Cisco Cisco Prime Infrastructure 3.0 White Paper
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Here is why AVC is important in this scenario:
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Wi-Fi is a shared medium with resource contentions - Effective bandwidth sharing is key
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Numerous apps - Voice, video, and data accessed over wireless - IT needs to provide a good user
experience
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Detect heavy hitters and rogue applications
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WLC is point of wireless termination - Visibility and control are needed here
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Capacity planning, user baselining, performance assessment
The following is a representation of a Cisco Unified Wireless Network and the points where AVC can be deployed
today:
Features like QoS are applied at the access points and the WLC. Note that the legacy QoS data plane does not
exist on the access point, and the Cisco Common Classification Policy Language (C3PL) model is not supported
yet on the access point. QoS configurations are pushed down to the access point from the controller and the
access point can do marking/policing actions both toward the client and the switch (downstream and upstream).
Note the QoS cannot be done based on NBAR2, as application visibility is not yet available on the access point
(roadmap; see the next section).
The WLC supports NBAR2 for application visibility and can identify applications granularly and has the ability to
export to NetFlow collectors. AVC is centrally managed by the WLC using its native GUI: It is possible to get global
visibility reports per WLC, SSID-based reports, or client-based reports. WLC does not maintain historic data. To
achieve this, one would have to deploy a NetFlow collector and export the data periodically. It is also possible to
configure QoS based on precious metals - four categories of QoS. Each SSID/WLAN can belong to one category,
and it is possible to specify QoS parameters on a per SSID or a per client basis. A given application can also be
dropped by configuring the WLC accordingly. These policies are implemented on the WLC and the access point.
More details on deploying AVC in this scenario can be found at