Cisco AIR-CT8540-K9 Full English Product Description
1. Short Official Part & License Label
AIR-CT8540-K9: Cisco 8540 Series Flagship High-Density AireOS Wireless LAN Controller Chassis, Zero Pre-Built AP Base License (Capacity Enabled via Separate RTU AP Licenses), 2U Rack-Mount Appliance, 4×10G SFP+ Uplink Ports, 40 Gbps Total Non-Blocking System Throughput, CUWN Platform, Supports Central Local Mode, FlexConnect and Wireless Mesh, CleanAir RF Spectrum Intelligence, NBAR2 AVC Layer7 Application Control, Full AP+Client Stateful Switchover (SSO) HA, Mobility Groups, Integrated CIMC Remote Management, End-of-Sale Datacenter-Class Large Campus & Service Provider Wireless Controller
2. Full Product Overview
The Cisco AIR-CT8540-K9 is the flagship top-tier hardware chassis of the discontinued Cisco 8500 Series wireless LAN controller family running AireOS, built on a UCS C240 M4 server foundation. Designed for ultra-large enterprise campus core gateways, full-scale university and K-12 multi-building districts, national retail multi-site headquarters, high-density Software-Defined Data Center wireless boundaries, and carrier-grade MSSP multi-tenant wireless infrastructures requiring massive AP scale and high 10G uplink throughput.
This bare chassis shipswithout factory embedded AP licenses. Network administrators must purchase incremental Right-To-Use (RTU) AP adder licenses to define the number of lightweight Aironet access points the controller can manage, scaling up to the hardware maximum of 6000 APs. It terminates DTLS-encrypted CAPWAP tunnels from all joined thin APs to deliver centralized RF orchestration, 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 zero-trust policy enforcement.
The 8540 platform delivers up to 40 Gbps non-blocking throughput, equipped with four SFP+ 10-Gigabit uplink interfaces supporting copper, SR and LR fiber transceivers. It features hot-swappable redundant fans and supports dual redundant AC/DC power supplies to eliminate single points of hardware failure for mission-critical wireless networks. A key enterprise differentiator versus 8510: it supportsfull AP + Client Stateful Switchover (SSO)high availability, synchronizing AP registration, CAPWAP tunnels and active client session tables between redundant controllers to achieve sub-second zero-downtime failover without client re-authentication. It supports three primary deployment modes: Central Local Mode for campus, FlexConnect local switching for distributed remote branches, and wireless mesh for hard-to-cable locations.
The entire Cisco 8540 series reached End-of-Sale (EoS) and End-of-Support (EoL); 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. Unique platform capability: built-in Cisco Integrated Management Controller (CIMC) for out-of-band remote hardware monitoring, power cycling and console access independent of the wireless controller operating system. Management options include local HTTPS web GUI, AireOS SSH CLI, and centralized orchestration via Cisco Prime Infrastructure.
Key Differentiator vs AIR-CT8510 Series: Higher 40Gbps throughput, full Client+AP SSO, integrated CIMC remote server management, larger maximum AP and client scale, and carrier-grade feature set suitable for service provider hosted wireless architectures.
3. Complete Hardware Physical & Interface Specifications
Form Factor & Mechanical
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Rack Form Factor: Standard 2U 19-inch rack-mount chassis
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Dimensions: 8.70 cm (H) × 482.6 mm (W) × 766.0 mm (D) / 3.43 × 18.96 × 30.18 inches
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Unit Weight: 19.9 kg (44 lbs) with dual redundant PSUs installed
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Cooling System: Multiple hot-swappable redundant internal cooling fans
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Power Supply: Single AC PSU standard; optional second redundant AC or DC PSU for fault tolerance
Rear Panel Interface Layout
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4× 10G SFP+ uplink slots (supports SFP+ copper, SR, LR fiber transceivers; supports LAG EtherChannel aggregation)
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1× 10/100/1000BASE-T RJ45 dedicated Service Port for isolated management traffic
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1× Dedicated 1G Redundancy Port for low-latency SSO inter-controller state synchronization
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1× CIMC Management Port for independent out-of-band hardware remote administration
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RJ45 RS-232 serial console port for local CLI configuration and recovery
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Type-A USB port for local firmware upload, configuration backup and restore
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Dual AC power supply input slots (primary + optional redundant secondary PSU)
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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, Storage Status
Per-port Link/Activity status LEDs for all four 10G SFP+ uplinks, service port, redundancy port and CIMC port
Power & Environmental Parameters
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Input AC Range: Universal 90–264 VAC, 50/60 Hz power input
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Maximum Total Power Consumption: 1200 W fully loaded with dual PSUs
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Operating Temperature: 5°C to 40°C (41°F to 104°F); temperature derate 1°C per 305m altitude
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Storage Temperature: -40°C to 65°C (-40°F to 149°F)
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Humidity: 10%–90% non-condensing (operation & storage)
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Regulatory Certifications: UL 60950-1 safety, CE, FCC Class A EMC, ICES-003, VCCI
Official Licensed Capacity & Performance Benchmarks (Capacity governed by purchased RTU AP licenses)
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Maximum Supported Lightweight APs: Up to 6000 APs (limited by cumulative RTU AP adder licenses)
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Maximum Concurrent Active Wireless Clients: 64,000 total across all managed APs
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System Non-Blocking Throughput: Up to 40 Gbps
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Supported Unique WLAN SSIDs: Up to 512 broadcast/hidden SSIDs
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Maximum 802.1Q Tagged VLAN Interfaces: Up to 4,095 VLANs
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Max AP Groups for Segmented Wireless Policy Control: 6,000 independent AP groups
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Max FlexConnect Remote Branch Groups: 2,000 groups (max 100 APs per group)
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Roaming Capabilities: Intra-controller Layer2 seamless roaming, Layer3 inter-VLAN mobility, 802.11r fast secure roaming (supports 64,000 PMK cache roaming clients)
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Supported Wireless Standards: 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wave 1/2, WMM, 802.11k/r/u/w/h, Hotspot 2.0 Passpoint
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Max Detected Rogue APs: 32,000; Max Rogue Wireless Clients: 24,000
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Max RFID Location Tags Tracking: 50,000 tags for wireless location-based services
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Supports TLS/SSL Decryption, IPsec VPN offload, Proxy Mobile IPv6 MAG for carrier Wi-Fi integration
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
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Authentication Standards: IEEE 802.1X EAP-TLS/PEAP/EAP-FAST, local internal user database, external RADIUS/TACACS+ AAA integration
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Encryption Protocols: WEP, WPA2-PSK/Enterprise, WPA3, AES-CCMP, TKIP
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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
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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. Supports Bonjour gateway services across Layer 3 boundaries.
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 & Carrier Wi-Fi 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 workforce. Supports Proxy Mobile IPv6 MAG for integration with cellular mobile networks.
8. High Availability & Scalability
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Active/Standby Full AP+Client Stateful Switchover (SSO): Complete synchronization of AP registration, CAPWAP tunnels, PMK cache and active client session state for sub-second zero service interruption during failover or maintenance
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Multi-controller mobility groups for cross-controller Layer3 roaming and unified guest anchor tunneling across multiple 8540 controllers
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LAG EtherChannel link aggregation supported on all four 10G SFP+ uplink ports for bandwidth aggregation and link redundancy
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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 v9 export to third-party SIEM platforms. Persistent audit logging meets enterprise PCI DSS, HIPAA and GDPR regulatory requirements for large-scale distributed wireless networks.
10. Device Management & Automation
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Standalone local administration: HTTPS web GUI, AireOS SSH CLI, serial console plus independent CIMC out-of-band hardware management
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Centralized multi-controller orchestration, unified policy distribution and cross-network reporting via Cisco Prime Infrastructure
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RTU Right-To-Use AP licensing model with flexible capacity expandability
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RESTful API support for automated controller provisioning and wireless lifecycle management
5. Typical Deployment Scenarios
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Datacenter-class core wireless controller supporting ultra-large consolidated enterprise campus wireless architectures
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Multi-building university and K-12 district large-scale unified wireless consolidation projects
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National retail headquarters wireless hubs with PCI DSS wireless POS compliance requirements
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Premium carrier-grade MSSP multi-tenant hosted wireless infrastructure with isolated policy domains
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Mixed campus + FlexConnect global multi-site enterprise wireless deployments
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Legacy CUWN network refresh replacing older 5508 / Flex7510 / 8510 controllers with high-throughput full SSO capable platform
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Lab, staging and pre-production environments for carrier Wi-Fi, mesh and mixed campus-branch architecture testing
6. Short Sales Listing Tagline
Cisco AIR-CT8540-K9 Legacy 2U Rackmount Flagship AireOS Wireless LAN Controller Chassis, Zero Pre-Installed AP License (Capacity Enabled via Separate RTU AP Licenses), 4×10G SFP+ Uplink Ports, 40Gbps Non-Blocking System Throughput, Integrated CIMC Remote Out-of-Band Management, Redundant Fans & Optional Dual PSU Support, Supports Central Mode / FlexConnect / Wireless Mesh, CleanAir RF Spectrum Intelligence, NBAR2 AVC Layer7 Application Control, Full AP+Client SSO Stateful HA & Mobility Groups, Managed via Local Web GUI, AireOS SSH CLI or Cisco Prime Infrastructure, EoS Datacenter-Grade CUWN WLC for Ultra-Large Enterprise Campuses & Service Provider Wireless Deployments
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