Campus lan and Wireless lan solution Design Guide

Table 2.
 
WLAN controller platforms 
Platform 
Deployment 
Mode 
Preferred 
Topology 
Maximum APs 
Maximum 
Clients 
Controller 
Throughput 
Cisco Catalyst 
9800-80 
Centralized, 
FlexConnect, 
or SD-Access 
Large Campus 
6,000 
64,000 
Up to 80 Gbps 
Cisco Catalyst 
9800-40 
Centralized, 
FlexConnect, 
or SD-Access 
Medium Campus 
2,000 
32,000 
Up to 40 Gbps 
Cisco Catalyst 
9800-L 
Centralized, 
FlexConnect, 
or SD-Access 
Small Campus / 
Remote Site 
250 
5,000 
Up to 5 Gbps 

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Page 33 of 76
Platform 
Deployment 
Mode 
Preferred 
Topology 
Maximum APs 
Maximum 
Clients 
Controller 
Throughput 
Cisco Catalyst 
9800-L with 
Performance 
License 
Centralized, 
FlexConnect, 
or SD-Access 
Small Campus / 
Remote Site 
500 
10,000 
Up to 9 Gbps 
Cisco Catalyst 
9800 embedded 
on Cisco Catalyst 
9000 Series 
Switches 
SD-Access 
SD-Access Small 
Distributed Site 
200 
4,000 
— 
(local switching) 
Cisco Catalyst 
9800 Embedded 
on Catalyst 9100 
Series Access 
Points (EWC) 
Local Switching 
Small Remote Site 100 
2,000 
— 
(local switching) 
Cisco Catalyst 
9800-CL for
Public Cloud 
FlexConnect with 
Local Switching 
Virtual Controller 
for Small Remote 
Sites 
1,000,
3,000, or 
6,000 
10,000,
32,000, or 
64,000 
— 
(local switching) 
Cisco Catalyst 
9800-CL for 
Private Cloud 
Centralized, 
FlexConnect, 
or SD-Access 
Virtual controller 
for Small, Medium, 
or Large Sites 
1,000,
3,000 (central), or 
6,000 
(FlexConnect) 
10,000,
32,000 (central), or 
64,000 
(FlexConnect) 
Up to 2.1 Gbps 
with Central 
Switching (IOS XE 
17.1 and higher) 
Additional scale numbers, including maximum Site Tags, Flex APs per site, Policy Tags, RF tags, RF Profiles, Policy Profiles, 
and Flex Profiles can be found in the datasheets of individual wireless controller platforms. 
Because software license flexibility allows you to add additional APs when requirements of an organization 
change, you can choose the controller that will support your needs long term, but you purchase incremental 
access point licenses only when you need them. 
Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series configuration model 
The Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series wireless controller configuration data model is based on design principles of 
reusability, simplified provisioning, enhanced flexibility and modularization to help manage networks as they 
scale up and simplify the management of dynamically changing business and IT requirements. The 
configuration model maps APs to three types of tags - policy tags, site tags, and RF tags.

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Page 34 of 76
 
Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series configuration model 
Figure 22. 
Wireless clients and APs derive their configurations from the profiles contained within the tags. The properties 
of a tag are defined by the policies defined within profiles associated with the tag. Profiles represent a set of 
attributes that are applied to the wireless clients associated to the APs or to the APs themselves. Profiles are 
reusable entities that can be used across tags.
Policy tags 
Policy tags define the broadcast domain (list of WLANs to be broadcast) within the policies of the respective 
SSIDs. For ease of deployment, tags can be assigned based on location and filter, as opposed to statically 
assigning tags. Policy tags are associated with a WLAN profile and a policy profile—each with their respective 
attributes shown in the figure below.