Cisco, Network Equipment Resource: What You Should Know about the Cisco Mobility Express Solution

Briefly, the Cisco Mobility Express wireless network solution provides a virtual wireless LAN controller functionality bundled into, currently, the Cisco Aironet 1850 and 1830 series access points. This functionality provides a simplified WiFi architecture with enterprise-level WLAN capability to small and medium deployments.

In the Cisco Mobility Express wireless network solution, one access point (AP), running the Cisco Mobility Express wireless controller, is designated as the master AP. Other access points, referred to as subordinate APs, associate to this master AP.

The master AP operates as a wireless LAN controller, to manage and control the subordinate APs, and also operates as an access point to serve clients. The subordinate APs behave as normal lightweight access points to serve clients.

For the list of supported access points, see Supported Cisco Aironet Access Points.

The Mobility Express solution provides most features of a wireless LAN controller and has the capability to interface with the following:

Cisco Prime Infrastructure—for simplified network management and managing the AP group.

Cisco Identity Services Engine—for advanced policy enforcement.

Cisco Mobility Services Engine—for providing presence level data as well as advanced spectrum solution.

Supported Cisco Aironet Access Points

In this release of Mobility Express, the following APs are supported.

APs supported as masters (support integrated wireless controller capability)	APs supported as subordinates
Cisco Aironet 1850 Series Cisco Aironet 1830 Series	In addition to the following, all APs that are supported as master APs are also supported as subordinate APs. Cisco Aironet 700i Series Cisco Aironet 700w Series Cisco Aironet 1600 Series Cisco Aironet 1700 Series Cisco Aironet 2600 Series Cisco Aironet 2700 Series Cisco Aironet 3500 Series Cisco Aironet 3600 Series Cisco Aironet 3700 Series

Supported Software Images

AP models supported as masters can be ordered with either of the following as the default factory-shipped software:

A Mobility Express software image. These models have model numbers (or Product IDs) ending in C.

A lightweight AP software image, based on the CAPWAP (Control and Provisioning of Wireless Access Points) protocol, for joining a wireless controller. You can manually convert these models to have a Mobility Express software image, on site.

For information on this conversion, see Converting from CAPWAP Lightweight AP 15.3.3-JBB5 Software to Mobility Express Software.

AP models which are supported only as subordinates will need to have CAPWAP-based lightweight AP software image.

The Mobility Express software for your AP model can be downloaded from the AP's Download Software page on Cisco.com. The common URL to the Download Software page is https://software.cisco.com/download/navigator.html.

On the Download Software page, browse to your AP model and then select 'Mobility Express Software' to view a list of currently available software, with the latest the top. The software releases are labeled as follows to help you determine which release to download:

Early Deployment (ED)—These software releases provide new features, new hardware platform support, and bug fixes.

Maintenance Deployment (MD)—These software releases provide bug fixes and ongoing software maintenance.

Deferred (DF)—These software releases have been deferred. We recommend that you migrate to an upgraded release.

Cisco Mobility Express software for Cisco Wireless Release 8.1.122.1, is as follows:

Software Type and Purpose	For AP 1850	For AP 1830
Mobility Express Network Software Bundle (for Mobility Express controller and network software update)	AIR-AP1850-K9-ME-8-1-122-0.zip	AIR-AP1830-K9-ME-8-1-122-0.zip
Mobility Express Controller-capable AP Software (for conversion from CAPWAP Lightweight AP type to Mobility Express)	AIR-AP1850-K9-8.1.122.0.tar	AIR-AP1830-K9-8.1.122.0.tar