Cisco® Service Provider (SP) Wi-Fi 2.0 is a carrier-grade solution providing operators with a platform for business and service innovation. The Cisco Service Provider Wi-Fi solution now includes Next-Generation Hotspot and Cisco Connected Mobile Experiences. These technologies join the complete Cisco solution from intelligent access points to an intelligent services cloud and an award-winning mobile packet core.
• A complete portfolio of intelligent access points, including the Cisco Aironet® 1550 Series for outdoor and metro deployments and the Cisco Aironet 3600 Series for indoors. Cisco's unique offer is silicon-level integration for crucial network functions, including interference mitigation, resource management, band selection, and video optimization.
• An Intelligent Services Cloud (ISC) for critical network management, subscriber management, and policy control with the Cisco Wireless Controller, the Cisco Mobility Services Engine (MSE), and the Cisco Intelligent Services Gateway (ISG). The Cisco Intelligent Services Cloud gives you the flexibility to deploy, operate, and manage networks with hundreds of thousands of access points, and it lets you turn on different services with a simple point and click. All aspects of the ISC translate into reduced operating costs, including zero-touch provisioning for "hang-and-go" deployments, and centralized interference mitigation and troubleshooting for ease of network maintenance.
• The mobile packet core with the award-winning Cisco ASR 5000 Series provides standards-based functionality that allows operators to transparently and securely integrate Wi-Fi, femtocell, and macro radio networks in the Cisco Small Cell Gateway. The Cisco ASR 5000 Series includes common subscriber management, policy, and authentication functionality, delivering transparent service integration to Wi-Fi users. The Cisco ASR 5000 Series, which powers the Cisco Small Cell Gateway, is in deployments today, providing the multivendor interoperability that operators require.
Figure 1. Cisco SP Wi-Fi End-to-end Solution
Architecture Models
• Metro Wi-Fi deployment: Client Layer 2 traffic is sent from the Cisco Wireless Controller to the Cisco ISG session manager. This is the most common model.
• Hotspot deployment: Client Layer 2 is terminated in the Access Zone Router (AZR) and from there traffic is sent to the ISG session manager with a Layer 3 connection and Hybrid Remote Edge Access Point (H-REAP) local switching in the AZR access interface.
• Packet core integration with IP Services Gateway (IPSG): Similar to the metro Wi-Fi deployment model, but session management is provided by the Cisco ASR 5000 IPSG.
• Packet core integration with web authentication based on Cisco ASR 5000 IPSG Gx: Similar to the packet core integration model with the ASR 5000 IPSG, but it includes web authentication.
• Packet core integration with Proxy Mobile IPv6 (PMIPv6) and Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) authentication: Packet core integration uses PMIPv6, Cisco ASR 1000 Mobile Access Gateway (MAG), and Cisco ASR 5000 Local Mobility Anchor (LMA) with EAP-SIM authentication using Cisco Access Registrar (CAR).
• Packet core integration with PMIPv6 and web authentication: Packet core integration uses PMIPv6 ASR 1000 MAG and ASR 5000 LMA and web authentication uses Cisco Prime SP Wi-Fi Service Manager.
• Packet core integration with Enhanced Wireless Access Gateway (eWAG) for 3G gateway GPRS support node (GGSN): This Cisco SP Wi-Fi solution architecture allows mobile operators to integrate SP Wi-Fi users into an existing GGSN environment, using ASR 5000-based eWAG with EAP-SIM authentication.
Product Features
• Subscriber authentication and authorization using Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), RADIUS-based authentication, web logon, Wireless Internet Service Provider roaming (WISPr), MAC address, and IP address
• Wireless LAN Controller 8510 with stateful high availability and higher scale
• Support for Cisco Aironet 1552 EU/CU access points with PPPoE and NAT/PAT
• Subscriber awareness with the Cisco ASR 9000 Series
• Increased scale limits on Cisco ASR 1000 with 48,000 authenticated and 128,000 unauthenticated users
• Mobile Packet Core 3G (GGSN) integration with eWAG
• Analytics support with the Cisco MSE
• Validated high availability under high scale for:
– Number of access points per controller
– Subscriber count
– Call rates
– Load balancers
– MSE for analytics
Table 1. Cisco SP Wi-Fi Solution Features and Use Cases
Platforms and Software Releases
Table 2. Cisco SP Wi-Fi Solution Release 2.0 Platforms and Software Releases
Cisco SP Wi-Fi Services Overview
• From a cloud-based architecture hosted in a Cisco data center, demonstration of a centralized management system, with zero-touch service fulfillment for rapid deployments of meshed access points
• Professional services from Cisco and Cisco's Wi-Fi specialized partners
• Help in planning and deploying the RF components of the Cisco SP Wi-Fi solution
• Analysis of architectural readiness, with guidance for selecting and prioritizing locations for Wi-Fi
• RF expertise to obtain the most from your wireless access points
• Coverage and capacity planning
• Post-deployment RF analysis help to ensure deployment success
• Professional services from Cisco and Cisco's Wi-Fi specialized partners
• Help to plan and deploy the core components of the Cisco SP Wi-Fi solution
• Analysis of architectural readiness and assistance with the SP Wi-Fi deployment design
• Start-to-finish deployment assistance, including mobile subscriber policy enforcement system
• Pre-deployment validation to help ensure deployment success
• Post-deployment knowledge transfers to help ensure your understanding of the solution
• Expert assistance to streamline operation of the Wi-Fi architecture
• Quick isolation and remediation of unplanned service disruptions by specialists
• Tracking and identifying the root cause of disruptive incidents, providing valuable information for design changes and scaling with your mobile subscriber growth
• Expert analysis and recommendations for transforming your Wi-Fi architecture into a high-performing, efficient environment
• Help to create a strategy for managing all the critical components of the Cisco SP Wi-Fi architecture using a suite of Cisco hosted network management applications
• Availability and performance optimization expertise to validate planned design changes
• Collaboration to develop a strategy for managing software releases and changes
• Continuous learning activities that help your IT staff become more self-sufficient
• Extension of the measurement and analytical capabilities of your Cisco SP Wi-Fi architecture
• Real-time monitoring of a variety of key performance indicators from Cisco network operations center
• Comprehensive analytics using fault, capacity, availability, and performance information to help ensure reliable operations
• Monitoring the managed devices in the your environment to help ensure access points and controllers are properly activated and provisioned
• Managing incident and problem resolution
• Identifying operational trends to continually improve performance
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