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Cisco 5520 Wireless Controller vs. Extreme Wireless Access Points

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Cisco 5520 Wireless Controller

    Score6.6 out of 10
    N/AThe 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

    Extreme Wireless Access Points

    Score9.6 out of 10
    N/AExtreme Networks' Wireless Access Points (or ExtremeWireless) are designed to provide performance in the most demanding environments with the latest Wi-Fi technologies including 6 GHz, OFDMA, MU-MIMO, and software-defined dual 6 GHz radios.N/A
    Pricing
    Cisco 5520 Wireless ControllerExtreme Wireless Access Points
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Cisco 5520 Wireless ControllerExtreme Wireless 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 ControllerExtreme Wireless Access Points
    Considered Both Products
    Cisco
    No answer on this topic
    Extreme Networks
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    80%
    Would buy again
    12 Answers
    83%
    Would buy again
    5 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    93%
    Delivers good value for the price
    13 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    5 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    15 Answers
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    6 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    13 Answers
    80%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    4 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    15 Answers
    83%
    Implementation went as expected
    5 Answers
    Best Alternatives
    Cisco 5520 Wireless ControllerExtreme Wireless Access Points
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    Score9.1 out of 10
    WatchGuard Secure Wi-Fi Cloud
    Score9.1 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Cisco Aironet 1800 Series Access Points (discontinued)
    Score8.5 out of 10
    Cisco Aironet 1800 Series Access Points (discontinued)
    Score8.5 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points
    Score9.2 out of 10
    Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points
    Score9.2 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Cisco 5520 Wireless ControllerExtreme Wireless Access Points
    Likelihood to Recommend
    2.0
    (15 ratings)
    9.5
    (11 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    1.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    6.5
    (3 ratings)
    8.7
    (3 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.0
    (8 ratings)
    8.0
    (2 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Cisco 5520 Wireless ControllerExtreme Wireless Access Points
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Cisco
    At this point the Cisco 5520 Wireless Controllers are end of life as a Cisco product, so I would not recommend them to anyone looking to purchase a wireless controller for an enterprise. However, many people are still using these, and they do work reliably, even if they are a bit long in the tooth now.
    Incentivized
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    Extreme Networks
    The Extreme access point solution has been used in the cooperative scenario with VLANs for employees in access through 802.1x authentication and also for guests through the captive portal that allows access of people for a limited time and prior registration. The equipment has great performance and connection speed and supports a high density of users connected at the same time without lag and crashes. The management of this equipment is being carried out through software with cloud management and is accessed by our infrastructure team to configure and monitor alerts.
    Incentivized
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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.
    Incentivized
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    Extreme Networks
    • Ease of use and Management. The process of implementing APs is straight forward and managing the wireless infrastructure is quite simple and efficient.
    • Coverage: we are very happy with the distance each AP coverages in our warehouses without having any drop issues or over implementing APs.
    • Cost competitive versus other cloud managed wi-fi solutions such as Cisco, Aruba or Mist.
    Incentivized
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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.
    Incentivized
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    Extreme Networks
    • In my experience, licensing has become a nightmare. Licensing must be tied to a device, they also won't let you activate used units from other companies if they are donated or purchased third-party.
    • Customer service is outsourced overseas.
    • In my experience, technicians are incentivized to close tickets quickly - whether the issue has been fixed or not - which can be frustrating to work with.
    Incentivized
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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.
    Incentivized
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    Extreme Networks
    No answers on this topic
    Usability
    Cisco
    Overall the usability is ok. The centralized management reduces complexibility and offers bulk features like adding access points to specific groups which automatically applies linked configurations.
    On the other hand the GUI is very outdated and some features are not displayed correctly on new browsers. Also automation possibilities are very limited compared to the new 9800 series controller.
    Incentivized
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    Extreme Networks
    Extreme Wireless Access Points are easy to manage. They are easy to deploy and install. The hardware and firmware are reliable. There a number of things to be improved since we are still using the WiNG platform, but all of those things will be much better when we migrate to CloudIQ.
    Incentivized
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    Performance
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    Extreme Networks
    Extreme Wireless Access Points can support all our devices, even in high capacity areas. They are easy to manage and get basic information. There was a time back around 2017-2018 where people's devices needed to make sure they were using the latest wireless drivers; otherwise, people were having connection issues. Other than that time period, we were able to have fewer complaints from end users.
    Incentivized
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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.
    Incentivized
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    Extreme Networks
    Support was always responsive and willing to help, but at times did not know when to call it and send a replacement to stop the bleeding. I respect that fact that they wanted to get the solution working, and the wanting to learn more and understand, but at times you cant do that at the expense of the customer.
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    Implementation Rating
    Cisco
    Just take your time when setting up the HA pairs as those can be tricky. Also take your time setting up AP groups and make sure they are on all the SSIDs you need to be on.
    Incentivized
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    Extreme Networks
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Cisco
    Cisco Identity Services Engine is well integrated on Cisco 5520 Wireless Controller because the WLC supports a lot of authentication methods and security protocols (such as PEAP, EAP-TLS, Captive Portal redirect). They perform very well with ISE. Cisco ISE is able to manage centrally the AAA sessions from all the WLCs keeping a central point of management for wireless infrastructure.
    Incentivized
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    Extreme Networks
    I've used both Aruba and Cisco (traditional, not Meraki) for wireless, and each have their own strengths. Aruba offers a lot of feature functionality, though the interface is difficult and confusing to use (this was ~4 years ago). Cisco wireless is fairly straightforward to set up and expand, though features are more limited. Aerohive's benefit is the easy+speed of deployment. I've also used the Citrix NetScaler SSL VPN soft client and that works fairly well, though it doesn't compare like-for-like due to the fact that it's software vs. Aerohive, which is hardware.
    Incentivized
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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.
    Incentivized
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    Extreme Networks
    • Linking APs to AD, via NPS, and gaining the password reset policy; helped us move past some issues that we were held up on with SOC
    • Segregating corporate wifi and guest wifi, plus forcing guest wifi to agree to the Acceptable Use Policy, was needed to pass a compliance audit of the network.
    • Being able to locate which users are connected to which individual wifi AP, has been a asset with troubleshooting
    • APs sharing connections allows for us to overlap the wifi zones and create redundancy if an AP were to go offline for any reason.
    Incentivized
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    ScreenShots

    Extreme Wireless Access Points Screenshots

    Screenshot of AP5020Screenshot of AP5010Screenshot of AP3000/XScreenshot of AP4000Screenshot of AP5050U/D