Cisco Cisco 5520 Wireless Controller White Paper
Cisco vs Aruba Wireless Controllers
18
DR150602D
Copyright © Miercom 2015
18 June 2015
We observed that the Aruba controller would tend to settle with more overlapping channels than
the Cisco controller. All performance tests were run three times. The below graph shows the
average performance of the three test runs for each channel width test case.
the Cisco controller. All performance tests were run three times. The below graph shows the
average performance of the three test runs for each channel width test case.
Aruba offered no similar option for "auto" or "best" channel-bandwidth selection.
As noted, Cisco offers a best channel-width selection option, where the controller selects the best
channel width for each AP, based on the AP’s neighbor information, which each AP sends to the
controller. We found that this option, called Dynamic Bandwidth Selection (DBS) yielded the best
throughput in our test environment. With DBS, the controller selects the channel bandwidth for each
AP – based on more reported frequency and interference data – rather than the operator, who
selects the channel width on a more-or-less "one-channel-size-fits-all" basis.
channel width for each AP, based on the AP’s neighbor information, which each AP sends to the
controller. We found that this option, called Dynamic Bandwidth Selection (DBS) yielded the best
throughput in our test environment. With DBS, the controller selects the channel bandwidth for each
AP – based on more reported frequency and interference data – rather than the operator, who
selects the channel width on a more-or-less "one-channel-size-fits-all" basis.
452
649
455
730
304
308
343
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
20 MHz
40 MHz
80 MHz
Auto
Th
ro
u
gh
p
u
t
(M
b
p
s)
Aggregate TCP Performance
Across 5 APs with 25 Total Clients
Cisco
Aruba
Source: Miercom June 2015