Cisco AIR-CT8510-1K-K9 Full English Product Description

1. Short Official Part & License Label

AIR-CT8510-1K-K9: Cisco 8510 Series High-Capacity AireOS Wireless LAN Controller, Factory Pre-Licensed for Max 1000 Lightweight Aironet Access Points, 1U Rack-Mount Appliance, 2×10G SFP+ Uplink Ports, 10 Gbps Total System Non-Blocking Throughput, CUWN Platform, Supports Central Local Mode, FlexConnect and Wireless Mesh, CleanAir RF Spectrum Intelligence, AVC NBAR2 Application Control, AP Stateful Switchover (AP SSO) HA, RTU Right-To-Use Licensing, End-of-Sale Large Campus & Multi-Branch Wireless Controller

2. Full Product Overview

The Cisco AIR-CT8510-1K-K9 is a high-capacity model of the discontinued Cisco 8500 Series wireless LAN controller family running AireOS, a core component of the Cisco Unified Wireless Network (CUWN). Designed for large enterprise campus core gateways, multi-building university and K-12 districts, national retail central hubs, mixed campus-and-branch hybrid networks, and premium mid-tier MSSP multi-tenant deployments requiring high 10G uplink bandwidth and expandable AP scale beyond lower-tier 8510 SKUs.

This unit ships with permanent built-in Right-To-Use (RTU) licensing supporting up to 1000 lightweight Aironet APs. Additional incremental AP RTU adder licenses can expand capacity upward to the hardware maximum of 6000 APs without chassis replacement, enabling phased wireless network growth for both dense campus and geographically distributed branch architectures. It terminates DTLS-encrypted CAPWAP tunnels from all joined thin access points to deliver centralized RF management, enterprise wireless security policy enforcement, seamless Layer 2/3 client mobility, VoWLAN QoS, VideoStream multicast optimization, embedded wIPS wireless intrusion prevention, and TrustSec identity-aware policy enforcement.

The 8510 platform delivers up to 10 Gbps non-blocking throughput, equipped with dual SFP+ 10-Gigabit uplink interfaces supporting copper, SR and LR fiber transceivers. It supports optional redundant AC power supplies and hot-swappable redundant fans to eliminate single points of hardware failure for mission-critical wireless infrastructure. Supported high availability is AP Stateful Switchover (AP SSO), which fully synchronizes AP registration and CAPWAP tunnel state between redundant controllers; active wireless client session synchronization is not supported on this hardware platform. The platform supports three primary deployment modes: Central Local Mode for campus, FlexConnect local switching for remote branches, and wireless mesh for hard-to-wire locations.

Cisco marked the entire 8510 Series End-of-Sale (EoS) Oct 7, 2020 and End-of-Support (EoL) Jan 31, 2027; all available inventory consists of surplus, used, or certified refurbished hardware. It fully interoperates with all Aironet 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wave1/2 lightweight access points. Administrators can manage via local HTTPS web GUI, AireOS-based SSH CLI, and centralized orchestration through Cisco Prime Infrastructure.

Key Upgrade vs AIR-CT8510-100-K9: Larger native 1000 AP base license, expanded memory and session tables optimized for high-density client populations, larger roaming scale, ideal for consolidated multi-floor campus and large-scale distributed FlexConnect branch deployments.

3. Complete Hardware Physical & Interface Specifications

Form Factor & Mechanical

Rack Form Factor: Standard 1U 19-inch rack-mount chassis
Dimensions: 44.45 mm (H) × 431.8 mm (W) × 711.2 mm (D) / 1.75 × 17 × 28 inches
Unit Weight: 15.9 kg (35 lbs) with dual power supplies installed
Cooling System: Multiple hot-swappable redundant internal cooling fans
Power Supply: Single AC PSU standard; optional second redundant PSU for fault tolerance

Rear Panel Interface Layout

2× 10G SFP+ uplink slots (supports SFP+ copper, SR, LR fiber transceivers; supports LAG EtherChannel aggregation)
1× 10/100/1000BASE-T RJ45 dedicated Service Port for isolated out-of-band management
Dual console ports: RJ45 RS-232 serial console + VGA console port for local CLI configuration and recovery
Type-A USB port for local firmware upload, configuration backup and restore
Dual AC power supply input slots (primary + optional redundant secondary PSU)
Physical security lock slot for anti-theft security cable attachment

Front Panel LED Status Indicators

Global status LEDs: Power 1, Power 2, System Health, Critical Fault Alarm, Fan Status

Per-port Link/Activity status LEDs for both 10G SFP+ uplink interfaces and dedicated service port

Power & Environmental Parameters

Input AC Range: Universal 100–240 VAC, 50/60 Hz power input
Maximum Total Power Consumption: 675 W with dual PSUs fully populated
Operating Temperature: 5°C to 40°C (41°F to 104°F)
Storage Temperature: -40°C to 65°C (-40°F to 149°F)
Humidity: 10%–90% non-condensing (operation & storage)
Regulatory Certifications: UL 60950-1 safety, CE, FCC Class A EMC, ICES-003, VCCI

Official Licensed Capacity & Performance Benchmarks

Factory Licensed AP Count: 1000 lightweight APs (expandable up to hardware maximum 6000 APs via incremental RTU AP licenses)
Maximum Concurrent Active Wireless Clients: 64,000 total across all managed APs
System Non-Blocking Throughput: Up to 10 Gbps
Supported Unique WLAN SSIDs: Up to 512 broadcast/hidden SSIDs
Maximum 802.1Q Tagged VLAN Interfaces: Up to 4,096 VLANs
Max AP Groups for Segmented Wireless Policy Control: 6,000 independent AP groups
Max FlexConnect Remote Branch Groups: 2,000 groups (max 100 APs per group)
Roaming Capabilities: Intra-controller Layer2 seamless roaming, Layer3 inter-VLAN mobility, 802.11r fast secure roaming
Supported Wireless Standards: 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wave 1/2, WMM, 802.11k/r/u/w/h
Max Detected Rogue APs: 32,000; Max Rogue Wireless Clients: 24,000
Max RFID Location Tags Tracking: 50,000 tags for wireless location-based services
Supports TLS/SSL Decryption and IPsec VPN traffic processing

4. Complete Unified 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 profiles and global security policy deployment. Supports three deployment modes: Central Local Mode, FlexConnect local switching to reduce WAN backhaul bandwidth consumption, and enterprise wireless mesh networks. Also compatible with OfficeExtend teleworker APs for secure remote home connectivity.

2. Cisco CleanAir Intelligent RF Spectrum Management

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

3. Enterprise-Grade Wireless Security Stack

Authentication Standards: IEEE 802.1X EAP-TLS/PEAP/EAP-FAST, local internal user database, external RADIUS/TACACS+ AAA integration
Encryption Protocols: WEP, WPA2-PSK/Enterprise (802.11i RSN), AES-CCMP, TKIP
Wireless Threat Mitigation: Built-in wIPS wireless intrusion prevention, rogue AP containment, wireless client isolation, MAC address filtering, dynamic per-SSID VLAN assignment, downloadable per-user ACLs
Compliance: PCI DSS validated architecture for retail wireless POS payment deployments

4. Identity-Aware Zero Trust Policy Enforcement

Native integration with Active Directory, Cisco ISE and AnyConnect Secure Client to deliver user/group context-based access control, TrustSec software-defined segmentation, and BYOD device profiling.

5. 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 minimize voice call interruptions during client movement.

6. Application Visibility and Control (AVC)

Layer 7 deep application identification powered by NBAR2 for thousands of enterprise, SaaS, social media and cloud applications; application-based traffic filtering, DSCP QoS marking, rate limiting and Flexible NetFlow v9 reporting for granular traffic governance.

7. Integrated VPN Services

Site-to-Site IPsec IKEv1/IKEv2 tunnels with AES-256 encryption; AnyConnect SSL remote access VPN with split tunneling, customizable clientless web portal and secure mobility for distributed global remote workforce.

8. High Availability & Scalability

Active/Standby AP Stateful Switchover (AP SSO): Full synchronization of AP registration and CAPWAP tunnel state between redundant controllers; active client session state is not replicated
Multi-controller mobility groups for cross-controller Layer3 roaming and unified guest anchor tunneling across multiple 8510 controllers
LAG EtherChannel link aggregation supported on both 10G SFP+ uplink ports for bandwidth aggregation and link redundancy
Optional dual redundant power supplies and hot-swappable fans eliminate hardware single points of failure

9. Traffic Visibility, Logging & Compliance

Real-time monitoring via local HTTPS web GUI; secure encrypted syslog, SNMP v3 and Flexible NetFlow export to third-party SIEM platforms. Persistent audit logging meets enterprise PCI DSS, HIPAA and GDPR regulatory requirements for large distributed wireless networks.

10. Device Management & Automation

Standalone local administration: HTTPS web GUI, AireOS SSH CLI, serial console
Centralized multi-controller orchestration, unified policy distribution and cross-network reporting via Cisco Prime Infrastructure
RTU Right-To-Use AP licensing model with capacity expandability
RESTful API support for automated controller provisioning and wireless lifecycle management

5. Typical Deployment Scenarios

Large enterprise campus core wireless gateway supporting up to 1000 APs, expandable to full 6000 AP hardware capacity
Multi-building university and K-12 district unified wireless consolidation projects
National retail headquarters wireless hubs with PCI DSS wireless POS compliance requirements
Hybrid campus + FlexConnect multi-branch combined wireless architecture
Mid-premium MSSP multi-tenant wireless security infrastructure with isolated policy domains
Legacy CUWN network refresh replacing older 5508 / Flex7510 controllers with high-throughput 10G capable multi-mode platform
Lab, staging and pre-production environments for campus, mesh and FlexConnect mixed architecture testing

6. Short Sales Listing Tagline

Cisco AIR-CT8510-1K-K9 Legacy 1U Rackmount High-Capacity AireOS Wireless LAN Controller, Factory Pre-Licensed for Max 1000 Lightweight Aironet APs (Expandable to Hardware Max 6000 APs), 2×10G SFP+ Uplink Ports, 10Gbps Non-Blocking System Throughput, Redundant Fans & Optional Dual PSU Support, Supports Central Mode / FlexConnect / Wireless Mesh, CleanAir RF Spectrum Intelligence, NBAR2 AVC Layer7 Application Control, AP SSO Stateful HA & Mobility Groups, RTU Right-To-Use Licensing, Managed via Local Web GUI, AireOS SSH CLI or Cisco Prime Infrastructure, EoS Scalable CUWN WLC for Large Enterprise Campuses & National Multi-Site Headquarters Deployments


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