Cisco adds centralized WLAN control to devices

TechWorld.com - Cisco Systems Inc. has added centralized wireless LAN control to its flagships, the Catalyst 6500 and the Integrated Services Router (ISR) branch router.

The products have been widely predicted but leave the company's existing "distributed" WLAN products in an uncertain position.

Nearly a year since Cisco's purchase of Airespace Inc., the company as predicted is putting the Airespace centralized Wi-Fi controller into its wired switches.

The company is also phasing out the Airespace name, replacing it with the Aironet name that has been on its existing "distributed" access points (AP).

"We're making sure we can offer scalability," said Andy Oldfield, wireless technology marketing manager for Europe at Cisco, in London on Monday. "The centralized product is where advanced services such as location will be deployed."

The announcement, timed to coincide with Cisco's entry into the Wi-Fi mesh arena, is simply the logical next step, said Oldfield.

A new blade for the Catalyst 6500 switch, called the Wi-Fi services module (WiSM), will contain the equivalent of two Airespace 4400 wireless switches, and will be able to command up to 300 of the thin APs designed to work with those switches. It will cost $45,995.

The Wireless LAN Services Module launched in 2004 is a Cat 6500 blade, priced at $18,000, that can control 150 old-style fat APs. However, Cisco has also launched a software upgrade to the older APs that "thins them down," allowing them to be controlled by Airespace switches or the new WISM, using the Airespace LWAPP protocol.

The company also launched a module for its branch router, the ISR. This WLAN control module will support six access points and bring the WLAN control into the same box that also offers intrusion-detection firewall and other branch office functions.

Both devices can be federated, and in both setups, the APs will be controlled by the Cisco wireless control system.