With wireless connectivity becoming critical for businesses, the American network technology giant Cisco has launched Cisco Catalyst 9600 switch, Cisco Catalyst 9100 and Cisco Meraki MR 45/55 access points, and the OpenRoaming partnership to make Wi-Fi onboarding much simpler. The company executives said that this is being done to meet the growing challenge and demand of wireless-first, cloud-driven and data optimized enterprises.
Cisco has launched a new standard for Wi-Fi networks called Wi-Fi 6 also known as a 802.11ax. The company said that the Wi-Fi 6 access points across its Catalyst and Meraki portfolios go beyond providing the new Wi-Fi 6 standard. With custom, programmable chipsets and access to industry-leading analytics capabilities, Cisco's latest APs deliver a smarter and more secure wireless network. The new access points are also multilingual, with the ability to communicate with multiple IoT protocols, including BLE, Zigbee, and Thread.
Cisco Wi-Fi 6
Networking giant informed that Wi-Fi 6 is built on the same fundamental wireless innovations as 5G. It is significantly faster than the previous generation. Wi-Fi 6 delivers up to 400 percent greater capacity and is more effective in high-density settings like large lecture halls, stadiums and conference rooms. Latency is vastly improved, allowing for near real-time use cases. Wi-Fi 6 is also easier on connected devices' batteries and provides an overall more predictable user experience, said the company.
Wi-Fi 6 and 5G represent an incredible opportunity for developers. To enable them to create the immersive experiences that these new levels of connectivity promise, Cisco is unveiling the DevNet Wireless Dev Center. DevNet, Cisco's developer network, offers the learning labs, sandboxes and developer resources needed to create game-changing wireless applications. The Cisco Catalyst and Meraki access platforms are open and programmable all the way down to the chipset level, allowing applications to take advantage of network programmability in new and exciting ways.
Cisco said it is also extending its campus networking portfolio by delivering a campus core switch purpose-built for cloud-scale networking. By coupling powerful automation and analytics software with a complete array of switches, access points, and controllers for the campus, Cisco said it will enable the end-to-end, wireless-first architecture.
Cisco Catalyst 9600 switch
Cisco said its Catalyst 9600 core switch family serve as the foundation central to any network's successful operation. Built as the next evolution of the Catalyst 6000, the Catalyst 9600 will be the bedrock for the next generation of intent-based business networks, claimed Cisco.
Prior to the launch of its Wi-Fi 6 access points, Cisco said it completed interoperability testing with Broadcom, Intel and Samsung to address the inevitable gaps that come with a new standard. Samsung, Boingo, GlobalReach Technology, Presidio and others are expected to join the Cisco OpenRoaming project to solve one of today's biggest wireless pain points. The Cisco OpenRoaming project aims to make it easier to hop between Wi-Fi and LTE networks and onboard public Wi-Fi.
“Every leap in connectivity enables the next wave of profound innovation. 5G and Wi-Fi 6 represent a new era of connectivity,” said David Goeckeler, EVP and General Manager, Networking and Security Business at Cisco.
“Developers are already creating the next generation of wireless-first, immersive experiences. With billions of things connecting to the network, this growth will create unprecedented complexity for IT. Cisco is building a multi-domain network architecture to simplify complexity for IT, allowing CIOs to deliver against their innovation agenda.”
Over the past two years, Cisco said it has built out its intent-based networking portfolio to prepare customers for tomorrow's challenges. Cisco's new access points and campus switch are purpose-built for intent-based networking and represent the culmination of Cisco's efforts to reinvent its entire access portfolio.
