By Claus Hetting, WiFi NOW CEO & Chairman
Last week’s Cisco LIVE in San Diego unveiled two substantial additions to Cisco’s growing Wi-Fi portfolio: The company extended its commanding lead in hyper-directional networking with the new Cisco Wireless 9179F stadium AP and introduced Ultra-Reliable Wireless Backhaul (URWB) into a series of Wi-Fi 6/6E ruggedised industrial APs. Both are reinforcing Cisco’s leadership in specialised but important market segments.
Stadium wireless is transitioning from underseat APs (proximity networking) to hyper-directional (overhead) networking and thus far, Cisco has pioneered this technological shift with the Catalyst 9104 AP released in 2023 (read more here). Now the company is ratcheting up its game with the new and improved Wi-Fi 7-capable Cisco Wireless 9179F AP announced at Cisco LIVE in San Diego last week.
The 9179F is designed specifically for stadium overhead deployment (although Cisco now says it can also be applied effectively to other venue types) featuring integrated and configurable highly directional antennas for beaming focused Wi-Fi signals to specific sections of stadium seating without interfering with adjacent sections. Cisco’s secret sauce in this case is sophisticated antenna technology delivering highly focused RF beams with strongly suppressed antenna side lobes, which otherwise would cause unwanted RF signals to spill over into adjacent areas, hampering performance.
The new 9179F performs better than the previous 9104 in every category and is also substantially smaller and lighter, which means it can be used in a lot more venue types as the ‘Swiss Army Knife’ of high-density Wi-Fi APs, Cisco says. In addition to supporting 6 GHz and Wi-Fi 7 another new feature is the option to include back-facing ‘sardine’ antennas for Wi-Fi coverage below and behind the AP (see graphic below).
A second significant wireless innovation unveiled at Cisco LIVE is the integration of Cisco’s Ultra-Reliable Wireless Broadband (URWB) with Wi-Fi. Cisco acquired industrial wireless backhaul provider Fluidmesh Networks in 2022 and the product line has since evolved and rebranded as URWB. As the name implies URWB is for ultra-high-reliability, zero-loss industrial systems backhaul or seamless-handoff mobility. Use cases include rail, manufacturing, mining, ports and terminals, and more, Cisco says. URWB could be seen as Cisco’s lower cost and much more flexible alternative to private 5G.
URWB has thus far been stand-alone (non-Wi-Fi) radio units but now URWB has been incorporated into Cisco’s portfolio of ruggedised Wi-Fi 6/6E access points for industrial applications. “By offering both Wi-Fi and URWB in the same access point, we give you flexibility and the ability to support a wider range of applications that have different network requirements. URWB can be enabled in the field, allowing you to adapt the product to the specific use case streamlining deployment, simplifying operations and optimizing your investment,” Cisco says. Read more here.
/Claus.
