Cisco Cisco 5760 Wireless LAN Controller White Paper
Lab Testing
Summary
Report
Key findings and conclusions:
May 2013
Report 130508
Product Category:
Wireless
Controllers
Vendor Tested:
Products Tested:
Cisco Catalyst 3850
Cisco WLC 5760
Aruba 7240
Cisco WLC 5760 throughput was six times greater than Aruba 7240 during
handling wireless traffic using IMIX traffic load.
Figure 1: Cisco IMIX Performance Comparison
between Cisco WLC 5760, Catalyst 3850, and Aruba 7240
C
isco engaged Miercom to evaluate the WLC 5760 Wireless
Controller, the Catalyst 3850 Switch with an integrated wireless
controller and the Aruba 7240 Wireless Controller. These three
devices were evaluated for performance and forwarding capabilities.
To benchmark these products, Miercom used IMIX and varied packet
To benchmark these products, Miercom used IMIX and varied packet
size traffic to determine throughput and forwarding capability of the
controller data plane. Additionally, QoS functionality for high priority
applications in times of over subscription and downloadable policy
management using Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) were
validated. Competitive products will be referred to as WLC 5760,
Catalyst 3850 and Aruba 7240.
Both Cisco devices are based on the new Cisco Unified Access Data
Both Cisco devices are based on the new Cisco Unified Access Data
Plane (UADP) ASIC. The UADP programmable ASIC provides strict
priority QoS implemented in hardware resulting in consistent granular
QoS control, and enables downloadable policy to be applied to both
Source: Miercom, May 2013
•
For typical IMIX traffic, Cisco WLC 5760 is 6 times faster and
provides 8 times the forwarding rate as compared to the
Aruba 7240 controller
•
Cisco Catalyst 3850 unified access switch provides for
40Gbps wireless controller performance and outperformed
Aruba’s 7240 controller at all packet sizes
•
UADP (Unified Access Data Plane) programmable ASIC
architecture provides strict priority queuing for mission-
critical applications during periods of oversubscription. This
crucial functionality is unique to Cisco
•
Downloadable policy from ISE provides simple and granular
network access control for the Cisco WLC 5760 and Catalyst
3850 switch for enabling a unified BYOD experience.
•
Cisco proves to be 330% more efficient at data center power
consumption for delivering the same throughput capacity
8
37
50
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Aruba 7240
Cisco 3850
Cisco 5760
Thr
oughput
(G
bps
)
Aruba 7240
Cisco Catalyst
3850
Cisco
WLC 5760