Cisco 9800 Series Wireless Controllers

Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers are the next generation wireless controllers that

  • are IOS XE based and integrate the Radio Frequency (RF) performance excellence from Aironet systems,

  • supports intent-based networking that are easy to adapt and scale, and

  • are available in multiple physical and virtual form factors for flexible management options.

Available form factors and deployment options

You can deploy the controllers as physical appliances or as virtual devices in private and public cloud environments.

The controllers cater to these deployment options:

  • Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controller Appliance

  • Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controller for Cloud

  • Cisco Catalyst 9800 Embedded Wireless for Switch

Management options

You can managed them the Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers with:

  • Cisco Catalyst Center

  • NETCONF or YANG, or

  • GUI or CLI.

Cisco Prime Infrastructure is also supported.

Configuration data model

A configuration data model is a framework that

  • enables reusability of network settings and components

  • supports simplified provisioning for scalable network management, and

  • provides enhanced flexibility and modularization to adapt to changing business and IT requirements.

For more information, see Information About New Configuration Model.

Initial controller setup methods

The initial configuration wizard in Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controller is a simplified, out-of-the-box installation and configuration interface for the controller. This section provides instructions to set up a controller to operate in a small, medium, or large network wireless environment, where access points can join and together as a simple solution provide various services, such as corporate employee or guest wireless access on the network.

Setting up the controller using GUI

To set up the controller using the GUI, see the Configuring Wireless Controller section in Cisco Catalyst 9800 Wireless Controller Series Web UI Deployment Guide.

Setting up the controller using CLI

To set up the controller using CLIs, see the Performing the Initial Configuration on the Controller section of your respective controller installation guides.