Cisco started off Mobility Field 12 as we all expected, being true Cisco. At Cisco Live Melbourne 2024 a week before MFD12, Cisco announced their brand new WiFi 7 APs. So I fully expected to hear more details about their WiFi APs that we didn’t get to hear at MFD11 back in May. They delivered on that expectation, then caught me off guard with some additional announcements.
Industry Leading WiFi 7 APs
Cisco as the undisputed leading networking vendor in the industry, showed off what everyone else has been trying to be first to market with, WiFi 7. With how widely Cisco is deployed, it is very likely that you may see enterprise WiFi 7 APs in the public before you see any other vendor, unless you install them yourself.
Nick Swiatecki got things started discussing Cisco’s approach to WiFi 7. It has the bells and whistles that we’ve come to expect from a WiFi 7 AP: MLO, Preamble Puncturing, 4K QAM, 320MHz wide channels, and 6GHz.
The bigger news came down to the licensing model, model naming, and inclusion of new radios. Previously you had to choose whether you wanted to do Catalyst mode and Meraki mode. Now you just install the Radio and it discovers which mode you want.
A new WiFi 7 AP will first attempt to talk to the Cisco Meraki Cloud, then, if that fails, will look for an on premises Catalyst Controller. The names of the APs are merging into a three SKUs that starts with CW. The meaning of CW used to be a hot topic for debate, but while a unofficial resolution isn’t here, we should expect it to just mean simply Cisco Wireless.
This simplified naming gets rid of the international versions as well. Everything is simplifying under the CW model naming. Cisco is following what others have been doing for years to reduce complexity and confusion for their customers.
Ultra-Wide Band
For several years, Apple has included Ultra-Wide Band (UWB) radios in their iPhones for helping to located devices such as Airtags. As an industry, we have been relying on BLE and WiFi to inaccurately locate devices inside our network. The accuracy has been close but not close enough for locating devices that move around. BLE has improved but is best for locating devices that do not move such as other APs.
Cisco is following Apple’s lead on introducing UWB into their WiFi 7 APs. UWB brings sub-meter location accuracy.
They dug into the details about UWB and the standards that most aren’t following currently. Cisco is trying to push for others to follow the standard.
I suggest you watch all the details about WiFi 7 and UWB from their official presentation.
Ultra-Reliable Wireless Backhaul
My main focus for this post is on URWB. Because of the iPhone, most people have at least a basic knowledge of UWB. That changes when it comes to Ultra-Reliable Wireless Backhaul. I had never heard of URWB before MFD12, and many of my followers were the same. I have fielded so many questions about what URWB is talking to people post MFD12.
URWB is NOT a new technology. Cisco has supported it for many years. What is changing is support built into the firmware of the new WiFi 7 APs. No need to upgrade your firmware to get access to it. It’s now a configuration setting on an AP in Catalyst or Meraki Cloud that you set certain radios as WiFi or URWB.
But what is URWB? Before Private 5G was made available, companies have needed to install wireless networks that have low latency and quick roaming where WiFi has struggled. URWB was built to handle those sites. It is typically deployed with two APs, one acting as the AP and one acting as the client.
It uses the WiFi bands, but uses different non-WiFi protocols. WiFi plays “the game” and follows the “Green Diamond” when selecting which AP to join. Roaming is controlled by the client and may not happen when desired. URWB was built to help with roaming and reduce the latency to sub millisecond. WiFi 7 MLO provides connectivity to only a single AP and helps reduce latency but doesn’t solve all these issues. WiFi 8 is supposed to provide the ability to talk to multiple APs at the same time, but that is still just a promise. URWB is here and able to be deployed right now.
URWB vs Private 5G
During the presentation, Dave Benham, was asked by the delegates about Private 5G vs URWB. He said that URWB provides the solutions to many of the issues where WiFi struggles. He said URWB can handle most of the uses cases that Private 5G is attempting to solve without the complexity.
With URWB you just change a couple settings in your Catalyst or Meraki Cloud controller. Install as second AP as the client and then start to enjoy the reduced latency and better no lost packet roaming. Previously, URWB required a separate overlay URWB network, but that changes with the announcements at MFD12. Private 5G requires the deployment of a whole new infrastructure, including a complex 5G Core, SIMs management, and client support.
To better understand URWB, I recommend you watch the actual presentation from Cisco. I’m only scratching the surface of what it does.
Ultimately, I don’t think URWB will replace all Private 5G sites. They are going about solving things in different ways. 5G is a wider deployed technology but has it complexity. URWB has been around longer but requires you to use multiple APs as AP and Client. URWB is only supported by a few vendors, such as Cisco. Will one kill the other? That is a debate. Cellular is not going away. Private Cellular is starting to get some traction. I think the two fit in specific use cases. We will see where this discussion goes in the future.
