Mobility Express - a new approach to small Wi-Fi networks

In the coming days, a new Cisco Aironet 1850 Series Access Point will be available to order in Russia. This is the first access point with 802.11ac support for the 2nd wave, released by the company. In addition to high data transfer rates, Cisco Aironet 1850 Series access points support Mobility Express functionality, which makes their use particularly convenient in the small and medium business segment.

Mobility Express is a wireless controller functionality that is available on the access point and allows you to take control of up to 25 Cisco access points. This functionality fundamentally changes the capabilities, performance and reliability of small Wi-Fi networks without controlling a dedicated controller (access points in standalone mode). Mobility Express is Cisco's latest step in deploying wireless controller functionality to all network elements.

Often, for smaller wireless networks, it is decided not to purchase a wireless network controller in order to save money. Usually in such organizations there is no dedicated IT specialist to support the network. As a result, 10-20 access points are installed in standalone mode without control of the controller. This Wi-Fi network has reduced performance:

• regular radio resource management (RRM) is not done, access points operate on radio channels and the power assigned to them during the installation of the network is often not optimal,
• information is not collected on the presence of interference in the air and the network is not adjusted to the most efficient state,
• when users move around the premises, their sessions may be broken due to the lack of roaming,
• the network does not balance its load and cannot provide the user with an optimal connection - some access points are overloaded, while the neighboring ones are not involved; we get the sticky client effect when the client has moved away from the access point, is connected at the minimum speed, reducing the overall network performance, but does not switch to the nearest access point, because it still “hears” the one it is already connected to ,
• the network does not control the use of its resource by applications - does not recognize them, does not prioritize, does not prohibit.

However, today the Wi-Fi network is used on a par with the wired one for critical operations that do not allow failures - connection of payment terminals, access to databases, ERP systems, CRM, access to catalogs, educational materials. With the existing level of digitalization of business processes, the needs for quality and performance of Wi-Fi in large and small businesses are almost equal.
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Mobility Express can be successfully used in the following scenarios:

• Small networks not exceeding 25 access points and 500 client devices
• Implementing 802.11ac to existing networks from multiple 802.11n access points
• Dedicated guest access network for large enterprises
• Organization of temporary Wi-Fi for events

Mobility Express will provide:

• radio resource management, i.e., assigning each access point an optimal radiated power, radio channel and radio channel width in the 5 GHz band,
• roaming user sessions between L2 access points,
• network reliability thanks to the HA (Hot Availability) mechanism, where one access point can be defined as the main controller and the other as a backup,
• application management
• simple network launch with the help of a customizer (Wizard) developed taking into account best practices for configuring Cisco wireless networks, so by selecting the default settings, the network is optimally configured,
• simple management — you can manage your network from a mobile device through the Cisco Wireless app available on the Apple Store and Google Play.

Mobility Express does not require additional costs, the functionality is activated at the start of the network. When deployed to existing networks on access points of previous series, Mobility Express can manage and manage them (you can check the list of supported models in Release notes at cisco.com).

In Mobility Express mode, traffic is handled similarly to FlexConnect mode, in which all of the useful traffic is switched directly at the access point, and only control information is exchanged with the controller.

The solution does not limit the client to further development - later, to expand the Wi-Fi network beyond 25 points, the access point with Mobility Express can be configured to control an external wireless controller, such as the WLC 2504 or the virtual Virtual Wireless Controller.

Cisco Aironet 1850 Series access points operate on 802.11ac 2-nd wave and support 4 spatial streams, reaching speeds up to 1.7 Gb / s. Multi-user MIMO support allows you to transfer information to 3 smartphones at the same time. Mobility Express is supported by Cisco Aironet 1850, 1830 Series Access Points, as well as subsequent ones in the line.

Information about Cisco Aironet 1850 Series Access Points
Mobility Express Video
On Mobility Express blogs
Answers to questions about 802.11as