Cisco AIR-CT2504-50-K9 Full English Product Description

1. Short Official Part & License Label

AIR-CT2504-50-K9: Cisco 2504 Wireless LAN Controller, Factory Pre-Licensed for 50 Lightweight Aironet Access Points, Compact Desktop Chassis with Optional 1U Rack Mount Kit, 4×10/100/1000BASE-T Gigabit Ports (2 Ports with IEEE 802.3af PoE), Max 1 Gbps System Throughput (FW 7.4+), Core CUWN Unified Wireless Controller, Supports 802.11n/ac APs, CleanAir RF Spectrum Intelligence, FlexConnect Local Switching, AVC Layer7 Application Control, WPA2/WPA3 Security, N+1 HA Redundancy, End-of-Sale Legacy High-Capacity Branch & SMB WLC

2. Full Product Overview

Cisco AIR-CT2504-50-K9 is the high-capacity model within the discontinued Cisco 2500 Series wireless LAN controller lineup, designed for large enterprise remote branch offices, multi-location retail chains, medium-sized school campuses, mid-scale hospitality venues and dense SMB offices that need centralized CAPWAP lightweight AP management with larger AP scale than AIR-CT2504-8 and AIR-CT2504-25 variantsCisco. As a core component of Cisco Unified Wireless Network (CUWN), it terminates DTLS encrypted CAPWAP tunnels from all joined thin APs to deliver unified RF management, enterprise wireless security, seamless Layer 2/3 client mobility, isolated guest services, and VoWLAN voice QoS optimizationCisco.

This unit ships with a permanent built-in license supporting up to 50 lightweight APs; incremental AP license add-ons can expand the hardware capacity ceiling to a maximum of 75 APs totalCisco. It integrates four Gigabit Ethernet ports, with ports 3 and 4 providing native IEEE 802.3af PoE power output to directly power connected APs, eliminating external PoE injectors for on-site deployments. It delivers a full enterprise feature stack including Cisco CleanAir spectrum analysis, FlexConnect remote branch local switching to reduce costly WAN backhaul bandwidth consumption, Application Visibility and Control (AVC), embedded wireless intrusion prevention (wIPS), and device profiling for identity-based access controlCisco.

The entire 2504 platform reached Cisco End-of-Sale (EoS) on April 18, 2018 and End-of-Support (EoL) on April 30, 2023; all available inventory consists of new surplus, used or certified refurbished hardwareCisco. It fully interoperates with all Aironet 802.11n / 802.11ac Wave 1/2 lightweight access points. Administrators can configure standalone instances via local HTTPS web GUI, serial/SSH CLI, or centrally orchestrate multi-controller fleets through Cisco Prime Infrastructure. It only supports basic N+1 high availability and lacks AP & client Stateful Switchover (SSO) session synchronization between redundant controllersCisco.

3. Complete Hardware Physical & Interface Specifications

Form Factor & Mechanical

Base Form Factor: Compact desktop chassis; optional rack mount kit (AIR-CT2504-RMNT=) converts to standard 1U 19-inch rack unit
Dimensions: 43.9 mm (H) × 203.2 mm (W) × 271.5 mm (D) / 1.73 × 8.00 × 6.75 inches
Unit Weight: 3.5 lbs (1.59 kg) with external AC power adapter
Cooling: Single internal cooling fan (no redundant fan support)
Power Supply: External universal AC power brick (PWR-2504-AC=)

Rear Panel Interface Layout

4× 10/100/1000 Mbps RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet ports (Ports 3 & 4 supply IEEE 802.3af PoE power output for lightweight APs)Cisco
RJ45 RS-232 serial console port for out-of-band initial configuration and recovery
Physical security lock slot for anti-theft cable attachment
DC power input jack for external AC power brick
Reserved USB port for local firmware upload, config backup and restore

Front Panel LED Status Indicators

Global status LEDs: Power, System Health, Critical Alarm

Per-port Link/Activity LEDs for all four Gigabit Ethernet interfaces

Power & Environmental Parameters

Input AC Range: 100–240 VAC, 50/60 Hz universal external power supply
PoE Power Budget: Limited capacity to power up to two PoE lightweight APs via ports 3 and 4
Maximum Power Consumption: 80 W
Heat Dissipation: 72 BTU/hour
Operating Temperature: 0°C to 40°C (32°F to 104°F)
Storage Temperature: -25°C to 70°C (-13°F to 158°F)
Humidity: 10%–95% non-condensing (operating & storage)Cisco
Regulatory Certifications: UL 60950-1 safety, CE, FCC Class B EMC, ICES-003, VCCI

4. Official Capacity & Performance Benchmarks

Factory Licensed AP Count: 50 lightweight APs (expandable up to hardware maximum 75 APs via incremental AP licenses)Cisco
Maximum Concurrent Wireless Client Stations: 1,000 total across all managed APs (FW 7.4+)Cisco
System-Wide Total Throughput Cap: 1 Gbps (firmware 7.4 and above; older versions limited to 500 Mbps)Cisco
Supported Unique WLAN SSIDs: Up to 16 broadcast/hidden SSIDsCisco
Maximum VLAN Interfaces: 16 VLANs with 802.1Q trunk taggingCisco
Roaming Capabilities: Intra-controller Layer 2 seamless roaming, Layer 3 inter-VLAN mobility, 802.11r fast secure roaming
Supported Wireless Standards: 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, WMM, 802.11k/r/u/w/h
Max AP Groups for Segmented Policy Control: 30 independent AP groupsCisco
Max FlexConnect Remote Branch Groups: 30

5. Core Wireless & Security Feature Suite

1. Centralized Lightweight AP Lifecycle Management

DTLS encrypted CAPWAP tunnel termination for all joined APs; zero-touch AP auto-discovery via DHCP Option 43; bulk AP firmware upgrades, unified RF and global policy deployment across all managed access points. Supports FlexConnect local switching for remote branches, wireless mesh networks, and OfficeExtend teleworker APs to eliminate backhaul traffic over expensive WAN linksCisco.

2. Cisco CleanAir Intelligent RF Spectrum Management

Continuous real-time 2.4GHz/5GHz interference monitoring, dynamic transmit power & auto-channel selection, wireless coverage hole detection, rogue AP detection, classification and active wireless containment, persistent historical RF reporting for capacity planning and troubleshootingCisco.

3. Enterprise-Grade Wireless Security Stack

Authentication: IEEE 802.1X EAP-TLS/PEAP/EAP-FAST, local internal user database, external RADIUS/TACACS+ AAA integration
Encryption Protocols: WEP, WPA2-PSK/Enterprise, WPA3, AES-CCMP, TKIP
Threat Mitigation: Built-in wIPS wireless intrusion prevention, rogue AP containment, wireless client isolation, MAC address filtering, dynamic per-SSID VLAN assignment
Compliance: PCI DSS validated architecture for retail wireless POS payment deployments

4. Mobility, Voice & Video QoS

Wi-Fi Multimedia (WMM) traffic prioritization, Call Admission Control (CAC) for VoWLAN VoIP handsets, Cisco VideoStream multicast optimization for wireless IPTV, configurable bidirectional per-client bandwidth policing, fast secure roaming via 802.11r to avoid voice call drops during client movementCisco.

5. Application Visibility and Control (AVC)

Layer 7 deep application identification for thousands of enterprise, SaaS, social media and cloud applications; application-based traffic filtering, QoS marking, rate limiting and traffic reporting for granular policy optimization.

6. Guest Wireless Services

Isolated dedicated guest SSID segmentation, customizable web splash-page authentication, time-limited guest user access credentials, separate guest VLANs to isolate visitor traffic from internal corporate assets, guest anchor tunneling for multi-controller unified guest deployments.

7. High Availability & Link Aggregation

N+1 controller redundancy (no AP/client stateful session sync); LAG EtherChannel link aggregation supported on all four Gigabit Ethernet ports starting from firmware version 7.4Cisco.

8. Traffic Visibility, Logging & Centralized Orchestration

Local HTTPS web GUI for standalone monitoring and configuration
Command-line access via SSH v2, Telnet or RJ45 serial console
SNMP v1/v2c/v3, secure syslog and NetFlow Secure Event Logging (NSEL) export to third-party SIEM platforms
Centralized multi-controller policy distribution, logging and reporting via Cisco Prime Infrastructure

6. Typical Deployment Scenarios

Large enterprise remote branch offices deploying up to 50 wireless access points
Multi-location retail chains, full K-12 satellite school campuses and medium medical clinic networks
Mid-sized hospitality venues, hotels and resorts with medium-to-high density wireless coverage
High-density SMB office wireless consolidation utilizing built-in PoE ports to eliminate external power injectors
IT lab training environments, legacy CUWN network upgrade staging and medium-to-large scale temporary event wireless networks
Distributed FlexConnect remote branch deployments leveraging local switching to reduce expensive WAN bandwidth consumption

7. Short Sales Listing Tagline

Cisco AIR-CT2504-50-K9 2500 Series High-Capacity Wireless LAN Controller, Factory Licensed for Max 50 Lightweight Aironet APs, 4×Gigabit Ethernet Ports with Dual 802.3af PoE, Desktop / Optional 1U Rack Mount, 1Gbps Total System Throughput, CleanAir RF Spectrum Intelligence, FlexConnect Local Switching, AVC Layer7 Application Control, WPA2/WPA3 Enterprise Security, N+1 HA Redundancy, Managed via Web GUI/SSH/Cisco Prime Infrastructure, EoS High-Tier CUWN WLC for Large Enterprise Branches & Multi-Location Retail Deployments


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