Cisco Aironet 3800 Series Access Points

The Cisco^® Aironet^® 3800 Series Wi-Fi access points are highly versatile and deliver the most functionality of any access points in the industry.

Product overview

For organizations paving the way for the new 802.11ac Wave 2 standard, the Cisco Aironet 3800 Series is the perfect solution. The access points go beyond getting ready for the new standard, providing the ultimate in flexibility and versatility.

For large enterprise organizations that rely on Wi-Fi to engage with customers, the 3800 Series is a hands-off product that’s intelligent enough to make decisions based on end-device activities and usage. This automation allows you to devote time to other pressing matters, secure in the knowledge that your Wi-Fi network is performing to its utmost potential.

The Aironet 3800 Series is packed with the features and capabilities that have made Cisco the industry leader, at a price point that is ideal for managing wireless growth, capacity, and coverage gaps in dense indoor environments.

With the 3800 Series, you can secure remote workers or the micro-office. Any Cisco Aironet or Catalyst access point can function as an OfficeExtend Access Point (OEAP). With an OEAP, an employee at home or in a temporary micro-office will have access to the corporate SSID and the corporate network without the need to set up a VPN or have any advanced technical know-how.

Cisco User Defined Network, a feature available in Cisco DNA Center, allows IT to give end users control of their very own wireless network partition on a shared network. End users can then remotely and securely deploy their devices on this network. Perfect for university dormitories or extended hospital stays, Cisco User Defined Network grants both device security and control, allowing each user to choose who can connect to their network. (Available second half of calendar year 2020.)

The Wi-Fi 6 readiness dashboard is a new dashboard in the Assurance menu of Cisco DNA Center. It will look through the inventory of all devices on the network and verify device, software, and client compatibility with the new Wi-Fi 6 standard. After upgrading, advanced wireless analytics will indicate performance and capacity gains as a result of the Wi-Fi 6 deployment. This is an incredible tool that will help your team define where and how the wireless network should be upgraded. It will also give you insights into the access point distribution by protocol (802.11 ac/n/abg), wireless airtime efficiency by protocol, and granular performance metrics.

Features and benefits

802.11ac Wave 2 and beyond

The Aironet 3800 Series extends 802.11ac speed and features to a new generation of smartphones, tablets, and high-performance laptops, providing a greater end-user experience. Whether your project involves wholesale changes to your current wireless network or upgrading your legacy Wi-Fi deployments (802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wave 1 deployments), the Aironet 3800 Series can handle the job.

The Aironet 3800 Series supports 802.11ac Wave 2, providing a theoretical connection rate of up to 5.2 Gbps—that’s roughly four times the rate offered by today’s high-end 802.11ac access points. The boost helps you stay ahead of the performance and bandwidth expectations of today’s mobile worker, who usually uses multiple Wi-Fi devices instead of just one. As such, users are adding proportionally larger traffic loads to the wireless LAN, which has outpaced Ethernet as the default enterprise access network.

Cisco DNA Support

Pairing the 3800 Series access points with the Cisco Digital Network Architecture (Cisco DNA) allows for a total network transformation. Cisco DNA allows you to truly understand your network with real-time analytics, quickly detect and contain security threats, and easily provide networkwide consistency through automation and virtualization. By decoupling network functions from the hardware, you can build and manage your entire wired and wireless network from a single user interface.

Working together, the 3800 Series and Cisco DNA offer such features as:

●      Flexible Radio Assignment

●      Cisco Connected Mobile Experiences

●      Cisco High Density Experience

●      Fast Lane

●      Cisco Identity Services Engine

●      And much more

The result? Your network stays relevant, becomes digital-ready, and is the lifeblood of your organization.

High-density experience

Building on the Cisco Aironet heritage of RF excellence, the Cisco Aironet 3800 Series Access Points run on a purpose-built, innovative chipset with a best-in-class RF architecture. This chipset provides a

high-density experience for enterprise networks designed for mission-critical, high-performance applications. The 3800 Series is part of Cisco’s flagship portfolio of 802.11ac-enabled access points, delivering a robust mobility experience. It features 802.11ac Wave 2 with 4×4 MU-MIMO technology supporting three spatial streams. MU-MIMO enables access points to split spatial streams between client devices, to maximize throughput.

With two radios built into each access point, the Aironet 3800 Series is more versatile than any access point currently on the market. These radios are outfitted with Flexible Radio Assignment, which means that the access points automatically self-optimize to better serve the environment. For example, one of the radios broadcasts its signal on the 5-GHz channel and the other sends out a 2.4-GHz signal. The access point understands the wireless environment and will automatically switch the 2.4-GHz signal to a 5-GHz signal, increasing the reliability of your customers’ Wi-Fi use. This setting automatically works in reverse too: the access point can recognize that the RF environment has changed and revert back to its original configuration.

The 3800 Series also dynamically changes the radio settings based on the wireless environment. The access point will allow one of the radios to operate in Wireless Security Monitoring mode, allowing you to detect wireless security threats and interference and combat rogue access. This valuable information can be culled in an easy-to-understand matrix to inform you about your wireless users. Flexible Radio Assignment also allows you to convert a radio into Wireless Service Assurance mode, providing proactive health monitoring of the network.

●      Optimized access point roaming helps ensure that client devices associate with the access point in their coverage range that offers the fastest data rate available

●      Cisco ClientLink 4.0 improves downlink performance to all mobile devices, including one-, two-, and three-spatial-stream devices on 802.11a/b/g/n/ac. At the same time, the technology improves battery life on mobile devices

●      Cisco CleanAir is technology enhanced with 160-MHz channel support. It delivers proactive, high-speed spectrum intelligence across 20-, 40-, and 80-, and 160-MHz-wide channels to combat performance problems due to wireless interference

●      MIMO equalization capabilities optimize uplink performance and reliability by reducing the impact of signal fade

●      Apple roaming features such as 802.11r Fast Transition, 802.11v BSS Transition, and Assisting Roaming enables Cisco WLAN to provide an optimal Wi-Fi roaming experience to Apple devices

Modular architecture

The 3800 Series carries forward the modular architecture first introduced with the Aironet 3600 Series, providing unparalleled investment protection for forward-looking modular solutions. The 3800 Series delivers an enhanced second-generation modular architecture in the following ways:

●      Moving the module connection from the bottom to the side of the access point. This allows for easier addition and removal of a module without having to dismount the access point and also allows for flexibility in module design with respect to size and appropriate antenna placement.

●      Increasing the power available to a module to 18W, providing additional flexibility for future module solutions.

●      The Cisco Aironet Developer Platform framework works in tandem with the Aironet 3800 Series as the perfect solution, allowing your network to work for you. Modularity brings intent-based networking to the edge, customizing your ability to tackle new use cases and emerging technology standards, so that your deployments are ready for the future. The Cisco Aironet Developer Platform program transforms the access point into a powerful development platform for mobility and IoT convergence.

●      The Cisco Beacon Point Module is the virtual beacon solution that is leading the way in the indoor location-based services space. Cisco technology brings both easy deployment and superior location accuracy to the industry. All it takes to move a virtual beacon is a mouse click and technologies that can identify assets from 1 to 3 meters away. The Cisco Beacon Point Module is the perfect add-on to augment your Cisco Aironet 3800 Series Access Point and will strengthen your wireless network. This solution is well suited to industries such as retail (properly engage customers), healthcare (accurately track assets), and offices (optimize workspaces).

As wireless LAN continues to grow as the dominant method of connecting to private and public networks, the access point becomes a perfect integration point into an enterprise corporate network or carrier service network for a wide variety of solutions. Companies can use a single Ethernet cable drop from their wired network to provide high-speed network access and also typically for Power over Ethernet (PoE) to the access point and solutions that are integrated with and interconnected through the 3800 Series access points.

Product specifications

Licensing

In order to connect any access points to the controller, Cisco DNA software subscriptions are required. To be entitled to connect to a Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controller, the access point requires a Cisco DNA subscription license.

Access points connecting to a Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series controller have new and simplified software subscription packages.

They can support three tiers of Cisco DNA software: Cisco DNA Essentials, Cisco DNA Advantage or Cisco DNA Premier.

Cisco DNA software subscriptions provide Cisco innovations on the access point. They also include perpetual Network Essentials and Network Advantage licensing options, which cover wireless fundamentals such as 802.1X authentication, Quality of Service (QoS), and Plug and Play (PnP); telemetry and visibility; and Single Sign-On (SSO), as well as security controls.

Cisco DNA subscription software has to be purchased for a 3-, 5-, or 7-year subscription term. If not renewed by the end of the term, Cisco DNA features will expire, whereas Network Essentials and Network Advantage features will remain.

For the full feature list of Cisco DNA Software, including the perpetual Network Essentials and Network Advantage, please see the feature matrix:

https://www.cisco.com/c/m/en_us/products/software/dna-subscription-wireless/en-sw-sub-matrix-wireless.html?oid=porew018984

Two modes of licensing are available:

●      Smart Licensing (SL) simplifies and adds flexibility to licensing. It is:

◦    Simple: Procure, deploy, and manage licenses easily. Devices self-register, removing the need for Product Activation Keys (PAKs).

◦    Flexible: Pool license entitlements in a single account. Move licenses freely through the network, wherever you need them.

◦    Smart: Manage your license deployments with real-time visibility into ownership and consumption.

●      Specific License Reservation (SLR) is a feature used in highly secure networks. It provides a method for customers to deploy a software license on a device (product instance) without communicating usage information to Cisco. There is no communication with Cisco or a satellite. The licenses are reserved for every controller. It is node-based licensing.

Four levels of license are supported on the Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers. The controllers can be configured to function at any one of the four levels.

●      Cisco DNA Essentials: At this level the Cisco DNA Essentials feature set will be supported.

●      Cisco DNA Advantage: At this level the Cisco DNA Advantage feature set will be supported.

●      NE: At this level the Network Essentials feature set will be supported.

●      NA: At this level the Network Advantage feature set will be supported.

Cisco DNA Premier is a bundle with ISE licenses and Cisco DNA Spaces Extend. It is inclusive of Cisco DNA Advantage, so at this level the Cisco DNA Advantage feature set will be supported. For customers who purchase Cisco DNA Essentials, Network Essentials will be supported and will continue to function even after term expiration. And for customers who purchase Cisco DNA Advantage or Cisco DNA Premier, Network Advantage will be supported and will continue to function even after term expiration.

Initial bootup of the controller will be at the Cisco DNA Advantage level.

For questions, contact the Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers Licensing mailer group at ask-catalyst9800licensing

Warranty information

The Cisco Aironet 3800 Series Access Points come with a limited lifetime warranty that provides full warranty coverage of the hardware for as long as the original end user continues to own or use the product. The warranty includes 10-day advance hardware replacement and ensures that software media are defect-free for 90 days. For more details, visit https://www.cisco.com/go/warranty.

Cisco environmental sustainability

Information about Cisco’s environmental sustainability policies and initiatives for our products, solutions, operations, and extended operations or supply chain is provided in the “Environment Sustainability” section of Cisco’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Report.

Reference links to information about key environmental sustainability topics (mentioned in the “Environment Sustainability” section of the CSR Report) are provided in the following table:

Cisco makes the packaging data available for informational purposes only. It may not reflect the most current legal developments, and Cisco does not represent, warrant, or guarantee that it is complete, accurate, or up to date. This information is subject to change without notice.

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