Cisco Live! in Las Vegas shows off giant high-density Wi-Fi network

By Claus Hetting, Wi-Fi NOW CEO & Chairman

Last week’s Cisco Live! in Las Vegas was not only a gigantic, opulent tech event for Cisco and partners, it was also a tour-de-force of what Wi-Fi networks can do when designed and managed at the highest levels of sophistication. An average of nearly 20,000 Wi-Fi devices were connected to the Cisco Wi-Fi network at the Mandalay Convention Center and surrounds, many of them under extreme high density conditions.

The world around us – including technology – is becoming increasingly complex and therefore also more and more challenging to manage. The antidote to all of this complexity is AI, which will simplify our interaction with the technology and applications that connect us, said Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins during his opening keynote at Cisco Live! in Las Vegas last week. That sentiment was echoed by many other Cisco execs speaking at one of the world’s largest corporate tech events.

Not much was said about Wi-Fi during the keynotes despite the fact that Cisco’s own Wi-Fi is a critical component of the event’s success: Wi-Fi is the invisible fabric that connects everyone to the web and each other at the giant event. A couple thousand Cisco APs form a live demonstration network serving close to 20,000 devices at the venue and surrounds. Cisco Wi-Fi also offers secure, zero-touch Wi-Fi auto-connect using OpenRoaming, which can be activated via Cisco’s own event app. For more details see my interview below with David Benham, Cisco Senior Wireless Product Manager.

Cisco’s flagship installation for this event is arguably the high-density network covering Michelob Arena, where also the Cisco Catalyst 9104 Stadium Antenna is deployed. The software-configurable beam steering and switching antenna won the 2021 Wi-Fi NOW Award for Best Enterprise Wi-Fi Solution and is today widely used in stadiums and arenas across the globe – read more here.

Loads of other compelling Cisco Wi-Fi tech was on display at Cisco Live! – in particular if you were lucky enough to have access to Cisco’s Whisper Suites and World of Solutions where soon-to-be announced Wi-Fi technology was revealed to select clients and press. Add to this a vast, sprawling expo area featuring stands and demos by perhaps around a hundred or so Cisco technology partners.

Cisco and connectivity service provider Mobilitie – today part of BAI Communications, which is to be renamed ‘Boldyn Networks’ soon – serve up the Wi-Fi not only at Michelob Arena and Mandalay Bay Convention Center but at a total of 28 MGM-owned properties in Las Vegas, which represents a sizeable chunk of the vast Las Vegas entertainment, gambling, and hospitality complex.

So if you’re a technophile and deep into Wi-Fi and enterprise networking there’s no better place to feed your hunger for tech than at Cisco Live!  – and no better place to do it that in fabulous Las Vegas. Wi-Fi NOW will certainly be back for more.

/Claus.