Juniper Networks WLC8 Wireless LAN Controller

WLC8 Overview:

The WLC8 Wireless LAN Controller enables seamless and secure deployment of enterprise wireless networks over L2/L3 networks without disruption. It is 802.11n-ready and provides intelligent switching that combines centralized and distributed data forwarding. The WLC8 supports up to 12 access points and is designed for branch office and distributed wiring closet installations.

The WLC8 supports demanding wireless applications indoors and outdoors, including voice over WLAN, for thousands of users. It offloads policy enforcement and data forwarding to access points for optimized traffic flow, reduced latency, and scalability.

Features:

• Eight 10/100 fast Ethernet ports for unshielded twisted-pair (UTP) environments, 6 with Power-over-Ethernet (PoE)
• Combines L2 Ethernet switching, stateful per-user and per-service firewalls, wireless intrusion protection, 802.1Q trunking and per-VLAN spanning tree (PVST+)
• Complete wired to wireless quality of service (QoS)
• Optional redundant power supply

Clusters of WLC8 Wireless LAN Controllers form a mobility domain, which provides seamless roaming, intrusion protection, and RF management over large, single-site wireless LAN deployments. A network domain interconnects mobility domains to support multiple sites and span wide geographic regions with secure, seamless mobility applications and smart mobile services

Product Description

Today’s businesses demand that network connectivity be available for users anytime, anywhere, regardless of the device they are using. The explosion of mobile devices is fueling an unprecedented need for enterprisewide mobility. Juniper Networks WLC Series Wireless LAN Controllers deliver the highest level of wireless LAN reliability, performance, security, and management for the most demanding mobile applications and users. Companies can now build networks based on Juniper’s end-to-end routing, security, and wired and wireless switching infrastructure to enable seamless mobility, improve the user experience, and increase productivity at the lowest total cost of ownership.

Juniper Networks® WLC Series Wireless LAN Controllers meet the needs of any size network, from small branch offices or retail outlets to large enterprises and university campuses. WLC Series controllers provide users with a seamless, secure, and exceptionally reliable roaming experience wherever they are and no matter what device they are using. Identity-based networking policies enable users to have a common experience with consistent services across wide geographies.

The WLC Series is easily deployed over any existing Layer 2/Layer 3 wired network without disruption to the L2/L3 topologies. The WLC Series controllers can also offload policy enforcement and data forwarding to Juniper Networks WLA Series Wireless LAN Access Points, resulting in optimized traffic flow, radically reduced latency, and massive scalability. The WLC Series provides L2 Ethernet switching, stateful per user and per service firewalls, wireless intrusion protection, 802.1Q trunking, Per-VLAN Spanning Tree Plus (PVST+), complete wired to wireless quality of service (QoS), and automated radio frequency (RF) management.

The WLC Series controllers ensure the highest wireless LAN availability in the industry. They can be configured as a Virtual Controller Cluster™ to provide many-to-many redundancy without the need for expensive hot-standby controllers. This enables nonstop wireless availability with hitless failover for all sessions, even voice calls, in the unlikely event of a controller failure. It also allows for in-service maintenance with no impact on wireless availability.

With Juniper Networks RingMaster® software, controller configurations can be obtained locally or from a remote location with automatic “no touch” deployment, and remote configuration and management capabilities.

The WLC Series delivers all of the standard security and networking functionality expected of wireless LANs with the added benefits of intelligent switching, identity-based roaming, bridging and mesh services, and nonstop wireless availability.

Features & Benefits:

Secure Seamless Mobility

WLC Series Wireless LAN Controllers are designed for easy wireless integration within an existing, wired network, authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) security framework, requiring no changes to the existing LAN topology or configuration.

The WLC Series supports the highest levels of security for both voice and data, including IEEE 802.11i, WPA/WPA2, and Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) encryption. The WLC Series also provides comprehensive built-in Wireless Intrusion Prevention (WIP) and Wireless Intrusion Detection (WID) features to detect and mitigate rogue access points, denial of service (DoS) attacks, and other common attacks. Unlike WLAN systems that rely entirely on centralized controllers for security policy enforcement, Juniper’s security/authentication model is administered centrally and enforced in a distributed fashion.

With the WLC Series controllers, up to 64 controllers of any size may be grouped to form a single Mobility Domain® which shares user session information between member controllers. This allows users to roam seamlessly from access point to access point indoors and outdoors, even across different controllers within a given Mobility Domain, without ever needing to re-authenticate.

Global Identity-Based Networking

The WLC Series controllers give users the same identity-based services and privileges, no matter where they connect. The WLC Series offers seamless roaming at a single location, and it enables the same secure mobility and consistent service profiles at multiple locations in the same network.

Applying identity-based networking globally offers great benefits to users who frequently work at different sites (for example, doctors who serve many hospitals within a hospital system, teachers across a school district, or IT users across multiple campuses). Whatever the experience a user has at one site, it can be replicated at another similar site.

Optimized Traffic Flows

WLC Series Wireless LAN Controllers also enable intelligent switching, which combines both centralized and distributed data forwarding based on the requirements of the underlying application. This results in optimized traffic flows, radically reduced latency, and massive scalability. With the scalability and performance advantages of distributed switching, the WLC Series can support the most demanding wireless applications, including voice over WLAN for thousands of users, video services, real-time location services, and 802.11n—all without the need for expensive WLAN controller upgrades.

For situations where wireless bandwidth is a scarce commodity, such as in mesh and bridging applications in which Wi-Fi is the backhaul transport, the WLC Series exploits stateful firewall capabilities at the access points to avoid propagating broadcast or multicast traffic such as Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) unnecessarily. Deep packet inspection also makes it possible to distinguish different traffic types such as Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), so that appropriate QoS and bandwidth profiles can be provided automatically.

Dynamic Load Optimization

The WLC Series optimizes per user bandwidth availability and performance by dynamically balancing traffic, regardless of whether forwarding is centralized or distributed. WLC Series controllers eliminate access point congestion problems for mobile users by automatically balancing clients across access points as they connect, and continually adjusting access point loading as users change location. WLC Series controllers also steer clients to the 5 GHz band whenever possible, preserving 2.4 GHz for legacy clients and voice services increasing usable capacity up to 40 percent.

Nonstop Wireless Availability

The WLC Series uses controller virtualization technology to avoid service interruptions by configuring multiple controllers in a group. They act together as a single virtual controller cluster, with each controller in service at the same time. In the event of a controller being out of service, the many-to-many redundancy allows the access points previously assigned to the offline controller to be redistributed among other controllers in the cluster instantaneously. With this unique hitless failover capability, no active sessions or voice calls are lost. This nonstop wireless experience also makes it possible for in-service upgrades, adds, moves, and changes with zero downtime.

Spectrum Aware

WLC Series controllers play a key role in rogue and intrusion detection as well as DoS attack detection. Working in conjunction with access points, the controllers systematically scan all 802.11 channels while simultaneously providing client services. When rogue or interference sources are detected, the WLC Series controllers coordinate the appropriate mitigation response to ensure the highest air quality for efficient and high performing wireless access services. If an access point goes out of service and leaves a coverage hole, WLC Series controllers can change channels or adjust power levels on multiple nearby access points in a coordinated fashion in order to restore Wi-Fi coverage.

Advanced Voice Services

WLC Series Wireless LAN Controllers support all of the standards necessary to deliver secure, scalable voice services with seamless roaming across the entire mobility system.

The highly distributed architecture of the WLC Series is optimized for high quality voice services, allowing voice traffic to take the shortest, most efficient path, and avoiding the risk of congestion and added latency caused by centralized forwarding at the WLAN controller.

In addition to hitless failover capabilities which provide voice reliability equal to wired networks, the WLC Series provides SIP packet inspection, dynamic call admission control (CAC), and much more for resource provisioning, troubleshooting, scalability, and mass deployment of reliable voice services.

Bridging and Mesh Services

The WLC Series controllers also extend wireless coverage between buildings and across difficult to reach uncarpeted areas indoors and outdoors through point-to-point bridging, point-to-multipoint bridging, and wireless mesh services for both indoor and outdoor access points.

Technical Specifications:

Front View

Model:	WLC2	WLC8	WLC200	WLC800	WLC2800
Hardware Specifications
Application	Small Branch Office	Branch Office / Wiring Closet	Wiring Closet / Data Center	Wiring Closet / Data Center	Data Center
Number of MPs supported	4	12	32 Base; 192 Max	16 Base; 128 Max	64 Base; 512 Max
License Upgrades	N/A	N/A	Multiples of 32	Multiples of 16 or 32	Multiples of 64 or 128
Number of Ports/Type	1 x 10/100BASE-T, 1 x 10/100 POE	2 x 10/100BASE-T, 6 x 10/100 POE	2 x GE (SFP)	4 x 10/100/1000BASE-T (RJ-45); 4 x GE (SFP)	2 x 10GE (XFP); 8 x 10/100/1000BASE-T (RJ-45) or 8 x GE (SFP)
Redundant Power Options	N/A	WLC8: Optional; WLC8R: Standard	Included as Standard	Included as Standard	Optional
Resiliency Options	Etherchannel, 802.3ad, PVST+ N:1 / N:N WLA to WLC Failover	Etherchannel, 802.3ad, PVST + N:1 / N:N WLA to WLC Failover	Etherchannel, 802.3ad, PVST+ N:1 / N:N WLA to WLC Failover	Etherchannel, 802.3ad, PVST+ N:1 / N:N WLA to WLC Failover	Etherchannel, 802.3ad, PVST+ N:1 / N:N WLA to WLC Failover
Dimensions	WLC2	WLC8	WLC200	WLC800	WLC2800
Dimensions (inch)	7.5 in x 5.75 in x1.25 in	17.4 in x 12.1 in x 1.7 in	17.4 in x 12.1 in x 1.7 in	17.32in x 14.78 in x 1.74 in	17.4 in x 18 in x 2.594 in
Dimensions (cm)	(19 cm x 14.6 cm x 3.2 cm)	(44.2 cm x 30.7 cm x 4.3 cm)	(44.2 cm x 30.7 cm x 4.3 cm)	(44 cm x 37.54 cm x 4.42 cm)	(44.19 cm x 45.72 cm x 6.58 cm)
Weight with one power supply	1.5 lbs (0.7 kg) with one power supply	8.5 lbs (3.8 kg) wiith one power supply 9.5 lbs (4.3 kg) with two power supplies	11.0 lbs (5.0 kg) with two power supplies	11.6lbs (5.2 kg) with two power supplies	18 lbs (8.1 kg) with one power supply 19.5 lbs (8.77 kg) with two power supplies
Environment	WLC2	WLC8	WLC200	WLC800	WLC2800
Operating temperature	14° to 122° F (-10° to 50° C)	14° to 122° F (-10° to 50° C)	14° to 122° F (-10° to 50° C)	32° to 104° F (0° to 40° C)	32° to 104° F (0° to 40° C)
Storage temperature	-4° to 158° F (-20° to 70° C)	-4° to 158° F (-20° to 70° C)	-4° to 158° F (-20° to 70° C)	-4° to 158° F (-20° to 70° C)	-40° to 158° F (-40° to 70° C)
Humidity	10% to 90% (noncondensing)	10% to 90% (noncondensing)	10% to 90% (noncondensing)	10% to 90% (noncondensing)	10% to 90% (noncondensing)
Power	WLC2	WLC8	WLC200	WLC800	WLC2800
Peak power with dual PSUs	100-240 VAC, 47-63 Hz	93-132 VAC, 180-264 VAC, 50-60 Hz	100-240 VAC, 50-60 Hz	100-240 VAC, 50-60 Hz	100-240 VAC, 50-60 Hz
Power output	Output: 48 VDC 0.75 A	125 W	100 W	93.4 W	108 W
Max. amperage draw	1.2 AMP at 115 VAC, 1.2 AMP at 230 VAC	4.0 AMP at 115 VAC, 2.0 AMP at 230 VAC	1.0 AMP at 120 VAC, 0.5 AMP at 230 VAC	0.8 AMP at 120 VAC, 0.4 AMP at 230 VAC	0.9 AMP at 120 VAC, 0.5 AMP at 230 VAC

Additional Features and Comparison:

Model:	WLC2	WLC8	WLC200	WLC800	WLC2800
Scalability and Reliability
Number of Managed Access Points
Base AP licenses provided	4	12	32	16	64
Maximum AP licenses supported	4	12	192	128	512
Additional license increments	N/A	N/A	32	16 or 32	64 or 128
Platform Reliability
Redundant power module standard	No	Yes (single PSU version also available)	Yes	Yes	No
Hot pluggable redundant power supply	No	No	No	No	Yes
Network Reliability
EtherChannel™ load-shared, redundant links	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Spanning tree and per-VLAN spanning tree (PVST+)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Resilient network attachment via any WLC Series port	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
N:1 and N:N redundant WLC Series capabilities	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Security
Authentication	WLC2	WLC8	WLC200	WLC800	WLC2800
Supports complete local AAA authentication, including 802.1x, as primary or backup to a centralized AAA server	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Supports multiple AAA server groups and can load share across multiple AAA servers or within a server group	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Assigns and enforces per-user authorization policies that are managed centrally from the AAA back-end	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Authorizations include virtual private group membership, personal firewall filters, time-of-day/day-of-week access, encryption type, and location-specific policies	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
IEEE 802.1x with multiple EAP types (TLS, PEAP/MSCHAP, TTLS)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
WebAAA, MAC, Open	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Encryption Key Management
Encryption distributed in WLA Series access points	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
WLC Series generates master and session keys	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Provides key management for each encryption technique	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Management and Control
Management Access	WLC2	WLC8	WLC200	WLC800	WLC2800
Command Line Interface (Console serial port, telnet, SSHv2)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
WebView web access (https)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
SSL, XML (to Juniper Networks RingMaster)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
SNMP v1, v2c, v3	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Syslog support for system monitoring	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Detailed audit logging for change control	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Remote packet capture ability for advanced troubleshooting	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
RF Management
Automated access point power/channel auto-tuning	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
User Management and Statistics
Detailed per user per session RF accounting statistics and management	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Tracks the location, roaming history, virtual private group, network addresses, state, activity, errors, usage and other attributes by user name, session, VLAN, or user group	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Provides per user audit trail and chargeback capability through the accounting component of AAA	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Access Point Management and Control
Configures and controls access points; controls third-party APs	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
The WLC Series are categorized as access controllers (AC) that support direct, switched, and routed connections	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Enables data forwarding in WLC Series or in access points	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Multiple WLC Series controllers provide resilient control	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Boot, configuration and management compliant with the IETF CAPWAP architecture	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Standards Requirements
Regulatory Safety	WLC2	WLC8	WLC200	WLC800	WLC2800
UL 60950-1	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
EN 60950-1	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
CSA C22.2 60950-1-3	No	No	No	Yes	Yes
EMI/EMC
FCC Part 15 Class A	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
ICES Class A	ICES 003	ICES 003	ICES 003	Yes	Yes
VCCI Class A	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
EN 55022 Class A	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
EN 55024	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
EN 60601-1-2	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
CISPR 22 Class A	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Taiwan: CNS 13438 Class A	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
China: CCC GB 9254-88 Class A	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Australia/New Zealand: AS/NZ 3548 Class A	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
IEEE Standards
802.1x Port-Based Network Access Control	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
802.3i 10BASE-T Ethernet	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
802.3u 100BASE-T Fast Ethernet	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
802.3ab 1000 BASE-TX Gigabit Ethernet	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
802.3af Power over Ethernet (Class 3)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
802.11 a/b/g/n, 802.11d, 802.11e, 802.11h, 802.11i	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
802.1D Spanning Tree	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
802.1Q VLAN tagging	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
802.3ad (static config)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Documentation:

Download the Juniper Networks WLC Series Wireless LAN Controller Datasheet (PDF).