluation license is a base license only.
The ordered license can be installed on the controller with either the CLI or the GUI. The license installed can be checked through both the CLI and the GUI. In both cases, there must be a TFTP server that hosts the license files.
To enable DTLS on an AP or particularly on a group of APs, make sure a Data Encryption License is installed in the controller. Data Encryption (DTLS) can be enabled on a per AP basis from the Advanced tab once the the AP details are selected.
PI is the current management software used to manage the Cisco 2500 Series Wireless Controller. Earlier versions were called WCS or NCS. It provides advanced management tools, such as wireless coverage display and location-based services. There is a close relation between the software version of the management system, Prime Infrastructure (PI)/NCS/WCS), and the WLC software version. See the wireless software compatibility matrix, as well as the PI and WLC release notes for supported compatible releases. PI uses SNMP to manage wireless controllers, access points, and client devices. The Cisco 2500 Series Wireless Controller devices need to have SNMP configured correctly.
To verify the Cisco 2500 Series Wireless Controller after it is added in PI, check in the device work center to verify it is successfully synced and managed. Wrong SNMP credentials can leave it unmanaged.
The Cisco 2500 Series Wireless Controller provides a cost-effective, unified wireless solution. Although the controller has multiple 10/100/1000 ports, it does not behave like switches or routers. It is not recommended to use different ports as a hub/switch implementation. This fundamental point is a key aspect to get the best performance out of the controller.
The Cisco 2500 Series Wireless Controller supports multiple uplink ports. In Release 7.4 and later, use LAG to build an etherchannel and treat several ports as just one connection. Or, disable LAG and configure a system where management and dynamic interfaces can be configured on different physical ports, and data traffic can switch back and forth intra network from respective physical ports.
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