High uptime and reliability
We use Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers to manage access points throughout all our branches and remote sites. We have more …
Overview
What is Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers?
The Cisco Catalyst 9800-80 is a modular wireless controller with optional 100 Gigabit Ethernet (G) modular uplinks boasting seamless software updates for large enterprises and campuses, and security with ETA and SD-Access.
Recent Reviews
Awards
Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards
Reviewer Pros & Cons
- I actually really like, I know this is weird, A lot of people hate it but not hate it, but network engineers don't they like CLI stuff, but I like mor...
- Maybe some of the stuff that is on the device itself for me is a network engineer and I'm CCNA certified and I like to delve into different things. Bu...
Video Reviews
2 videos
Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers Review
04:42
Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers Review
08:44
Product Details
- About
- Competitors
- Tech Details
- Downloadables
- FAQs
What is Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers?
The vendor presents their solution as built from the ground up for intent-based networking and Cisco DNA, and state the Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers are Cisco IOS XE based and integrate the RF excellence of Cisco Aironet access points, creating a best-in-class wireless experience for your evolving and growing organization. The 9800 Series is built on an open and programmable architecture with built-in security, streaming telemetry, and rich analytics.
Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers Competitors
- Ubiquiti WLAN
- Fortinet Wireless LAN
- Aruba Networks Wireless LAN (WLAN)
Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers Technical Details
| Operating Systems | Unspecified |
|---|---|
| Mobile Application | No |
Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers Downloadables
Frequently Asked Questions
The Cisco Catalyst 9800-80 is a modular wireless controller with optional 100 Gigabit Ethernet (G) modular uplinks boasting seamless software updates for large enterprises and campuses, and security with ETA and SD-Access.
Ubiquiti WLAN and Fortinet Wireless LAN are common alternatives for Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers.
Reviewers rate Availability highest, with a score of 7.9.
The most common users of Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers are from Enterprises (1,001+ employees).
Comparisons
Compare with
Reviews and Ratings
(94)Attribute Ratings
Reviews
(1-25 of 49)Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
June 12, 2024
High uptime and reliability
We use Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers to manage access points throughout all our branches and remote sites. We have more than 4000 access points connected to a Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers.
- Redundancy feature
- Easy to upgrade
- Easy to deploy
- Maybe put a better built in dashboard
It's kind of our controller for our wireless access points. We have multiple networks on our campus, so I have multiple networks that come into it and provide internet access to, whether it be a private company or educational company, our college that we work for. So we have stuff like that that we use it for.
- I actually really like, I know this is weird, A lot of people hate it but not hate it, but network engineers don't they like CLI stuff, but I like more of the user interface for it. It's definitely way better than the past one that I had. The 5520 and it is got a lot of neat features. Show me what networks are being utilized, how much bandwidth's going through them, users and things like that. What computers connect to, what access point, things like that. That's pretty cool. That gives me enough detail. It helps me troubleshoot things very easily on a daily basis.
- Maybe some of the stuff that is on the device itself for me is a network engineer and I'm CCNA certified and I like to delve into different things. But I would say certain things that if I want to implement, there's a lot of different options that I'm kind of like I'll be going through the menu on the user interface especially and be like, I don't really know what that does. I can go research it a little bit or maybe I've heard about it but I don't really know how to implement it. Maybe provide some type of guides. I know they have some guides online for it, but maybe some walkthroughs, some video walkthroughs maybe on how to, maybe this piece can be implemented, what it's for, things like that. Or have tutorials on the device itself to show you, hey, this is what we use this for, do you need this? Or things like that.
June 11, 2024
9800 Catalyst WLC Review
We use this product to manage our wireless network and to assist users in troubleshooting with issues. It helps us give a central point of management so that we are not having to individually manage these devices and also helps us give overall metrics on usage and things like that for the universe.
- One thing that I think the product does well is the structure and flow of tagging and configuring devices. That's probably my favorite feature with it. It's very straightforward and you can easily manage all your devices at once.
- Room for improvement. We tend to update our firmware as soon as possible. We have hit a lot of various bugs and things that were caught in testing, but we're still pushed out live.
- The sorting and searching of access points in the software could use some work essentially, especially cap sensitive things and things like that can be a little irritating to use.
We have implemented a Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers in multiple deployments at our customers. The size ranges from smaller remote offices to large campuses. The Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers are very flexible with the new possibilities to use tags and different profiles depending on the needs. Large deployments with more than 1000 APs are configured in a breeze. The implementation of the Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers into the Cisco Catalyst Control Center brings forth new possibilities with smarter designs and less configurations drifts. Templates and better AI powered automated WiFi RF settings mark the way to go.
- New way of doing the configuration - tag based
- Neat interaction with Cisco Catalyst Center
- Multiple ways to interact with and monitor the controller
- Rich telemetry options
- Menu structure could be improved
- Limited troubleshooting possibilities without Cisco Catalyst Center
- AP image download speed is not consistent
June 07, 2024
I'm a happy user
We used it for Wi-fi connectivity on all sites.
- Internet access
- AP management
- Users visualization
June 07, 2024
Happy Camper
I use Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers at various locations to provide WiFi for back-of-house, IoT, Guest access, etc.
- Easy setup
- Great interface and built-in tools
- Great integration with other networking elements
- HA setup can be a little daunting
We have two Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers supporting three thousand wireless access points. We use profiles and tags to apply different policies, as well as staff, student, guests, and event vlans. We have two controllers to divide up our access points and policies between 52+ school campuses. We are also using Cisco Prime.
- Policies
- Tags
- Rogue AP identification
- Dissociated AP identification
- Running reports is terribly unintuitive
- Exporting reports is clunky
- Navigating the UI can be difficult if you haven't used it in a while
We use it for wifi for our staff and students to connect to the network. It allows them to connect to the internet to access the internet.
- Interface
- Connectivity
- AP management
- WNCD
- CSV rename APs
- Mobility
June 05, 2024
My Cisco review
I have 4 controllers in the company with around 120 access points connected to them. <br>We have 2 main buildings and want to communicate them. <br>We were using the Cisco 5520 Controller but it got in end of support and then we migrated to 9800 virtual controller. I can use the old access points and new ones too.
- Plain control of the ambient
- Confiability
- reliability
- Should be easier to configure
June 04, 2024
Wireless in K12 Education
For a school district, students and teachers use the wireless on a day to day basis. We are 1 to 1 on student and staff devices so we have over 60k devices constantly on the wireless network. The Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers help us keep all those devices connected while being mobile.
- Wireless Policy Tags
- SSID WLAN creation
- RRM RF calculations
- Code bugs between different model access points
- Static tags for static tag list show mac address instead of AP name
- TAC customer experience
We use the Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers to manage and configure all of our lightweight access points. This new controller allows us to easily update and monitor all of our access points and connected clients.
- Monitoring details of each AP
- Live troubleshooting
- Easily update tags
- Reporting
- Searching for clients and APs
- Alert dashboard
June 04, 2024
Honest review
Could be more backwards compatible
- Radio management
- Ease of day 0
- Older model support to large campus migrations
Used for wireless access for company clients.
- AP management
- Troubeshooting
- Metrics
- Integration with DNAC
- App visibility
- Alerting organization
Main controllers for campus WIFI. Central management of all APs, both local and flexconnect.
- Wireless profiles
- Client Troubleshooting
- ISSU Upgrades
- AP support
February 08, 2024
Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers review.
Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers replaced Cisco Wireless Airos. With the implementation of SD-WAN and improved reliability of connections from branches to DC, we eliminated local wireless controllers and consolidated all capwap connection to controller located in the DataCenter. WiFI service is crucial for us, in some locations we have reduced cable connections and we use "Wireless First". We have increased the number of Access Points to also connect IoT and IIoT devices located in our factories to the network. We test automatic robots in factories that use our WiFi network to communicate. The WiFi controller works in SSO mode and we want to use the controller installed in the Cloud as a "backup".
- Easy configuration based on profiles and tags
- Patching controller and Access Points with HA - no downtime for service
- Managed by Catalyst Center
- Azure cloud is not supported. Issue with the communication with radius sever.
February 06, 2024
Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers review
We are migrating from AireOs controllers. We use 9115 APs and industrial APs. We use wifi underground for mining and it's been a very nice experience compared to the old wlcs. We are pleased with the ease of use of the GUI and the new tag approach.
- AP provisioning
- Wifi 6/6e
- Analytics
- Interoperability with the old wlcs
- Include 2600 aps
- Improve on sso switch over stability
February 05, 2024
Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers review
We use it to deploy our wireless infrastructure. Our organization wants all employees to use Wi-Fi as our main way to connect to services.
- Configuration
- Insight
- Operations without down time
- Migration from aireos
- Better guides for virtual appliances
February 05, 2024
If there is a problem with the controller all network has to suffer
There are problems with the VM, but the Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers's hardware versions are good
- AP adoption
- AP upgrade
- Site management
- The VM can have some normal specs needed
- You can increase the free space
- The debug should be more detailed
December 22, 2023
Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers needs some work
Our Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers provide:
- centralised configuration of our wireless access points
- centralised traffic flow
- support for over 12000 APs
- support for over 60000 users
- centralised configuration of our wireless access points
- centralised traffic flow
- support for over 12000 APs
- support for over 60000 users
- Compartmentalised configuration
- High availability
- Poor monitoring options
- Site management is clunky but critical
December 09, 2023
Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers review
Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers is used to manage more than 1300 APs around 3 main campuses. Devices using WiFi are increasing and this leads to signal degradation and coverage issues.
- Onboading
- Tunnelling
- Tagging
- During the upgrades it should show that a chassis is about to restart or the restart hasn't happened as expected
- Onboarding on batches of WAPs
June 29, 2023
Great WLC
We moved to two 9800 controllers about two years ago, replacing two 5520 WLCs. We are currently running two C9800s in high availability, and using them to manage 1300+ Cisco Aironet APs and WiFi access for 8000+ users in 84 buildings and outdoors.
- Easily manages a large number of APs.
- It can push out settings or a new OS to a large group of APs at once.
- The GUI is very intuitive, and follows the model Cisco has created for many of their products.
- It integrates well with our ISE environment for handling RADIUS requests.
- Depending on the version of IOS, it can be buggy. I have had several TAC calls that resulted in applying either a work-around, or upgrading the IOS.
- The error logs are a bit difficult to use. Errors and typical user associate/disassociate logs are all lumped together, so sometimes finding what you are looking for is like finding a needle in a haystack.
- One feature I miss from Prime Infrastructure is the ability to mass-configure settings on a large group of APs. Some of this exists within this controller, but many options, like templates, were lost, and never added to DNAC.
June 14, 2023
Quick thoughts on 9800 WLC
The Cisco Ctalyst 9800 WLC provides wireless connectivity to our users. We have two for redundancy, and transistioned from Cisco 5508's.
As far as scope of use, the 9800 provides Business and Guest wireless to ~5000 employees, and ~5,000 guests daily. So far it has been great to work with, and I look forward to expanding it's deployment.
As far as scope of use, the 9800 provides Business and Guest wireless to ~5000 employees, and ~5,000 guests daily. So far it has been great to work with, and I look forward to expanding it's deployment.
- WAP Image Management
- Troubleshooting and Alerting
- Ease of provisioning new AP's
- The search bar in the top right, where you can search for an AP for example. I wish it would give the option to bring up the config version of the page instead of only the management. It's a pain to navigage to the config side of things, and manually search for the AP
- Also related to my above note, when using the menu for search it's not super intuitive
June 09, 2023
Wireless Guru
Mainly use it as wireless management and controlling, I like the telemetry feature via DNAC to get more client performance insight as well as easy deployment on access points
- Enhanced deployment and mitigating new AP join and does not automatically advertise first 16 SSID unlike AIROS
- More client performance status and assurance to detail user performance and pinpoint
- Easy patching
- when you filter APs or client it clears the filter, wish it stays till you clear it by you.
- sometimes GUI and CLI do not sync real time that may need improvement
We use it to connect Wireless APs over multiple site locations to support up to 5000 personal
- Easy interface
- Easy setup
- NA
June 08, 2023
Cisco 9800 Wireless survey
we use them in mixture of manufacturing and warehouses. They are much easier to configure then AirOS models. Like the added troubleshooting capabilities.
- troubleshooting
- ability to sort by columns
- iOS commands
- explinations that svi are not need for all vlans
- Mapping of dependancies (policies, tags etc)
- different configurations for AP join