Cisco C9800-80-CA-K9 | Catalyst 9800-80 Wireless Controller, 80 Gbps, 6000 APs

Q: How many access points can the Catalyst 9800-80 support?
A: The C9800-80 supports up to 6,000 access points and 64,000 concurrent wireless clients. Cisco recommends planning deployments at approximately 80% of maximum scale (around 4,800 APs) for optimal performance, though full-scale deployments are validated and supported.

Q: What uplink options are available on this controller?
A: The controller includes eight built-in 10GE/1GE SFP+ ports and one EPA expansion slot. The EPA slot supports optional modular uplinks including 100GE, 40GE, and 10GE interfaces via hot-swappable modules like C9800-18X1GE and C9800-10X10GE, allowing flexible connectivity for campus and data center environments.

Q: Does the C9800-80 support high availability configurations?
A: Yes, the controller supports Stateful Switchover (SSO) high availability with sub-second failover times. You can deploy two C9800-80 controllers in an HA pair, and the platform also supports N+1 redundancy architectures. Dual redundant power supplies provide hardware-level resilience.

Q: What access point models are compatible with this controller?
A: The C9800-80 is compatible with Cisco Aironet Wave 2 802.11ac access points and all Cisco Catalyst 9100 Series Wi-Fi 6/6E (802.11ax) access points. It manages APs using CAPWAP protocol and supports centralized, FlexConnect, and SD-Access wireless deployment modes.

Q: Can this controller be managed through Cisco DNA Center?
A: Yes, the Catalyst 9800-80 integrates natively with Cisco DNA Center for centralized provisioning, monitoring, assurance, and analytics. It also supports local management via embedded WebUI, CLI, SNMP, and programmable APIs including NETCONF, RESTCONF, and YANG data models for automation.