Cisco Ultra Reliable Wireless Backhaul (URWB) jumps the tank in 2025
As painful as it may be for some to hear, Wi-Fi may not be the solution to all your wireless requirements. In fact, this exact topic was recently discussed on a Tech Field Day podcast, “Wi-Fi isn’t always the Best Solution.” Some scenarios in mines, manufacturing, AUV / AGN (autonomous haulage vehicles / autonomously guided vehicles), mesh backhaul, or rail transportation require specific high-performance characteristics:
- Guaranteed delivery (no packet loss)
- Consistent low-latency (sub second) or jitter
- Redundant connections to two separate APs (think spider man swinging down the streets of New York with two points on contact)
These requirements cannot be delivered today with current Wi-Fi based solutions. While there is potential to meet these requirements with Wi-Fi 8, it is still a few years away.
Cisco has long seen this problem, and at #MFD12 Cisco announced Ultra Reliable Wireless Backhaul (URWB) technology is coming to a Wi-Fi AP near you. In 2025, Cisco APs will support both URWB on the same AP, simultaneously. There will be no need for separate images or a need to dual boot. Wireless administrators can simply enable selected radios to operate in URWB or Wi-Fi mode within the same AP.
Initially, APs must be managed by a WLC, but other management platforms will be supported in the future. As this capability has been in the works for some time, many of your existing APs and the recently announced Wi-Fi 7 APs will support this feature.
To ease concerns, existing Cisco URWB customers need not worry as existing URWB products will continue to be supported.
This is an incredible announcement and offers astounding flexibility to combine Cisco URWB and Wi-Fi capabilities in a single hardware platform. Yes, that’s right, there is no longer a need to deploy and manage two wireless overlays.
This visionary flexibility unlocks exciting opportunities in the following use cases:
- Industrial / Manufacturing / Warehouse
- High speed access and predictable roaming to AGV / AHV
- PLC connectivity
- Industrial specific L2 protocols
- Expansion of wireless backhaul across process automation and operations
- Campus and smart cities
- Video surveillance for public safety, law enforcement, and critical infrastructure
- Wide area outdoor coverage
- Building-to-building connectivity (instead of trenching fiber)
- PtP, PtMP, or mesh connectivity
- Construction sites
- Connected roadways and intersections
On a final note, I am willing to accept Cisco ending their LoRaWAN portfolio (recently EoL announcement) in exchange for expanding the reach and usefulness of Cisco URWB technology. This is more than a fair trade-off.
Slàinte!
Resources
Cisco URWB details
Cisco URWB Resources
Cisco Presents URWB updates at #MFD12