* Cisco and partner development aimed at controller architecture
If your company uses Cisco’s legacy wireless LAN components – autonomous access points that run Cisco IOS Software – and you want the benefits of the unified wired-wireless security system Cisco is building, you’d best be thinking about migrating to the company’s thin-AP, controller-based architecture.
As noted last time, Cisco has been busy integrating the security components embedded in Cisco wired networks with its WLANs in a unified manner intended to streamline security services for IT administrators. The integration, called the Cisco Secure Wireless Solution, pertains only to controller-based architectures, and applies wired security features, such as firewalling and Layer 4-7 intrusion prevention, to WLAN traffic without requiring users to log in separately to each network segment.
In the meantime, AirMagnet has come out this week with a Cisco-specific version of its Enterprise Analyzer, aimed also exclusively at the Cisco controller-based WLANs. Enterprise Analyzer for Cisco was designed with cooperation from Cisco, says Wade Williamson, AirMagnet product manager, and “doesn’t apply to autonomous APs, but works with Cisco APs that support [Lightweight Access Point Protocol] and Cisco controllers.”
Enterprise Analyzer for Cisco is an additive to the RF management capabilities in Cisco controllers and its Wireless Control System (WCS). Using it entails installing AirMagnet’s AirWISE software on a PC that connects to a controller by an IP address and login. It requires no changes to the AP infrastructure, Williamson says, except for Cisco APs to operate in sniffer mode. The software replicates the streams seen by Cisco controllers and enables wireless troubleshooters to use the AirMagnet user interface and get AirMagnet WLAN reports.
Meanwhile, other support for Cisco legacy APs seems to be evaporating. The Wireless LAN Services Module (WLSM) for the Cisco Catalyst 6500 series switches, introduced in the spring of 2004 for providing RF management to the autonomous-AP environment, has been end-of-lifed; it will no longer be sold after mid-April.
All versions of the stand-alone Wireless LAN Solutions Engine (WLSE), the RF management control system for Cisco’s legacy environment, have been end-of-lifed, too, other than the latest – Version 2.13. But that device does appear to still be kicking.
“There are no plans to end-of-life the WLSE,” says Chris Kozup, mobility services manager at Cisco. “This is still an important solution for many of our customers who have a need to centrally manage the configuration stand-alone APs. Of course, customers will get much broader and full-featured management support by migrating to the Cisco WCS management solution. That migration is a simple process and involves a software upgrade to the WLSE which can easily turn it into a WCS.”
