By Claus Hetting, Wi-Fi NOW CEO & Chairman
Cisco is the only vendor we know of with a complete portfolio of indoor and outdoor 6 GHz Wi-Fi APs – and as of last month, standard power 6 GHz Wi-Fi is also available. Cisco’s AFC launch means that any vertical (US only for now) – healthcare, campuses, warehouses, stadiums, you name it – need look no further than to Wi-Fi in order to satisfy all of their wireless connectivity needs, Cisco says. AFC realises the full potential of 6GHz Wi-Fi, which is more compelling in every performance category: Faster, more reliable, and higher capacity.
Cisco launched its AFC solution last month, which means the transformation of enterprise Wi-Fi networks towards 6 GHz operation is now accelerating. “Wi-Fi infrastructure is now in place for enterprises to make the paradigm shift to 6 GHz, and we’re already seeing excellent response from the market. We’ve got every use case covered, and as the Wi-Fi 6E client eco-system matures, enterprise customers should be able to take full advantage of all three Wi-Fi bands to support most of their connectivity needs,” says Manmeet Kaur, Product Manager at Cisco.
Cisco launched its first outdoor Catalyst 6 GHz AP last month (read more here) with six indoor APs now also supporting AFC. Because AP location data is required when querying the AFC, Cisco’s outdoor 6 GHz AP is equipped with a GPS receiver and includes an option for an external active GNSS/GPS antenna if more receive sensitivity is required.
“For our indoor APs, we now offer an external GNSS module that can be plugged into the AP via a USB connector. GNSS modules should be plugged into APs with visibility to the sky in order to access satellite signals. Based on the location of GNS equipped APs, the location of other APs in the network can be determined based on geolocation propagation techniques,” says Manmeet Kaur.
“We estimate that 10-15% of connectivity use cases indoors don’t do well with LPI only, and need standard power 6 GHz capability to achieve useful range. With AFC and our location solution, we can now avoid 6 GHz coverage holes and instead achieve overlapping 5 GHz and 6 GHz cells. New 6 GHz standard power APs can for example be used to address high-ceilings or wide indoor open spaces in auditoriums, stadiums, staircases, large warehouses, aircraft hangars, and more,” she says.
But the most important AFC use case is of course outdoor 6 GHz Wi-Fi. In theory (depending on geographic location) AFC-based 6 GHz Wi-Fi APs can now use up to 850 MHz of 6 GHz spectrum, which represents a huge boost in capacity and performance. “This means the opportunity is here today to extend Wi-Fi networks to the outdoors and deliver outstanding connectivity performance right across any vertical including campuses, outdoor industrial facilities, outdoor events, and more,” says Manmeet Kaur.
Cisco says 6 GHz Wi-Fi delivers ‘extreme reliability’ in particular because the 6 GHz band is inherently interference free – as it is not encumbered by traffic coming from legacy devices and APs. In some verticals – such as for example healthcare – 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands are already saturated, which leaves little room for mission critical applications.
Cisco AFC’s solution – delivered in partnership with Federated Wireless and fully approved by the FCC – is now available for both Catalyst on-premise controllers and will be available via Meraki dashboard by early June. Add to this that all 6 GHz Cisco APs are of course also approved by the FCC. Most Cisco APs support both on-premise (Catalyst controller-based) as well as Cloud-based (Meraki) management.
For more about Cisco APs read here.
/Claus.
