Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers Are Still the Best I've Used for Large Scale Wireless Network Environments
July 04, 2025

Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers Are Still the Best I've Used for Large Scale Wireless Network Environments

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Software Version

5520 Wireless Controller

Overall Satisfaction with Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers

We use various Cisco Wireless Lan Controllers at several of our venues and offices. As a network engineer for a live sports and music entertainment company, we use Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers to service all of our Cisco access points in both sparse and dense deployments through our various arenas, theaters, stadiums, and offices. These access points provide wireless connectivity to all of our corporate staff, partners, vendors, and customers.

Pros

  • Does a fantastic job of providing detailed client data (e.g. how long the client has been associated, what band the client is connected to, what AP, IP/MAC info)
  • Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers provide an incredibly flexible way to engineer different wireless network solutions for different needs. For example, you have various ways to tweak and optimize wireless multicast based traffic, you can set different AP groups to better manage which APs should broadcast certain SSIDs, the ability to increase or decrease transmit power levels on an AP, and so much more!
  • Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers have a reliable and relatively easy image upgrade process that allows you stagger the AP image upgrade process to minimize downtime

Cons

  • I would love to see the ability to have a tool like Cisco Prime natively built into the Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers. While the WLC does provide detailed client data, you need to rely on tools like Cisco Prime to provide you with more comprehensive data about the client such as their roaming history, how many times have they associated/de-associated to a certain AP, how many auth errors has the customer experienced, what type of traffic is the client consuming, etc.
  • High wireless access availability, various options to perform wireless network tuning, a diverse feature set to segment certain parts of wireless traffic based on things like SGTs, AP groups, etc., and the ability to provide various authentication options
Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers provide the most feature-rich, robust, and reliable wireless network performance out of all of the Cisco wireless solutions that I've used. They also seem to support the most dense AP environment requirements out of all of the other vendors. Lastly, I think Cisco's TAC support when it comes to wireless support is second to none. I speak from experience!
Not sure why "Ruckus WLAN controllers" is not listed above but that is another major WLAN controller solution I've used in the past. Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers provide the most flexibility when it comes to designing a large WLAN deployment. They also have some of the best reliability and TAC support out of all of the other vendors.

Do you think Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers's feature set?

Yes

Did Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers again?

Yes

I believe that Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers are well suited for the enterprise environment for medium sized to very large companies. While there are smaller WLC appliances for smaller sized businesses, a case can be made for simpler or more cost effective wireless licensing solutions (e.g. Cisco Meraki). Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers are extremely well suited for dense deployments like stadiums, arenas, hospitals, theaters, and large offices because of their ability to support a large number of APs with a very diverse technology feature set.

Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers Feature Ratings

Wireless LAN
8.6
Zero-Touch Provisioning
9
WLAN Performance Monitoring
8
Topology Maps
9
Layer 7 Visibility
7
Power over Ethernet Support
Not Rated
Wireless Security
10

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