Wireless RF Access Point

The Cisco Aironet® 1200 Series IEEE 802.11 a/b/g Access Point sets the enterprise standard for high-performance, secure, manageable, and flexible wireless LANs (WLANs). The modular design of the Cisco Aironet 1200 allows single or dual radio configuration for up to 54 Mbps connectivity in both the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands and is fully compliant with IEEE 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g standards. Providing numerous configuration and upgrade options, the Cisco Aironet 1200 Series supports a variety of clients in mixed frequency and mixed throughput environments. Whether configured for single 802.11a coverage, single 802.11g coverage, 802.11b/g coverage or for tri-mode 802.11a/b/g coverage, the Cisco Aironet 1200 offers the greatest flexibility and investment protection, allowing network administrators to deploy a wireless network optimized for their particular application.

The Cisco Aironet 1200 takes advantage of Cisco IOS® Software for ease-of-use and familiarity and is a key component of the Cisco Structured Wireless-Aware Network (SWAN), a comprehensive framework that delivers an integrated, end-to-end wired and wireless network. The Cisco Aironet 1200 Series provides customers with maximum freedom and flexibility, enabling constant connection to all network resources from virtually anywhere wireless access is deployed.

Modular Design for Customer-Specific Functionality and Upgrade Capability for Investment Protection

The Cisco Aironet 1200 Series is specifically designed to protect current and future network infrastructure investments. The 802.11a radio supports data rates of up to 54 Mbps on eight non-overlapping 5 GHz channels to offer high performance as well as maximum capacity and scalability. The 802.11g radio supports data rates up to 54 Mbps in the 2.4 GHz band. When using an 802.11g radio, the access point may be configured to support only 802.11g clients for high-bandwidth applications, or, for added investment protection, it may be configured to support both 802.11g and legacy 802.11b clients.

The 1200 Series provides the flexibility to change capabilities as customer requirements and technologies evolve. CardBus-based 802.11a upgrade modules can be easily installed into Cisco Aironet 1200 Series Access Points originally configured for 802.11b or 802.11g. The 802.11b Mini-PCI radio module in installed Aironet 1200 Series access points can be replaced with an 802.11g upgrade module to provide increased performance with complete backward compatibility.

Intelligent Networking Features for a Scalable, Manageable Solution

The Cisco Aironet 1200 Series extends end-to-end intelligent networking to the wireless access point. Cisco command-line interface (CLI) allows customers to quickly and consistently implement the extended capabilities available in Cisco IOS Software. Customers can manage and standardize their networks using tools they have developed internally for their Cisco routers and switches.

An ideal choice for enterprise installations, the Cisco Aironet 1200 Series supports enterprise-class virtual LANs (VLANs), quality of service (QoS) and proxy mobile Internet Protocol (IP). The Cisco Aironet 1200 Series can manage up to 16 VLANs in single-mode or dual-mode operation (Figure 2), which allows customers to differentiate LAN policies and services—such as security and QoS—for different users. For example, enterprise customers can use different VLANs to segregate employee traffic from guest traffic, and further segregate those traffic groups from high-priority voice traffic. Traffic to and from wireless clients with varying security capabilities can be segregated into VLANs with varying security policies. For example, VLANs allow educational institutions to secure faculty and administrator traffic from student traffic traveling over the same infrastructure. Implementing VLAN segmentation increases wireless LAN manageability and security.

Enterprise-Class Security Solution

Wireless LAN security is a primary concern. The Cisco Aironet 1200 Series secures the enterprise network with a scalable and manageable system featuring the award-winning Cisco Wireless Security Suite. Based on the IEEE 802.1X standard for port-based network access, the Cisco Wireless Security Suite takes advantage of the Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) framework for user-based authentication (Figure 5). This solution also supports Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA), the new Wi-Fi Alliance specification for interoperable, standards-based wireless LAN security.

The Cisco Wireless Security Suite interoperates with a range of client devices. It supports all 802.1X authentication types, including Cisco LEAP, Extensible Authentication Protocol-Transport Layer Security (EAP-TLS) and types that operate over EAP-TLS, such as Protected Extensible Authentication Protocol (PEAP), EAP-Tunneled TLS (EAP-TTLS) and EAP-Subscriber Identity Module (EAP-SIM). A wide selection of RADIUS servers, such as the Cisco Secure Access Control Server (ACS), can be used for enterprise-class centralized user management that includes:

Strong, mutual authentication to ensure that only legitimate clients associate with legitimate and authorized network RADIUS servers via authorized access points
Dynamic per-user, per-session encryption keys that automatically change on a configurable basis to protect the privacy of transmitted data
Stronger encryption provided by Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP) enhancements such as message integrity check (MIC), per-packet keys via initialization vector hashing, and broadcast key rotation
802.11g version is ready for Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) support
RADIUS accounting records for all authentication attempts

Investment Protection for Future-Proof Networks

With large storage capacity and support for Cisco management tools, the Cisco Aironet 1200 Series provides the capacity and the means to upgrade firmware and deliver new features as they become available. It features more than twice the amount of storage required by the initial Cisco IOS firmware load and the tools for IS professionals to centrally and automatically upgrade firmware on often remote access points across the enterprise. For additional investment protection, the Cisco Aironet 1200 Series comes complete with an integrated mounting system that secures the device using the customer's choice of laptop security cables or standard padlocks (Figure 6). The reliability of the 2.4 GHz solution also makes the Cisco Aironet 1200 Series a wise investment for enterprise customers. It provides field-proven reliability, featuring a Cisco Aironet fifth-generation 2.4 GHz radio. The 5 GHz radio maximizes capacity and performance, delivering up to 54 Mbps data rates on all eight available channels and allowing the wireless network to scale to accommodate a large number of users. With the Cisco Aironet 1200 Series, a single access point can add capacity to support new users by simultaneously operating one radio for 802.11a networked clients while maintaining another radio for 802.11b or 802.11b/g clients. The redundant hot-standby feature also aids in the overall reliability of the network by providing a backup access point in the rare case of a failure.

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