Cisco 3504 WLAN Controller Reviews

Cisco has a wide range of wireless controllers and 3504 is the entry level controller. It can support up to 150 Access points. Therefore it is very well suited for medium sized enterprises , however small businesses can also use it in their networks but it is not so light on the budget and small businesses will find it very expensive.

The 3500 series is something I would recommend to just about any business looking to manage their Cisco access points in a smoother and faster way. Rolling out a large amount of AP's in a short amount of time is probably the best part of the WLC system. As well as keeping up with a demanding workforce.

Good for streaming telemetry. It's well suited for Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) and Guest WiFi solution. For small offices and remote sites you can use Bonjour and Chromecast services as well. Same controller can act as centralized mode for campus environments and for lean branches deployments. It's not suited for large multi campus environments.

Cisco TAC is well known and SLA levels are great. Cisco support website and Cisco communities are another help for issues resolution. TAC is always supportive over Webex and helps to resolve issues pretty fast. This is another assurance for people to go with Cisco as the TAC capabilities are proven for all product lines.

The scenarios in which we could use the 3504 controller could be many, based on the size of the company or the place where it is intended to be placed. Since the WLC 3504 is limited to 150 Access Points and 3000 clients or connections we can say that it is It is better to implement this type of solution with small to medium-sized clients. If a higher density of users is required, a more robust equipment would be need to cover the total capacity for the wirelessly connected devices.

The support for this equipment is very good because they provide support only from engineers specialized in each area, and if necessary, the issue is scaled with another area for a solution. On the other hand they can attend to you 24 hours a day and if your device has a hardware-related issue, they send you a new device the next day so you have the least amount of disruption of service.

It is well suited for both local and remote branches and uses.

We have had no issues so far, so there has been no need to contact support.

The 3504 is great for mid size wireless deployments where you don't expect the number of APs to exceed 100. The platform is much faster than then older 2504 and have added a bunch of enhancements. I wouldn't recommend this for enterprise deployments due to its scalability. For deployments that scale multiple sites we have used a mix of 3504s and Meraki deployments.

The GUI is easier to navigate as compared to the 2504. Also the responsiveness of the GUI, the quicker failover capabilities and the enhanced visibility are all major improvements over the previous generation WLC.

As expected the support from TAC is second to none. Great for troubleshooting, configuration and hardware replacement if required.

The controller is good for sites where you have up to 150 access points, which is the maximum it can handle. Or, it will anchor the guest traffic out to the DMZ zone from other controllers. It can also be used for FlexConnect remote sites as the controller the APs are connecting to.

Best use for a 3504 WLAN Controller is in a data center or in general in central and strategic sites, to control all the local and branch access points. I suggest creating a proper design considering that the maximum number of access points is 150. Avoid installing too many WLC or too few, otherwise, it would mean a waste of money.

This can open an entire chapter, since it's related to the Cisco TAC. It really depends who is taking charge of the ticket, but in general my experience is not that good since it's not easy to find a good engineer for wireless support. More often I found more skilled people while I was handling ISE issues.