C9130AXI-Q Cisco Catalyst 9130 Enterprise 802.11ax Access Points

The Cisco Catalyst 9130AX Series Access Points are the next generation of enterprise access points. They are resilient, secure, and intelligent.

Cisco Catalyst 9130AX Series Wireless Access Point Features

The C9130AX series AP is a wireless controller-based product, and supports:

■Four radios, a dual-band 5 GHz (8x8) flexible radio with 2.4 GHz and 4x4 5 GHz, a single-band 5 GHz radio, and an omni IoT radio that can be used with a BLE device.

■Four dual-band and four single-band 5 GHz integrated antennas on the C9130AXI AP models (C9130AXI-x and C9130AXI-EWC-x).

■Integrated internal antennas that are omni directional in azimuth, for both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands.

■External antennas on the C9130AXE AP model (C9130AXE-x and C9130AXE-EWC-x).

■Multiuser Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MU-MIMO) technology for uplink and downlink.

■Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA)-based scheduling for both uplink and downlink.

■Multigigabit Ethernet (mGig)

■The following hardware external interfaces:

–1x100/1000/2500/5000 Multigigabit Ethernet (RJ-45)

–RS-232 Console Interface through RJ-45

–Recovery push button (enables partial or full system configuration recovery)

–USB 2.0 Port

–One multi-color LED Status indicator. see the Self-Identifying Antennas for information on the colors of the LED status indicator.

■Integrated Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) radio to enable IoT use cases such as location tracking and wayfinding.

■Cisco RF ASIC, a fully integrated Software Defined Radio (SDR), that can perform advanced RF spectrum analysis and delivers features like CleanAir, Wireless Intrusion Prevention System (WIPS), and DFS detection.

■Intelligent Capture probes the network and provides Cisco Catalyst Center (formerly Cisco DNA Center) with deep analysis.

■Spatial Reuse (also known as Basic Service Set (BSS) coloring) which allows APs and their clients to differentiate between BSSs, thus permitting more simultaneous transmissions.

■New power savings mode called Target Wake Time (TWT) which allows the client to stay asleep and wake up only at pre-scheduled (target) times to exchange data with the AP. This provides significant energy savings for battery-operated devices.

■Cisco Catalyst Center support enables Cisco Spaces (formerly Cisco DNA Spaces), Apple FastLane and Cisco Identity Services Engine.

■Optimized AP Roaming for ensuring that client devices associate with the AP in their coverage range that offers the fastest data rate available.

■Cisco CleanAir technology enhanced with 160MHz channel support. CleanAir delivers proactive, high-speed spectrum intelligence across 20-, 40-, and 80-, and 160-MHz-wide channels to combat performance problems arising from wireless interference.

The AP supports both Cisco Embedded Wireless Controller and lightweight deployments (using Cisco Wireless Controllers). The AP also supports the following operating modes:

■Local—This is the default mode for the Cisco AP. In this mode, the AP serves clients.
In local mode, the AP creates two CAPWAP tunnels to the Cisco WLC, one for management and the other for data traffic. This is known as central switching because the data traffic is switched (bridged) from the AP to the controller where it is then routed.

■FlexConnect—In FlexConnect mode (previously known as HREAP), the data traffic is switched locally and is not sent to the controller. In this mode, the Cisco AP behaves like an autonomous AP, but is managed by the Cisco WLC. Here, the AP continues to function even if connection to the controller is lost.

■Monitor—In the monitor mode, specified Cisco APs can exclude themselves from handling data traffic between clients and the infrastructure. These APs act as dedicated sensors for location based services (LBS), rogue AP detection, and intrusion detection (IDS).
When APs are in monitor mode, they actively monitor the airwaves and typically do not serve clients.

■Sniffer—In the wireless sniffer mode, the AP starts sniffing the air on a given channel. It captures and forwards all the packets from the clients on that channel to a remote machine that runs Airopeek or Wireshark (packet analyzers for IEEE 802.11 wireless LANs). This includes information on the time stamp, signal strength, packet size, etc.