Alcatel-Lucent OmniAccess Wireless Access Points vs. Cisco 5520 Wireless Controller

One of best use cases for using OmniAccess Wire Access Point is where we have dense no. of users as client associated capacity is very good. Also one of the use case is when administrator wants different PSK for each user for authentication. OmniAccess WAP supports in better way.

I consider that its implementation is recommended for configurations where the amount of access points exceeds 50 devices and the performance exceeds 4 Gbps. In environments where the access point density is less than 10 units, we can use the option of Express Mobility.

Incentivized

• Flexibility in terms of deployment, management
• Better security feature
• Application awareness ,WIPS
• DPSK
• Better client associated count

• 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

• No of Interfaces
• must have a variety in terms of MIMO
• better throughput

• [It] can improve on the possibility of using the physical controllers with the virtual one.
• [It] can improve on the possibility of having site-to-site failover capabilities, [like in the case of] controllers at production go down and controllers at our DR site take over.
• The possibility of an app on your phone for alerts and minor configuration of the controllers.

Incentivized

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

In the dailies activities it's simple to manage a wireless network and also to perform changes: the GUI is well known and intuitive for engineers that know how to operate on Cisco WLC. It has High Throughput and consolidated features such as CleanAir, Roaming supporting natively Cisco ISE authentication methods and DNA Center. It's recommended for Wi-Fi 5 wireless infrastructures.

Incentivized

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

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

Have used Cisco Meraki access point earlier having management on cloud and is on license (subscription basis). But Alcatel OmniAccess Points have management on cloud, on premise as well which means to say flexibility in terms of management. We had one requirement where we number of user is large which is going to connect on access point but Cisco Meraki only supports 200 users per radio whereas OmniAccess point have better client associated capacity with 524 per radio.

Cisco 5520 Wireless Controller has better high availability features compared to the others. Also Cisco has a worldwide service center and is located in nearly all countries to offer fast and reliable support in case of any hardware issue. Also Cisco offers more features, for example AVC, CleanAir and TrustSec which the compotitiors don't. And we could use some of our als Cisco APs with the Cisco 5520 Wireless Controller and didn't need to buy that much new APs.

Incentivized

• Better Roaming
• Ease of Management
• Better performance

• [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