Effective Centralized Management for Wireless Access Points
November 16, 2019
Effective Centralized Management for Wireless Access Points
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Cisco 5520 Wireless Controller
We have three Cisco 5520 Wireless Controllers [that were] administered centrally by our network team. We are utilizing all three controllers both redundantly as well as for load balancing our access points at 14 different sites. The [Cisco] 5520 [Wireless] Controllers have enabled us to more efficiently manage our wireless network through the central management features as well as ease of configuration.
- Centralized management has been the greatest factor in our preference for the [Cisco] 5520 [Wireless] Controllers.
- The web portal administration site is intuitive and granular. We have enjoyed the ease of administration through the portals.
- We have been very pleased with the effectiveness of Dynamic Channel Assignment (DCA) and Transmit Power Control (TPC) Algorithms. These feature settings (out of the box) have worked nearly flawlessly for us.
- 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.
- [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.
We used standalone Cisco 3850 switches prior to implementing Cisco 5520s. While 3850s are individually a cheaper solution, the limitations [are that it is] only able to manage the access point directly connected to that particular device was too much of a limitation. We also appreciated the interface and features of the 5520s more so than the 3850s.
Do you think Cisco 5520 Wireless Controller delivers good value for the price?
Yes
Are you happy with Cisco 5520 Wireless Controller's feature set?
Yes
Did Cisco 5520 Wireless Controller live up to sales and marketing promises?
Yes
Did implementation of Cisco 5520 Wireless Controller go as expected?
Yes
Would you buy Cisco 5520 Wireless Controller again?
Yes
Evaluating Cisco 5520 Wireless Controller and Competitors
Yes - Cisco 3850 Switches
A member of our network team had previous experience with this product and couldn't say enough good things about it. We are happy we made the purchase!