The Cisco 8500 Series Wireless Controllers provide centralized control, management, and troubleshooting for enterprise and service provider deployments. The 8500 Series offers flexibility to support multiple deployment modes in the same controller: for example, centralized mode for campus, Cisco FlexConnect™ mode for lean branches managed over the WAN, and mesh (bridge) mode for deployments where full Ethernet cabling is unavailable.



The Cisco 8500 Series Wireless Controllers support Cisco Application Visibility and Control (AVC). Cisco AVC includes the Network-Based Application Recognition 2 (NBAR-2) engine, Cisco’s deep packet inspection (DPI) capability, which classifies applications, applies quality of service (QoS) settings to either drop or mark the traffic, and prioritizes business-critical applications in the network. Cisco AVC uses NetFlow Version 9 to export the flows to Cisco Prime™ Infrastructure or a third-party NetFlow collector.



The Cisco 8500 Series also supports Bonjour Services Directory to enable Bonjour Services to be advertised and utilized in a separate Layer 3 network. A wireless policy engine on the Cisco 8500 Series enables profiling of wireless devices and enforcement of policies such as VLAN assignment, QoS, access control lists (ACLs), and time-of-day- based access.



Cisco 8500 Series Wireless Controllers automate wireless configuration and management functions and allow network managers to have the visibility and control needed to cost-effectively manage, secure, and optimize the performance of their branch networks. As a component of the Cisco Unified Wireless Network, this controller provides real-time communications between Cisco Aironet® access points, Cisco Prime Infrastructure, and the Cisco Mobility Services Engine, and is interoperable with other Cisco controllers.



The Cisco 8500 Series has integrated Cisco CleanAir® technology, providing the industry’s only self-healing and self-optimizing wireless network for branches.