What’s New In Cisco Wireless Software 8.0.110 – 8.1.102

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Cisco Wireless Software 8.1.102 has been released and it’s time to bring my notes up to date.

These are abridged notes covering high points. Read the release notes for yourself and test your chosen build before deploying it in production.

8.0.110 (Release Notes)

Note: If you need to run 8.0.110 (or 7.6), please read this post: TAC Recommended AireOS 7.6 and 8.0 – 2Q CY15

  • If you have 3700P APs, don’t install this release. Contact TAC. This warning doesn’t apply to 3700i or 3700e.
  • Support added for the 1570 AP
    • Handful of features added to support 1570 specific features.
  • Support for priming universal APs (APs not locked to a regulatory domain) and auto setting the regulatory domain based on location. See Cisco Aironet Universal AP Priming and Cisco AirProvision User Guide for more info.
  • Enhancements to Express Setup for the 2500 WLC.
  • SSLv3 is now disabled by default.
  • Lots of resolved caveats. Lots of open ones, too…

8.0.115 (Release Notes)

  • Nothing new. Very short list of bug fixes, mainly for the 3700P.
  • The 8.0.110 special build (mentioned in the TAC Recommended link above) may be a better bet right now.

8.1.102 (Release Notes)

  • Virtual WLC now supported on KVM.
  • These APs retain feature parity with 8.0 and do not gain new features: 1050, 1140, 1260. Nice to see support not completely vanish, yet.
  • Support for WLC 5520 and 8540 added.
  • Dynamic Bandwidth Selection (DBS)
    • Chooses 20/40/80MHz channel width automatically. Tries to balance client needs with RF needs. I’ll be interested to hear what others think. I’m sticking with 40MHz.
  • Flexible DFS
    • Automatically adjust channel and width to avoid radar for more efficient channel usage. I presume this leverages DBS.
  • Enhanced Interference Mitigation
    • ED-RRM now also takes Wi-Fi interferers into account.
  • Optimized Roaming Extensions (802.11v BSS Transition Management)
    • Infrastructure helps clients make better roaming choices. Not sure what clients actually support this.
  • Defaults now implement best practices.
  • AVC added to FlexConnect APs
    • I’ve been told this isn’t supported on the 2504, but the release notes don’t say. YMMV.
  • SNMP MIB enhanced to allow monitoring of an HA WLC.
  • Support for Lync SDN API.
    • In short, Lync tells the WLC when a call is happening so the WLC can take QoS actions.
  • AVC updates
    • Per app, per client rate limiting
    • AVC based QoS markings
  • Inter controller roaming across IOS-XE and AireOS based controllers (8500 series, 5520, 5760)
  • AAA can override FlexConnect VLAN.
  • Stateful client switchover for mesh APs (RAPs and MAPs)
  • There is a decent list of caveats. Please go read them for yourself if you find this release of interest.

Notes at the end remind that 7.6 is still the recommended release for 802.11ac deployments, with 7.4 for 802.11n deployments.

Also, Field Upgradeable Software (FUS) 1.9 is recommended. You can do a “show sysinfo” to see what you have installed. Look for the Firmware Version line and the Field Recovery Image Version. If you have FUS 1.9, it will look like this:

Bootloader Version............................... 1.0.20
Field Recovery Image Version..................... 7.6.101.1

FIN

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