Cisco C9800-CL-K9 Catalyst 9800-CL Cloud Wireless Controller – Up to 6,000 APs, 64,000 Clients

Enterprise Cloud Wireless Management

The Cisco Catalyst C9800-CL-K9 delivers the functionality of the Cisco Catalyst 9800 wireless controller in a virtualized software platform. Instead of requiring a dedicated physical controller chassis, the C9800-CL is deployed as a virtual machine in supported private-cloud hypervisors or as a cloud instance in supported public-cloud environments.

The platform is designed for organizations that need scalable wireless management without dedicating rack space to a physical wireless controller. It provides centralized configuration, monitoring, security, policy enforcement, automation and telemetry for Cisco wireless infrastructure.

Key Features

• Centralized enterprise wireless management
• Cisco FlexConnect support
• Fabric Wireless and Cisco SD-Access support
• Centralized wireless deployment
• Private-cloud deployment
• Public-cloud deployment
• Cisco Catalyst Center integration
• Integrated WebUI
• CLI and open-standard APIs
• Model-driven telemetry
• Cisco Identity Services Engine integration
• Stateful Switchover and N+1 redundancy options

Flexible Cloud Deployment

The C9800-CL-K9 provides a flexible deployment model for organizations moving wireless infrastructure into private or public cloud environments. A single deployment package supports multiple scale and throughput profiles, allowing administrators to select the appropriate virtual-machine resources for the required wireless capacity.

Private Cloud

Cisco supports the C9800-CL on VMware ESXi, KVM, Hyper-V and Cisco NFVIS on ENCS. Private-cloud deployments can use different resource profiles depending on the required access-point, client and throughput capacity.

Public Cloud

The C9800-CL can also be deployed as an Infrastructure-as-a-Service wireless controller using supported public-cloud platforms including AWS, Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft Azure and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.

Deployment Scale and Performance

Cisco specifies up to 2.1 Gbps throughput for the low-throughput profile without SR-IOV. A high-throughput profile can reach up to 5 Gbps when deployed on supported ESXi or KVM hypervisors with SR-IOV-enabled network interfaces and the required resources.

Centralized Wireless Deployment

The C9800-CL-K9 supports centralized wireless deployment where wireless traffic and management functions are handled through the controller. This architecture provides centralized visibility and policy enforcement across enterprise access points.

• Centralized wireless management
• Centralized policy configuration
• Wireless client monitoring
• RF management and optimization
• Security policy enforcement
• Network telemetry and analytics

Cisco FlexConnect

Cisco FlexConnect allows wireless access points at distributed branch and remote locations to operate with centralized controller management while supporting local switching capabilities. This architecture is useful for organizations with geographically distributed offices and branch networks.

The C9800-CL supports FlexConnect deployments and provides centralized policy and management capabilities across distributed wireless infrastructure.

Fabric Wireless and Cisco SD-Access

The C9800-CL-K9 supports Fabric Wireless as part of the Cisco SD-Access architecture. This enables policy-based wireless networking and integration with broader enterprise network segmentation and automation strategies.

• Cisco SD-Access integration
• Fabric Wireless deployment
• Policy-based network segmentation
• Centralized wireless policy control
• Integration with enterprise automation platforms

Enterprise Wireless Security

Cisco IOS XE provides the foundation for enterprise wireless security and policy control. The C9800-CL can integrate with Cisco identity and security technologies to help organizations implement consistent policies across managed wireless infrastructure.

• Cisco Identity Services Engine integration
• Centralized wireless security policies
• Enterprise authentication and access control
• Wireless intrusion prevention capabilities
• Runtime security defenses
• Image signing and integrity verification
• Secure software architecture

Cisco IOS XE Software Platform

The C9800-CL-K9 runs on Cisco IOS XE Software, providing a modern operating environment for enterprise wireless management, automation and programmability.

Cisco IOS XE enables integration with management systems and automation frameworks through WebUI, CLI, NETCONF/YANG, RESTCONF, telemetry and other open-standard interfaces.

The minimum software requirement for the C9800-CL-K9 is Cisco IOS XE Software Release 16.10.1. High-throughput profiles are supported from Cisco IOS XE Release 17.3.1 onward.

High Availability and Resiliency

The Catalyst 9800-CL platform supports high-availability architectures designed to maintain wireless services during controller failures and maintenance operations.

• Stateful Switchover (SSO)
• 1:1 active-standby architecture
• N+1 redundancy
• Hitless software upgrade capabilities for supported deployments
• Seamless software update capabilities
• Service continuity for supported HA configurations

Management and Automation

The C9800-CL-K9 can be managed through Cisco management and automation platforms, providing centralized visibility and operational control.

• Cisco Catalyst Center
• Cisco Prime Infrastructure
• Integrated WebUI
• Command-Line Interface
• NETCONF/YANG
• RESTCONF
• Open-standard APIs
• Model-driven streaming telemetry

Wireless Capacity

Supported Access Points

The C9800-CL-K9 is designed to manage Cisco enterprise wireless access points across multiple generations. Cisco lists support for Aironet 802.11ac Wave 1 and Wave 2 access points, Cisco Catalyst 9100 Series 802.11ax access points and Wi-Fi 7 802.11be access points, subject to the applicable software and compatibility requirements.

Virtual Infrastructure Requirements

Licensing and Ordering

The C9800-CL-K9 is supplied as the Cisco Catalyst 9800-CL Wireless Controller for Cloud software package. Cisco lists the product ID C9800-CL-K9 for software download and Cisco TAC support.

No license is required simply to boot the C9800-CL controller. However, connecting access points to the controller requires an applicable Cisco DNA software subscription or Cisco Networking subscription, with the required subscription entitlement for each access point

Ideal Applications

• Enterprise private-cloud wireless deployments
• Public-cloud wireless controller deployments
• Large corporate campus networks
• Distributed branch networks
• Universities and educational institutions
• Healthcare and hospital wireless infrastructure
• Government and public-sector networks
• Hospitality and commercial wireless environments
• Cisco SD-Access Fabric Wireless deployments
• Organizations migrating wireless controllers to virtual infrastructure

Why Choose the Cisco C9800-CL-K9?

The Cisco Catalyst C9800-CL-K9 provides enterprise wireless controller functionality in a flexible virtualized architecture. Its support for private and public clouds, multiple deployment profiles, Cisco IOS XE, centralized management, security, automation and high availability makes it suitable for organizations that prefer software-defined wireless infrastructure.

With support for up to 6,000 access points, 64,000 wireless clients and up to 5 Gbps throughput with the supported high-throughput SR-IOV configuration, the C9800-CL-K9 can scale from smaller branch environments to large enterprise wireless deployments.