Description

Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Wireless Services Module expansion module

The Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Wireless Services Module (WiSM) provides unparalleled security, mobility, redundancy, and ease of use for business-critical wireless LANs (WLANs). It delivers the most secure wireless system available for enterprise-scale WLANs. As a Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series module, it delivers centralized security policies, wireless intrusion prevention system (IPS) capabilities, award-winning RF management, quality of service (QoS), and Layer 3 fast secure roaming for WLANs. As a key component of the Cisco Unified Wireless Network, the Cisco WiSM provides the control, security, redundancy, and reliability that network managers need to scale and manage their wireless networks as easily as they scale and manage their traditional wired networks.

The Cisco WiSM is a member of the Cisco Wireless LAN Controller family. It works in conjunction with Cisco Aironet lightweight access points, the Cisco Wireless Control System (WCS) and the Cisco Wireless Location Appliance to support mission-critical wireless data, voice, and video applications. It provides real-time communication between lightweight access points and other WLAN controllers to deliver a secure and unified wireless solution.

The Cisco WiSM smoothly integrates into existing Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series enterprise networks. It communicates using the emerging Lightweight Access Point Protocol (LWAPP) standard to establish secure connectivity between access points and modules across Layer 3 networks. This protocol enables the automation of important WLAN configuration and management functions for cost-effective WLAN operations. With this integrated approach to large-scale wireless networking, customers can realize significant total cost of ownership benefits by streamlining support costs and reducing planned and unplanned network downtime.

The Cisco WiSM scales to deliver secure, enterprise wireless access to main, branch, and remote campuses. It is designed for medium-sized and large enterprise facilities with clustering capabilities of up to 3600 lightweight access points per roaming domain. It scales to 300 lightweight access points per module with support for 10,000+ wireless client devices. For even greater scalability, the Cisco WiSM can be deployed in conjunction with other Cisco wireless LAN controllers.