Cisco C9800-L-F-K9 Full English Product Description

1. Short Official Part & License Label

C9800-L-F-K9: Cisco Catalyst 9800-L Fiber Variant IOS-XE Wireless LAN Controller, Base Hardware Platform, Default Capacity Supports Max 250 Lightweight APs / 5,000 Wireless Clients (Upgradable via Optional High-Performance License to 500 APs / 10,000 Clients), Half-Width Desktop / Optional 19-inch 1RU Rack Mount, 2×10G SFP+ Fiber Uplink Slots + 4×2.5G Multigigabit RJ45 Ports, Base 5 Gbps Throughput (10 Gbps with High-Performance License), Intent-Based DNA-Ready WLC, Supports Wi‑Fi 6/6E APs, CleanAir RF, FlexConnect, aWIPS, ETA Encrypted Traffic Analytics, Full AP+Client Stateful Switchover (SSO) HA, ISSU In-Service Software Upgrade, Modular IOS-XE Operating System

2. Full Product Overview

The Cisco C9800-L-F-K9 is the fiber uplink variant of the Catalyst 9800-L compact wireless LAN controller family built on modern modular Cisco IOS‑XE, belonging to Cisco’s Intent‑Based Next-Generation Wireless portfolio. Designed for medium enterprise remote campuses, large regional branch headquarters, multi-site retail chains, K‑12 satellite campuses and medium-density SMB environments that require fiber 10G uplink connectivity for long-distance fiber cabling, rather than copper multigigabit interfaces used on the C9800-L-C-K9 copper model.

Out-of-box baseline capacity supports up to 250 lightweight APs and 5,000 concurrent wireless clients with 5 Gbps system throughput. Administrators can activate an optionalLIC-C9800L-PERF high-performance licenseto scale capacity up to 500 APs, 10,000 clients and boost throughput to 10 Gbps without hardware replacement. It terminates DTLS‑encrypted CAPWAP tunnels for Catalyst 9100 Wi‑Fi 6/6E and legacy Aironet Wave 2 lightweight APs, supporting Central Local Mode, FlexConnect distributed branch switching and native SD‑Access Fabric integration.

The platform delivers enterprise-grade zero-trust security, modern programmability and robust high availability. Key platform innovations: modular IOS‑XE with hot patching and ISSU to avoid outages during firmware upgrades, secure boot and image signature validation, Encrypted Traffic Analytics (ETA), advanced aWIPS wireless intrusion prevention, WPA3 security standards, and seamless integration with Cisco ISE and Catalyst Center for automated policy orchestration. Full AP + Client SSO synchronizes CAPWAP tunnels and active client sessions for sub-second zero‑downtime failover within active/standby HA topology.

C9800-L series is still fully supported hardware, not End-of-Sale. Licensing adopts Cisco Smart Licensing / Smart Licensing Using Policy (SLP), replacing legacy RTU licensing schemes. Management options include embedded web UI, IOS‑XE SSH CLI, NETCONF/YANG programmable APIs and centralized orchestration via Catalyst Center or Cisco Prime Infrastructure.

Key differentiation versus C9800-L-C-K9: Equipped with two 10G SFP+ fiber uplink slots instead of multigigabit copper uplinks, supporting SR/LR fiber transceivers for long-haul fiber uplink deployments in campus and datacenter interconnection scenarios.

3. Complete Hardware Physical & Interface Specifications

Form Factor & Mechanical

Rack Form Factor: Half-width compact desktop chassis; optional rack mount kit for standard 1RU 19-inch rack installation
Dimensions: 44.45 mm (H) × 215.9 mm (W) × 271.5 mm (D) / 1.75 × 8.5 × 10.69 inches
Unit Weight: 2.0 kg (4.4 lbs) with external power adapter
Cooling: Single internal cooling fan
Power Supply: External universal AC power adapter (110W DC output); no internal redundant PSU slot

Rear Panel Interface Layout

2×10G SFP+ uplink slots (Supports SFP+ SR, LR, LRM fiber transceivers and SFP+ copper modules; LAG EtherChannel supported)
4× 1/2.5G Multigigabit RJ45 access ports
RJ45 RS‑232 serial console port for local CLI configuration
USB 3.0 Type‑A port for firmware upload, configuration backup and restore
Dedicated RJ45 out-of-band Service Port for isolated management traffic
DC power input jack for external AC power adapter
Physical security lock slot for anti-theft security cable attachment

Front Panel LED Status Indicators

Global status LEDs: Power, System Health, Critical Fault Alarm

Per-port Link/Activity LEDs for all SFP+ uplinks, Multigigabit ports and dedicated service port

Power & Environmental Parameters

Input AC Range: Universal 100–240 VAC, 50/60 Hz power input
Maximum Power Consumption: 87 W fully loaded
Operating Temperature: 0°C to 40°C (32°F to 104°F)
Storage Temperature: -20°C to 70°C (-4°F to 158°F)
Humidity: 5%–95% non‑condensing (operation & storage)
Regulatory Certifications: UL 60950‑1 safety, CE, FCC Class B EMC, ICES‑003, VCCI

Official Licensed Capacity & Performance Benchmarks

Baseline (No High‑Performance License):

Supported Lightweight APs: Max 250
Maximum Concurrent Wireless Clients: 5,000
Total System Throughput: 5 Gbps

With Optional High‑Performance License:
Supported Lightweight APs: Max 500
Maximum Concurrent Wireless Clients: 10,000
Total System Throughput: 10 Gbps
Supported Unique WLAN SSIDs: Up to 4,096 broadcast/hidden SSIDs
Maximum 802.1Q Tagged VLAN Interfaces: Up to 4,096 VLANs
Max AP Groups for Segmented Policy Control: 1,000 independent AP groups
Max FlexConnect Remote Branch Groups: 1,000 groups (max 25 APs per group)
Roaming Capabilities: Intra‑controller Layer 2 seamless roaming, Layer 3 inter‑controller mobility groups, 802.11r fast secure roaming
Supported Wireless Standards: 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wave 2, Wi‑Fi 6/6E, WMM, 802.11k/r/u/w/h, Hotspot 2.0 Passpoint, WPA3‑SAE Enterprise
Max Detected Rogue APs: 2,000; Max Rogue Wireless Clients: 5,000
Supports Flexible NetFlow, Streaming Telemetry and Encrypted Traffic Analytics (ETA)

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 templates. Deployment modes: Central Local Mode, FlexConnect Local Switching for remote branches, SD‑Access Fabric integrated mode. Supports OfficeExtend teleworker APs; wireless mesh supported on compatible Catalyst/Aironet AP models.

2. Cisco CleanAir Intelligent RF Spectrum Management

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

3. Enterprise-Grade Wireless Security Stack

Authentication: IEEE 802.1X EAP‑TLS/PEAP/EAP‑FAST, local user database, external RADIUS/TACACS+ AAA integration
Encryption Protocols: WEP, WPA2‑PSK/Enterprise, WPA3‑SAE/Enterprise, AES‑CCMP
Threat Mitigation: Built-in advanced aWIPS wireless intrusion prevention, rogue AP containment, client isolation, dynamic per‑SSID VLAN assignment, downloadable per‑user ACLs
Encrypted Traffic Analytics (ETA): Identify threats hidden within encrypted traffic without full packet decryption
TrustSec integration for software-defined segmentation, ISE BYOD device profiling
Compliance: PCI DSS validated architecture for retail wireless POS deployments

4. Identity-Aware Zero Trust Policy Enforcement

Native integration with Active Directory, Cisco ISE and AnyConnect Secure Client to enforce user/group context-based access control, supporting granular zero-trust segmentation and dynamic policy assignment based on device identity, user credentials and network health status.

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 eliminate 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 traffic visibility and 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 & Software Upgrades

Active/Standby Full AP+Client Stateful Switchover (SSO): Synchronizes CAPWAP tunnels, PMK cache and active client session state for zero‑service interruption during failover or maintenance
N+1 multi-controller redundancy mode supported
ISSU In‑Service Software Upgrade and modular hot patching for non‑disruptive operating system updates
LAG EtherChannel link aggregation supported on all 10G SFP+ uplink ports for bandwidth aggregation and link redundancy

9. Traffic Visibility, Logging & Compliance

Real-time traffic monitoring via embedded HTTPS web GUI; secure encrypted syslog, SNMP v3 and Streaming Telemetry export to third-party SIEM platforms. Persistent audit logging meets enterprise PCI DSS, HIPAA and GDPR regulatory requirements.

10. Programmability & Device Management

Standalone local administration: Embedded HTTPS WebUI, IOS‑XE CLI via SSH v2, serial console
Centralized multi-controller orchestration, unified policy distribution and cross-network reporting via Cisco Catalyst Center (DNA Center) or Cisco Prime Infrastructure
Open standard APIs: NETCONF, YANG, RESTCONF for automated zero-touch provisioning and wireless lifecycle management
Cisco Smart Licensing / Smart Licensing Using Policy (SLP)

5. Typical Deployment Scenarios

Medium enterprise remote campus wireless gateway supporting up to 250 APs, expandable to full 500 AP hardware capacity with performance license
Multi-building K‑12 and higher education satellite campus deployments requiring long-distance fiber uplinks
Medium-density retail chain headquarters wireless infrastructure with PCI DSS wireless POS compliance
Hybrid campus + FlexConnect multi-branch wireless architecture with fiber core interconnections
Medium-density SDDC wireless access boundaries leveraging 10G fiber uplinks
Legacy AireOS CUWN migration replacing older 3504 / 5520 controllers with modern IOS‑XE Wi‑Fi 6-ready fiber-capable platform
Lab, staging and pre-production environments for SD‑Access, zero-trust wireless architecture testing

6. Short Sales Listing Tagline

Cisco C9800-L-F-K9 Compact Fiber Uplink IOS-XE Wireless LAN Controller, Factory Licensed for Max 250 Lightweight Aironet/Catalyst APs (Expandable to 500 APs via High-Performance License), Half-Width Desktop / Optional 1U Rackmount, 2×10G SFP+ Fiber Uplink Ports + 4×2.5G Multigigabit Ports, 5Gbps Base / 10Gbps Licensed Throughput, DNA-Ready Intent-Based WLC, Supports Wi-Fi 6/6E, CleanAir RF, FlexConnect, aWIPS & ETA Encrypted Traffic Analytics, Full AP+Client SSO Stateful HA, ISSU Hot Patching, IOS-XE Modular OS, Smart Licensing, Managed via Local WebUI, IOS-XE CLI or Catalyst Center, Modern Wireless Controller for Medium Enterprise Fiber-Core Campuses & Regional Branch Deployments


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