The three feature sets available with all Cisco Catalyst 3850 Series Switches are:

• LAN Base: Enterprise access Layer 2 switching features
• IP Base: Enterprise access Layer 3 switching features
• IP Services: Advanced enterprise Layer 3 switching (IPv4 and IPv6) features

The LAN Base feature set offers enhanced intelligent services that include comprehensive Layer 2 features, with up to 255 VLANs. The IP Base feature set provides entry-level enterprise services in addition to all LAN Base features, with 1K VLANs. IP Base also includes the support for wireless controller functionality (mobility agent and mobility controller role; additional access point license required for mobility controller role), routed access, smart operations, FNF, and so on. The IP Services feature set provides full enterprise services that include advanced Layer 3 features such as EIGRP, OSPF, BGP, PIM, and IPv6 routing such as OSPFv3 and EIGRPv6. All software feature sets support advanced security and MQC-based QoS.

The Cisco Catalyst 3850 Series Switches with LAN Base feature set can only stack with other Cisco Catalyst 3850 Series LAN Base switches. The same applies to IP Base and IP Services as well. A mixed stack of LAN Base switch with IP Base or IP Services feature set is not supported.

The 12-port and 24-port SFP+- and SFP-based models as well as the 48-port SFP+ model can only be ordered with IP Base or IP Services licenses. Therefore, in order to stack with LAN Base models, they need to be configured in LAN Base mode from the CLI.

An access point license is required for Cisco Catalyst 3850 Series Switches operating in mobility controller mode. No access point license is required for 3850 operating in mobility agent mode. This functionality is included in the IP Base feature set. Other devices that can act as mobility controller are the WLC 5760, WLC 5508, and WiSM2 wireless controllers. Access point licenses can be transferred only between two 3850 switches or between 3850 and 5760 controller and vice versa.