Cisco Drops LoRaWAN Support
Cisco presented at MFD12, sharing updates on Wi-Fi 7 clients, UWB, Cisco URWB (very cool announcements on URWB), and AI-RRM. One thing that stood out to me was the lack of updates on IoT—specifically, there were no details or insights shared about the recent announcement to discontinue the Cisco LoRaWAN product line.
Cisco is a founding member of the LoRa Alliance and serves on the Board of Directors and the Technical Committee. LoRaWAN gateways and sensors were showcased at CiscoLive, and several breakout sessions included a section on LoRaWAN or were sessions dedicated to LoRaWAN.
Prior to MFD12, Cisco released an End-of-Life (EoL) announcement for their LoRaWAN product line including a gateway and about a dozen sensors. No replacement or migration path was disclosed. The lack of mention or acknowledgement of this action is what stood out for me during the Industrial Wireless and IoT discussions.
Cisco’s decision to discontinue its LoRaWAN product line reflects a strategic realignment toward technologies with higher growth potential and better alignment with its core business. While LoRaWAN remains a viable solution for specific Industrial IoT applications, Cisco’s focus on cellular IoT, 5G, and edge computing underscores its decision to focus delivering scalable, high-performance solutions for the enterprise and industrial markets with high profit margins.
Several discussions at Cisco Live US 2024 highlight the company’s ongoing interest in IoT connectivity trends, even as it moves away from LoRaWAN.
The EoL announcement may be a result of Cisco trying to consolidate their Industrial IoT product line, or it could be a result of lower sales than predicted. Perhaps focusing on cellular will allow Cisco to tap into a larger revenue stream. The LoRaWAN market is mature and Cisco may not have been able to keep pace with all the additional sensors or actuators coming available from other vendors.
One thing to say, is that Cisco’s LoRaWAN solution drastically simplified LoRaWAN deployments from manually needing to add devices, devEUI, join keys, and application keys. Cisco’s solutions allowed customers to quickly scan QR codes, easily on-boarding new nodes to the LoRaWAN solution and appearing in the Cisco Industrial Asset Vision (IAV) dashboard, ready to start serving data.
I must admit that I am disappointed with this announcement. In particular the lack of product replacement and details on IIoT strategy going forward. LoRaWAN addresses a gap in the market that is not easily filled by cellular subscription based models or expensive private 5G deployments while significantly extending the reach from Wi-Fi based deployments. Many of these solutions are complementary and could be deployed in parallel.
The following are past Cisco Live Breakout Sessions from CiscoLive that discussed LoRaWAN:
- BRK0IOT-1006: Unlocking the Future: Cisco Industrial Networking and IoT Essentials (2024)
- IBOIOT- 1083 (2023)
- BRTIOT-2265 – Let’s Get Physical with IIoT Wireless (2024)
- BRKIOT-2601 – 8 Tips for Deploying Indoor Wireless Mobility with Cisco Industrial Wireless (2024)
- IBOSPG-20212 – Wi-Fi, Cisco Ultra-Reliable Wireless Backhaul, Private 5G: Which Wireless Technology Is Best for My IoT and Outdoor Use Cases? (2024)
More information about Cisco’s (previous) LoRaWAN solution can be found in a past article I wrote.
What is LoRaWAN?
LoRaWAN is like the chatty, long-distance carrier pigeon of the Internet of Things (IoT) world—except instead of carrying tiny scrolls, it beams small data packets over vast distances using ultra-low power. This wide-area network protocol rides on top of LoRa (Long Range) modulation, enabling devices like smart sensors and trackers to whisper their updates across miles, even through walls and underground, all while sipping on battery juice for years.
Designed for large scale deployments, LoRaWAN’s secret sauce lies in its chirp spread spectrum (CSS), adaptive data rates, lightweight communication, optional gateway redundancy, and end-to-end AES-128 encryption for security nerds—making it the go-to choice for smart cities, agriculture, and industrial IoT where Wi-Fi and cellular just might not meet the requirements.
Unlike cellular networks, LoRaWAN allows asynchronous communication, enabling ultra-low-power operation with devices running on coin-cell batteries for years, making it ideal for applications like smart metering, asset tracking, and environmental monitoring.
It operates on unlicensed ISM bands (868 MHz in EU and 915 MHz in NA), using CSS modulation for robust, interference-resistant data transmission over distances up to 10 km in rural areas and several kilometres in urban settings.
As part of lowering power requirements, LoRaWAN supports multiple device classes—Class A (lowest power, for uplink-dominant applications), Class B (scheduled downlinks with beacons), and Class C (low-latency bidirectional communication)—catering to various IoT use cases.
Slàinte!
Resources
Cisco Presents at Mobility Field Day 12
LoRa Alliance
Cisco LoRaWAN EoL announcement
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/routers/wireless-gateway-lorawan/lorawan-eol.html
Cisco Profile on LoRaWAN Alliance
Cisco LoRaWAN Case Study