Cisco Prepares Customers for Wave 2 with New Access Points and Wireless Controllers

The next wave of wireless access points are starting to hit the market. Cisco is among the first to release not only 802.11ac Wave 2 wireless access points, but also Wave 2-compliant controllers.

Cisco unveiled the Cisco Aironet 1850 Access Point, a Wave 2 AP that makes use of the protocol's multi-user, multi-in, multi-out – or MU-MIMO – features to provide faster Wi-Fi connections with an enterprise.

Among the trends driving a need for Wave 2 are the proliferation of devices to the WLAN (including the Internet of Things) and the fact that apps are very chatty.

The Aironet 1850 represents Cisco's first Wave 2 AP. Compared to the previous generation of 802.11ac APs, the 1850 offers greater coverage and performance.

Cisco plans to begin shipping the 1850 AP in July

In addition to the access point, Cisco also announced two controllers to support Wave 2. They're both aimed at campus environments, although at different scales. Here's more information on both:

• The Cisco 8540 Services Controller was designed to be highly scalable and service-rich. It's intended for large campus deployments and offers up to 40Gbps of throughput, as well as support for up to 6,000 access points and 64,000 clients. According to Sethuraman, it's a 75 percent performance increase over previous controllers.
• The Cisco 5520 Services Controller was designed for medium to large campus environments. It offers up to 20Gbps of throughput and can handle 1,500 access points and 20,000 clients. Sethuraman noted the 5520 has a 33 percent performance gain over previous access points.

It's a truth for many enterprises, particularly those considering cutting the cord and Wi-Fi-enabling every device on their premises. Wave 2 makes that easier, although some industry analysts have questioned how quickly deployments of the new standard will happen.