Cisco 5520 Wireless Controller vs. Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Cisco 5520 Wireless Controller
Score 8.3 out of 10
N/A
The Cisco 5520 Series Wireless LAN Controller is a highly scalable, service-rich, resilient, and flexible platform that is ideal for medium-sized to large enterprise and campus deployments.N/A
Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points
Score 9.1 out of 10
N/A
The Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points includes the 9115 and 9117, and designed to meet high demand network access.N/A
Pricing
Cisco 5520 Wireless ControllerCisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Cisco 5520 Wireless ControllerCisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Cisco 5520 Wireless ControllerCisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points
Considered Both Products
Cisco 5520 Wireless Controller

No answer on this topic

Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points
Chose Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points
The Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points are way better for implementation and supports more features that we can use for our customer.
Chose Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points
1852 series is already too old technology and not performing as well as the Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points.
Chose Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points
this is different product,
I choose Access Point because now i'm involved in wireless project in my organization.
Chose Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points
Features match, except hyperlocation isn't available.
Top Pros

No answers on this topic

Top Cons

No answers on this topic

Best Alternatives
Cisco 5520 Wireless ControllerCisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points
Small Businesses
Ubiquiti WLAN
Ubiquiti WLAN
Score 9.0 out of 10
Ubiquiti WLAN
Ubiquiti WLAN
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers
Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers
Score 9.6 out of 10
Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers
Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers
Score 9.6 out of 10
Enterprises
Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers
Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers
Score 9.6 out of 10
Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers
Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers
Score 9.6 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Cisco 5520 Wireless ControllerCisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points
Likelihood to Recommend
7.2
(13 ratings)
8.9
(64 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.1
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
7.0
(1 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
8.9
(57 ratings)
Support Rating
9.2
(7 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
8.5
(57 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(1 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Cisco 5520 Wireless ControllerCisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points
Likelihood to Recommend
Cisco
I consider that its implementation is recommended for configurations where the amount of access points exceeds 50 devices and the performance exceeds 4 Gbps. In environments where the access point density is less than 10 units, we can use the option of Express Mobility.
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Cisco
Well suited in the sense that we use wireless on wheels devices a lot, having devices to monitor the patient's room to room. So this is a very useful, actually, it helps us to transmit the data through the wireless infrastructure. And I don't see, it's less because the WIFI is everywhere, it's very vital part of our life, so I can't say any shortcoming, so it's less useful
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Pros
Cisco
  • It has the ability to manage all Cisco access points that we have, regardless of the model. The limit is 1500 pieces of equipment.
  • The WLC enables roaming functionality in the localities, this helps with collections, wireless IP phones, and access with notebooks.
  • The WLC manages the quality of the "air" and "signal" of the 2.4ghz frequency, avoiding noise and interference.
  • The WLC has an interesting feature of visibility of the traffic of the internal network.
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Cisco
  • It's good for high density deployments that we have. In areas where they have a lot of users and they all want to be on WIFI, so people could have two phones, their laptop and they all want to be in a congregated area, it's really good for handling that traffic compared to our older APs.
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Cons
Cisco
  • We have had some issues with access points losing their configurations and going offline. This is not a common issue and we are not entirely certain if it is a fault of the controller or the individual APs. That said, the controller does not appear to retain the knowledge of the offline AP which can be a management headache.
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Cisco
  • Firmware distribution between access points
  • Replace web auth certificate without reloading WLC controllers
  • The issue with expired MIC certificate - but this is not an issue with 9100
  • New AP with new hardware revision works only with the new WLC firmware
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Likelihood to Renew
Cisco
This equipment from Cisco has been dependable and we are able to easily continue to add access points or make changes easily to the Wi-Fi password settings.
We have been operating this equipment for a number of years and it does not give us any issues.
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Cisco
No answers on this topic
Usability
Cisco
In the dailies activities it's simple to manage a wireless network and also to perform changes: the GUI is well known and intuitive for engineers that know how to operate on Cisco WLC. It has High Throughput and consolidated features such as CleanAir, Roaming supporting natively Cisco ISE authentication methods and DNA Center. It's recommended for Wi-Fi 5 wireless infrastructures.
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Cisco
The Cisco Catalyst 9120 Access Points have been a solid deployment for me. Using their interface is a mix of new and old. They run IOS, so if you know the CLI, you can easily navigate around them. You can join them to an older controller if it supports a certain version, you can join it to a new 9800 controller--very straight forward--and you can run the embedded wireless controller on them directly. I've found this to be very useful at smaller sites. The Cisco Catalyst 9120 Access Points are not limited to feature sets like the older generations' mobility express platform.
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Performance
Cisco
No answers on this topic
Cisco
Using Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points you can expect good performance, if not excellent. Coupled with other tools and managment systems you can easily gain good insight and ease of management. Flexible deployment variations help you adopt the equipment to work for most any required scenario you could think of. It's a well designed and evolved product.
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Support Rating
Cisco
Cisco support is always ready to support and engage in any problem or issue. Starting from the implementation support, troubleshooting any software issue or hardware. Their engineers are engaging whenever we ask for support, keep following up with us, and troubleshoot any problem till we find a solution and be satisfied [with] the service.
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Cisco
Cisco has been very good at correcting early issues with their code. Their TAC support has been fantastic when I would open a case with issues I was facing. Even though the hardware was new, they were very familiar with the interfaces and issues I was having. In the past I've been concerned about adopting a new product right away because of support issues. That was not the case here. Once I had the deployment up and running, they have had a good run of reliability.
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Alternatives Considered
Cisco
[The] best bet is the integration with ISE. Users use their active directory credentials to access the wireless and very simple guest portal to gain access to the Internet. We plan on integrating Cisco DNA Centre in the future that will give us more visibility and improved performance.
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Cisco
We are migrating from Aironet platform to Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points. That's more flexible, and we do it to sync switching, SDWAN, and wifi under one family.
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Scalability
Cisco
No answers on this topic
Cisco
These access points offer flexibility in deployment scenarios, supporting both standalone and controller-based architectures. Organisations can choose the model that best suits their current needs and scale as their requirements grow. Cisco Aironet Access Points are compatible with Cisco's Wireless LAN controllers, allowing for centralized management and monitoring of a large number of access points across the network. With the recent changes, it will even support cloud base controllers.
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Return on Investment
Cisco
  • [It provides] centralized management.
  • Implementing the [Cisco] 5520 [Wireless] Controllers offered us a huge improvement in administrative time over our previous Cisco 3850 deployment. Being able to see all of our APs on a single controller as well as centrally manage them is a great benefit. This also removed the need to deploy specific equipment in different IDFs throughout our Industrial locations and instead only requiring switches with Power Over Ethernet (POE) capability.
  • Wireless performance has improved with the deployment of our 5520s, which allows our plant operators to do their jobs more efficiently while on the move.
  • Having three Cisco 5520 Wireless Controllers provides tertiary redundancy for our wireless networks. The solution is elegantly simple. Preventing downtime is, obviously, a profound part of our supply chain capabilities.
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Cisco
  • Cisco was able to provide a product that met specific business requirements because they have offered a wide range of devices with various feature sets.
  • 9100s have a 3rd radio that allows for a lot of additional security features
  • 9100s have the same level of reliability and performance as the previous generation and continue to impress.
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