Cisco Enterprise Wireless Mesh License Information

I did not touch on this topic earlier but I have finally found official information about the licensing structure of the Cisco Enterprise Wireless Mesh product. Previously, it was assumed that licensing would be $500 per AP based on that EWM Q&A sheet that Cisco had. However, when I went to purchase said license, I was informed that it had not actually been created yet.

That has officially changed. No longer is licensing $500 per AP. You now license your controller based on it's maximum AP count (12/25/50...). Now I originally thought that meant I would be paying $500 25-times even though I only needed about 4 licenses. However, it turns out Cisco did a good thing here. The licensing structure is actually something as follows:

AIR-AP-LIC-M-12 12-AP = $750
AIR-AP-LIC-M-25 25-AP = $1500
AIR-AP-LIC-M-50 50-AP = $2500

Looks like I am making out with less cost than anticipated.


Licensing is actually not currently enforced so you do not need the license to make the technology work. However, I am under the impression that by version 5.2 of the controller code, the mesh chain will roll back into the primary release and will be an enforced license.

More on this later.