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WLC 4402 vs 2821 ISR with controller card

joneschw1
Level 1
Level 1

Hello everyone, I just want to get everyone's opinion on which way to go for a wireless controller. Basically, I am deploying a wireless N environment. As a result, I either have to get a 4400 series controller or a Cisco 2821 router with the controller card. I only need to control 6 devices, but my problem is that the 2106 WLC or the 2811 router only has 100mb ethernet. This would bottle neck my wireless N speeds so I want to go with a gigabit controller solution. SO, the big question is would you all reccomend the 4400 WLC or the Cisco 2821 ISR router with the wireless controller card? If you have a particular reason for going one way or the other, I'd appreciate that as well.

5 Replies 5

ericgarnel
Level 7
Level 7

You answer your own question in terms of bottleneck. Another option would be an isr router with a gig interface such as the 3845.

My preference would be to go with the controller

Yeah, the 2821 has gig interfaces as well and my pricing is about the same. Why do you prefer the controller route?

Leo Laohoo
Hall of Fame
Hall of Fame

I agree with everyone else. WLC is a preferred option because if your router dies or requires a hardware maintenance, your AP's and/or WLAN will be down.

The 2100, on the other hand, have limitations. One of which is Link Aggregation. Only the WLC and the WiSM support LAG.

gamccall
Level 4
Level 4

The WLM is basically a 2106 on a card. I have not configured or played with one of these things, but I would very carefully doublecheck to verify how fast the backplane connection is on that thing- i.e. does it cap out at 100 megs too?

Also, network uplink speed is not the only performance limitation on these things. They don't handle multicast well, they can't act as a mobility anchor, etc. The 4400 is a much more capable box in many different ways.

Cisco 2821 has a 87 Mbps backplane throughput.

2851 = 112Mbps

3825 = 179Mbps

3845 = 256Mbps

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