Cisco has a built a single technology strategy for fixed and wireless networking and called it Unified Access Data Plane (UADP)
This relies heavily on a Cisco chipset called “Flexparser” ASIC which Cisco announced in Cisco Live London 2013.
Cisco claims the following feature about UADP:
- Unique and powerful Cisco innovation
- Hardware performance with software flexibility
- Optimized Performance
- CAPWAP encapsulation/de-capsulation, Flexible Netflow, QoS happens in ASIC for line rate performance
- Future Proofed and Programmable
- Flexparser enables new software features (like SDN) over the product lifetime
- UADP is used across multiple mid-range platforms – Catalyst 3850, Sup 8E (Cat4500), WLC5760 (signs are that more are on the way at the lower end of the market).
Confusingly, a lot of Cisco documentation talks about “UADP – Unified Access Data Plane ASIC” instead of separating the software and hardware into two different components.
