Introduction

The purpose of this document is to provide an overview of the Cisco Catalyst 9800-40 and 9800-80 Wireless Controller Series, and their deployment within the Cisco Digital Network Architecture.

Prerequisites

Requirements

There are no specific requirements for this document.

Components Used

This document is not restricted to specific software and hardware versions.

The information in this document was created from the devices in a specific lab environment. All of the devices used in this document started with a cleared (default) configuration. If your network is live, make sure that you understand the potential impact of any command.

Conventions

Refer to Cisco Technical Tips Conventions for more information on document conventions.

Product Overview

The explosion of mobile clients in enterprise empowered by bring your own device (BYOD), the deployment of wireless in mission-critical applications, and the adoption of Wi-Fi in service provider networks enabling new business models require wireless networks to provide larger AP Scale, client scale and higher throughput.

The new Cisco Catalyst 9800 Wireless Controllers provide support for 40 and 80 Gbps throughput with support for 2000 APs, 32000 clients and 6000 APs and 64000 clients respectively to ensure better performance and scale for business-critical networks.

The table below captures some of the key hardware capabilities of this new platforms.


	C9800-40-K9	C9800-80-K9
Form Factor	1 RU	2 RU
IO Interface	4 x 10G/1G with LAG	BUILT-IN-6x10GE/2x1GE or 10GE
Operating Temperature	Nominal 32° to 104° (0° to 40°C) Short Term 32° to 131° (0° to +55°C)	Nominal 32° to 104° (0° to 40°C) Short Term 32° to 122° (0° to 50°C)
Operating Humidity	Nominal 10% to 90% non-condensing Short Term 5% to 90% non-condensing	Nominal 10% to 90% non-condensing Short Term 5% to 90% non-condensing
Operating Altitude	198 to 13,200 Feet (60 to 4000 Meters)	198 to 13,200 Feet (60 to 4000 Meters)
Power Options	1100W AC w/ Optional Redundant PSU ( hot-swappable)
AC/DC Input Range	-40.5 to -72 VDC with 48V DC PEM 85 to 264 VAC with AC PEM	Maximum (DC): 750 W Maximum (AC): 750 W Maximum (Out): 450 W

Controller Key Attributes


	Catalyst C9800-40-K9	Catalyst C9800-80-K9
Deployment Modes	Centralized (Local), Distributed Branch (FlexConnect) , SD-Access Wireless (Fabric)	Centralized (Local), Distributed Branch (FlexConnect), SD-Access Wireless (Fabric)
Maximum Scale	2000 APs 32000 Clients	6000 APs 64000 Clients
Connectivity	4x10G ports	8x10G ports
Maximum Number of Rogue APs Management	8000	24000
Maximum Number of Rogue Clients Management	16000	32000
Maximum number of local users	32000	64000
Maximum Number of RFID	32000	64000
Maximum VLANs Supported	4096	4096
Maximum WLANs Supported	4096	4096
Fast Secure Roaming Clients/Max PMK Cache	64000	128000
Maximum number of sleeping clients	32000	64000
Maximum number of web-authentication clients	32000	64000
Maximum number of APs per RRM group	4000	12000
Maximum AP Join Profile	1000	1000
Maximum Flex Profile	2000	6000
Maximum Policy Profile	1000	1000
Maximum RF Profiles	4000	12000
Maximum Site Tags	2000	6000
Maximum RF Tags	2000	6000
Maximum Policy Tags	2000	6000

AP Platform Support

The Cisco Catalyst 9800 Wireless Controller C9800-40-K9 and C9800-80-K9 supports the following 11ax, 11ac Wave 1 and Wave 2 Access Point models:

9115AX, 9117AX, 9120AX (AP Device pack in release 16.11)
AP18xx, 2802, 3802, 1540, 1560
1700, 2700, 3700, 1570

Image Specifications

Cisco Catalyst 9800 Wireless Controllers support all the features of Cisco Catalyst Wireless software release 16.10.

Cisco Catalyst 9800 Wireless Controller Series: C9800-40-K9

Front Panel View

Cisco C9800-40-K9 Wireless Controller supports several LED indicators, and external interfaces on the front panel.

Figure 1. Cisco C9800-40-K9 Wireless Controller Front View


S.No	Description
1	PWR—Power LED
2	SYS—System LED
3	ALM—Alarm LED
4	HA—High-Availability LED
5	CON—RJ-45 compatible console port
6	EN—USB console-enabled LED
7	CON—Mini USB console port
8	USB ports 0 and 1
9	SP—RJ-45 10/100/1000 management Ethernet port
10	RP—RJ-45 10/100/1000 redundancy Ethernet port
11	RP—1-GE SFP port (The only supported SFPs on RP port are : GLC-SX-MMD and GLC-LH-SMD)
12	LINK—RJ-45 connector LED
13	SSD—SSD activity LED
14	TE0—1-GE SFP/ 10-GE SFP+ Port 0
15	TE1—1-GE SFP/ 10-GE SFP+ Port 1
16	TE2—1-GE SFP/ 10-GE SFP+ Port 2
17	TE3—1-GE SFP/ 10-GE SFP+ Port 3

By default, the interfaces from 0 - 3 in the Cisco C9800-40-K9 Wireless Controller are enabled.

Detail on Redundancy Ports

If both the Redundancy Ports are connected,

SFP Gigabit Ethernet port takes precedence if they are connected at same time.
There is no change if SFP port is connected after HA is up over RJ-45 port.
HA between these two links is not supported.
Only Cisco supported SFPs (GLC-LH-SMD and GLC-SX-MMD) are supported for RP port.
When HA link is up via RJ-45, SFPs on HA port should not be inserted even if there is no link between them. As it is a physical level detection, this would cause the HA to go down as precedence is given to SFP.

Built-In SFP and SFP+ Ports

The following figure shows the port numbering for the built-in ports.

Figure 2. Cisco C9800-40-K9 Wireless Controller Port Numbering

The port LEDs behave as follows:

Off—Indicates the port is not enabled by software.
Amber—Indicates the port is enabled by software but there is a problem with the link.
Green—Indicates the port is enabled by software and there is valid link.

Supported SFP and SFP+

Network ports for this controller support the following Cisco SFP/SFP+ modules:

SFP

GLC-BX-D
GLC-BX-U
GLC-LH-SMD
GLC-SX-MMD
GLC-ZX-SMD
GLC-TE

SFP+

SFP-10G-SR
SFP-10G-SR-X
SFP-10G-LR
SFP-10G-LRM
SFP-10G-LR-X
SFP-10G-ER
SFP-10G-ZR
SFP-H10GB-ACU7M
SFP-H10GB-ACU10M
DWDM-SFP10G-30.33 –DWDM-SFP10G-61.41

Note

SFP-GE-S, SFP-GE-L and SFP-GE-Z are End-of-Sale, and will not be officially supported.
10G ports will operate in 1GE mode but will not support operation at 10/100M. Hence the 10G ports will not support the following SFPs for 10/100M:
- GLC-GE-100FX=
- SFP-GE-T
- GLC-TE

Management LEDs and Behavior

The following figure shows LEDs on the front panel of the Cisco C9800-40-K9 Wireless Controller.

Figure 3. Cisco C9800-40-K9 Wireless Controller LEDs

LED Label

Description

LED Color

Behavior

PWR

Power

Green

If all the power rails are based on the specification.

SYS

System

Remains ON during IOS boot complete.

Blinking Green

Remains blinking when IOS booting is in progress.

Amber

Remains ON during system crash.

Blinking Amber

Remains blinking during secure boot failure

Off

Remains OFF during ROMMON boot.

ALM

Alarm

Green

Remains ON during ROMMON boot complete.

Blinking Green

Remains blinking when system upgrade is in progress.

Amber

Remains ON during ROMMON and SYSTEM boot ups.

Blinking Amber

Remains blinking during temperature error and secure boot failure.

Red

Indicates that the system detects critical warnings.

Note

The show facility-alarm status command denotes system alarms.

Off

Normal operation.

High Availability

Green

Remains ON when HA is active.

Blinking Green

Remains blinking when HA Standby Hot.(Future)

Amber

Blinks slowly when booted or HA Standby Cold. (Future)

Blinks Fast

Blinks fast during HA maintenance. (Future)

USB console enabled

Green

Indicates that the mini USB connector is used as the console.

LINK

Management

Solid Green

Indicates that the RJ-45 connector is not used as the console.

Flash Green

Indicates that the RJ-45 connector is being used as the console.

Built-in ports (1 SFP + Port Status of 4 LEDs with 1 per SFP) Off

Off

Indicates that the port is not enabled.

Amber

Port enabled with a problem in the Ethernet link.

Green

Port enabled with a valid Ethernet link.

SSD

SSD Activity

Green

Remains ON during the SSD activity.

Rear Panel View

The following figure shows the rear of the Cisco C9800-40-K9 Wireless Controller.

Figure 4. Cisco C9800-40-K9 Wireless Controller Rear View


1	Fans
2	Power supply (PEM 1)
3	Power supply (PEM 0)
4	Power/standby switch


Power Supply Condition	Green (OK) LED Status	Amber (FAIL) LED Status
No AC power to all power supplies	OFF	OFF
Power Supply Failure (includes over voltage, over current, over temperature and fan failure)	OFF	Red for Power Supply Failure Amber for Fan Failure
Power Supply Warning events where the power supply continues to operate (high temperature, high power and slow fan)	OFF	1Hz Blinking
AC Present/3.3VSB on (PSU OFF)	1Hz Blinking	OFF
Power Supply ON and OK	ON	OFF

Fans

The chassis has a front-to-rear airflow. Six internal fans draw cooling air into the chassis and across internal components to maintain an acceptable operating temperature. The fans are numbered from 0 to 5, right to left. The system is designed to operate indefinitely even if one of the fans fail. To reduce noise and power and increase fan lifetime, the speed of fans is automatically adjusted based on chassis inlet temperature. In the event of a single fan failure, all remaining fans will be increased to 100% fan speed account for the failed fan. However, multiple fan failures may result in over temperature and shut down.

Power Supply

Two power supplies (AC) are accessed from the rear of the controller and are hot-swappable. The Cisco C9800-40-K9 Wireless Controller supports AC power supply. The modular chassis configurations support the installation of two power supplies for redundancy. When an external power supply fails or is removed, the other power supply provides power requirements for the chassis. This allows you to hot-swap the power supply without impacting the functionality of the controller.

Power Supply LEDs

The following table describes the power supply LEDs.


Power Supply Condition	Green (OK) LED Status	Amber (FAIL) LED
No AC power to all power supplies	OFF	OFF
Power Supply Failure (includes over voltage, over current, over temperature and fan failure)	OFF	ON
Power Supply Warning events where the power supply continues to operate (high temperature, high power and slow fan)	OFF	1 Hz Blinking


Power Supply Condition	Green (OK) LED Status	Amber (FAIL) LED
AC Present/3.3VSB on (PSU OFF)	1Hz Blinking	OFF
Power Supply ON and OK	ON	OFF

Power Supply Fans

The fans in the power supply module are used for cooling the power supply module itself while system-level cooling is provided by fans within the chassis. The power supplies do not depend on the system-level fans for cooling. Fan failure is determined by fan-rotation sensors.

Note

The fans in the Wireless Controller power supplies have plug-side exhaust airflow.
The chassis has a front-to-rear airflow. All of the power supplies and fan modules in the same chassis must use the same airflow direction or an error will occur with possible overheating and shut down of the controller. If you power up the controller with more than one airflow direction, you must power down the controller and replace the modules with the wrong airflow direction before powering up the controller.

Field Replaceable Units

Cisco C9800-40-K9 Wireless Controller shall have a minimal amount of separate orderable items, including all of the following:

AC Power Supplies
Rack mount bracket kit

Cisco Catalyst 9800 Wireless Controller Series: C9800-80-K9

The Cisco C9800-80-K9 Wireless Controller is a 100G wireless controller that occupies two rack unit space and supports a pluggable Module slot, and eight built-in 10GE/1GE interfaces.