One controller. Every vendor.

Optaro's own controller. It manages access points and switches over SSH, the interface the hardware already has, rather than through a vendor's cloud or licence server. Cambium access points are the first it supports and Ruckus is in build now. It is hosted and operated for you on CloudWLC in the same way as our other controllers.

Because it is open about which hardware it will manage, not tied to one manufacturer. It is a commercial product from Optaro, not an open-source project: the name is about your network being free of vendor lock-in, not about the source code.

Every enterprise access point and switch carries a management interface that answers to whoever owns the device, and on this class of hardware that is SSH. OpenWLC uses it directly. Nothing is installed on your devices, their firmware is unmodified, and no vendor cloud sits in the path.

Cambium access points from launch. Ruckus access points are in development now, over the access point's own SSH interface. Enterprise switches and further access point vendors follow. We publish supported models and firmware as each is tested rather than promising a list in advance, and the estates customers tell us about set the order we build in.

That is what it is built for. A hotel refurbished twice has two or three generations of hardware in it, and each vendor's own controller can only see its own, so channels collide and nobody owns the radio plan. OpenWLC treats the site as the unit: one inventory, one change history, and channel, width, power and band planned across every access point in the building. Site-wide RF automation arrives with the Manage and Optimise phases; manual channel, width and power control is there from launch.

That is next. Ports, VLANs and PoE belong on the same site as the access points they power, so the wired and wireless halves stop being two separate jobs. Access points come first.

OpenWLC Control launches on Friday 25 September, alongside the CloudWLC portal. Manage and Optimise follow.

No. There is one CloudWLC price. Control, Manage and Optimise are the phases the controller is delivered in, not tiers you pay more for, so each phase arrives as part of what you already pay.

OpenWLC Control: customer accounts with 2FA and tenant isolation, multiple sites, reviewed AP adoption, inventory, import from Cambium Cloud and a guided cutover; creating, editing and assigning WLANs with open or WPA2-PSK security and VLANs; manual radio control of channel, width and power; and configuration history with verified readback and rollback. Enterprise security, RADIUS and automatic RF arrive in the Manage phase.

Cambium enterprise Wi-Fi access points. Tell us the models you run when you reserve your place and we will confirm your estate before launch day.

Cambium's guidance is that without its cloud licensing service, a cnMaestro On-Premises server cannot add or remove devices. That applies to every cnMaestro server, wherever it runs. OpenWLC does not use that service at all, so replacing a failed access point or expanding a site stays possible. The same principle applies to every vendor we add: nothing has to ask permission before you can use hardware you own.

No. Sign up now. Getting your estate collected and onto CloudWLC while Cambium's cloud is still running is the safe first step, and it puts you in the right place for OpenWLC the day it launches.

No. OpenWLC is an independent product from Optaro. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or developed with Cambium Networks, RUCKUS Networks or any other equipment vendor. Their names appear here only to describe which hardware it manages.