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Cisco 5520 Wireless Controller vs. Cisco Aironet 1500 Series Access Points (discontinued)

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Cisco 5520 Wireless Controller

    Score8.5 out of 10
    N/AThe Cisco 5520 Series Wireless LAN Controller is a highly scalable, service-rich, resilient, and flexible platform that is ideal for medium-sized to large enterprise and campus deployments.N/A

    Cisco Aironet 1500 Series Access Points (discontinued)

    Score6.2 out of 10
    N/ACurrently supported by Cisco, but no longer sold, Cisco recommends migration to the Cisco Catalyst 9100 Family of Access Points, which offer greater performance and flexibility.N/A
    Pricing
    Cisco 5520 Wireless ControllerCisco Aironet 1500 Series Access Points (discontinued)
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Cisco 5520 Wireless ControllerCisco Aironet 1500 Series Access Points (discontinued)
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Cisco 5520 Wireless ControllerCisco Aironet 1500 Series Access Points (discontinued)
    Considered Both Products
    Cisco
    No answer on this topic
    Discontinued Products
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    92%
    Would buy again
    12 Answers
    83%
    Would buy again
    5 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    12 Answers
    80%
    Delivers good value for the price
    4 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    13 Answers
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    6 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    11 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    5 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    13 Answers
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    6 Answers
    Best Alternatives
    Cisco 5520 Wireless ControllerCisco Aironet 1500 Series Access Points (discontinued)
    Small Businesses
    WatchGuard Secure Wi-Fi Cloud
    Score9.5 out of 10
    WatchGuard Secure Wi-Fi Cloud
    Score9.5 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Cisco Aironet 1800 Series Access Points (discontinued)
    Score9.8 out of 10
    Cisco Aironet 1800 Series Access Points (discontinued)
    Score9.8 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access Points
    Score9.1 out of 10
    Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access Points
    Score9.1 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Cisco 5520 Wireless ControllerCisco Aironet 1500 Series Access Points (discontinued)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    7.1
    (13 ratings)
    8.3
    (13 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Usability
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.1
    (2 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (2 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.2
    (7 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Cisco 5520 Wireless ControllerCisco Aironet 1500 Series Access Points (discontinued)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Cisco
    At this point the Cisco 5520 Wireless Controllers are end of life as a Cisco product, so I would not recommend them to anyone looking to purchase a wireless controller for an enterprise. However, many people are still using these, and they do work reliably, even if they are a bit long in the tooth now.
    Incentivized
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    Discontinued Products
    Cisco Aironet 1550 Series Access Points is very useful for outdoor locations that are more exposed to the wilderness or the weather, which provides uninterrupted wifi access during high winds and bad weather. It also is useful for hazardous locations that are prone to danger or wildlife. Unfortunately, it would not be appropriate to get a Cisco Aironet 1550 Series Access Point if it is only needed for basic wifi use, or indoor use, as the extra features and price would not be necessary.
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    Cisco
    • It has the ability to manage all Cisco access points that we have, regardless of the model. The limit is 1500 pieces of equipment.
    • The WLC enables roaming functionality in the localities, this helps with collections, wireless IP phones, and access with notebooks.
    • The WLC manages the quality of the "air" and "signal" of the 2.4ghz frequency, avoiding noise and interference.
    • The WLC has an interesting feature of visibility of the traffic of the internal network.
    Incentivized
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    Discontinued Products
    • Outdoor mesh bridging of access points brings significant cost savings to many of our production facilities. Deploying mesh APs is a significant cost reduction over trenching conduit to connect remote areas via fiber.
    • Cisco APs are extremely resilient, with a failure rate of below 5% in some of our harshest environments.
    • Cisco APs have the intelligence to identify wireless interference sources with Clean Air technology
    Incentivized
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    Cons
    Cisco
    • We have had some issues with access points losing their configurations and going offline. This is not a common issue and we are not entirely certain if it is a fault of the controller or the individual APs. That said, the controller does not appear to retain the knowledge of the offline AP which can be a management headache.
    Incentivized
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    Discontinued Products
    • In the facilities where we operate, we had to put a reinforcement on the ceiling to avoid problems due to the weight of the access point.
    • On the appearance, it could be smaller and lighter.
    • As for the hardware, I think it's incredible, I don't see any points to improve.
    Incentivized
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    Likelihood to Renew
    Cisco
    This equipment from Cisco has been dependable and we are able to easily continue to add access points or make changes easily to the Wi-Fi password settings.
    We have been operating this equipment for a number of years and it does not give us any issues.
    Incentivized
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    Discontinued Products
    There is no other better option than this. It's the line between the commercial Cisco grade AP's and industrial ones.
    Incentivized
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    Usability
    Cisco
    Overall the usability is ok. The centralized management reduces complexibility and offers bulk features like adding access points to specific groups which automatically applies linked configurations.
    On the other hand the GUI is very outdated and some features are not displayed correctly on new browsers. Also automation possibilities are very limited compared to the new 9800 series controller.
    Incentivized
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    Discontinued Products
    Everything clear and easy to use
    Incentivized
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    Performance
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    Discontinued Products
    The Cisco Aironet 1560 Series Access Points served their function well. They were reliable, provided decent speeds, resisted the elements, and provided a good investment. The only downsides were mostly appearance which doesn't matter that much. However, I believe that the tech in the access point is not future proof which is why I did not give it a nine or ten star rating.
    Incentivized
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    Support Rating
    Cisco
    Cisco support is always ready to support and engage in any problem or issue. Starting from the implementation support, troubleshooting any software issue or hardware. Their engineers are engaging whenever we ask for support, keep following up with us, and troubleshoot any problem till we find a solution and be satisfied [with] the service.
    Incentivized
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    Discontinued Products
    Initially I had a problem with the regulatory and channel selection, it was a bug on the AP as it was fairly new, solved by TAC on engineering release, and since then it has been performing flawlessly.
    Incentivized
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    Implementation Rating
    Cisco
    Just take your time when setting up the HA pairs as those can be tricky. Also take your time setting up AP groups and make sure they are on all the SSIDs you need to be on.
    Incentivized
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    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Cisco
    Cisco Identity Services Engine is well integrated on Cisco 5520 Wireless Controller because the WLC supports a lot of authentication methods and security protocols (such as PEAP, EAP-TLS, Captive Portal redirect). They perform very well with ISE. Cisco ISE is able to manage centrally the AAA sessions from all the WLCs keeping a central point of management for wireless infrastructure.
    Incentivized
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    Discontinued Products
    Making the decision to use Aironet is more related to the type of scenario that you have. We chose Aironet because we mainly manage all the network internally and already have Cisco products to integrate with Meraki which is a good option if you are starting from scratch.
    Incentivized
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    Scalability
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    Discontinued Products
    The software of the Cisco Aironet 1560 is highly scalable, the software is very powerful so that the APs can be customized to the maximum and achieve the best performance of the network at the wifi level. The use of it is very easy for people with low knowledge.
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    Return on Investment
    Cisco
    • [It provides] centralized management.
    • Implementing the [Cisco] 5520 [Wireless] Controllers offered us a huge improvement in administrative time over our previous Cisco 3850 deployment. Being able to see all of our APs on a single controller as well as centrally manage them is a great benefit. This also removed the need to deploy specific equipment in different IDFs throughout our Industrial locations and instead only requiring switches with Power Over Ethernet (POE) capability.
    • Wireless performance has improved with the deployment of our 5520s, which allows our plant operators to do their jobs more efficiently while on the move.
    • Having three Cisco 5520 Wireless Controllers provides tertiary redundancy for our wireless networks. The solution is elegantly simple. Preventing downtime is, obviously, a profound part of our supply chain capabilities.
    Incentivized
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    Discontinued Products
    • With only a few DOA's or failing devices, the AP's are of very high quality.
    • We expect them to run stable for many years, which is why our initial investment will be an intelligent choice compared to installing a cheaper product.
    • Although the AP's from Cisco is cutting-edge technology, the 802.11ac standard will be considered legacy in a few years, meaning that its a balance to purchase a well-designed product that won't outlast the tech that it provides. Imagine having an investment in a large fleet of high-quality 802.11b AP's 20 years ago. Although they would still be working flawlessly due to their good quality, the bandwidth would probably be unacceptable to most modern consumers.
    Incentivized
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    ScreenShots