Industrial organizations are at a pivotal moment. As digital transformation accelerates, the demand for robust, agile, and secure wireless networks is skyrocketing. The rise of automation, artificial intelligence (AI), and mobility is fundamentally changing how industrial environments operate.

Today’s wireless networks are now expected to support not just more devices and applications, but also to underpin mission-critical operations where reliability is non-negotiable.

The growing complexity of industrial wireless

URWB has been used across different industrial settings to support mission-critical applications that require near-zero latency and uninterrupted hand-offs.

Modern industrial wireless networks face a unique and complex set of technical challenges:

Device density: The sheer volume of connected sensors, cameras, and mobile assets can lead to congestion and interference.

Diversity of devices and applications: Networks must support everything from legacy sensors to bandwidth-hungry 4K cameras and real-time AI applications—each with distinct performance needs.

Demand for high speeds: Applications like high-definition video, AR/VR, and AI-powered vision systems require higher data rates than traditional wireless can always provide.

Ultra-Low latency needs: Real-time control and analytics depend on minimal lag for safety, efficiency, and fast decision-making.
Security and reliability: As more business-critical processes move to wireless, the network must be both highly reliable and highly secure, ensuring uninterrupted operations.

Operationally, network managers are also navigating increased complexity:

Agility and scalability: Wireless networks are expanding rapidly, often beyond traditional office spaces, even as IT budgets and resources remain constrained.

Consistent performance: Delivering seamless coverage and a consistent user experience, even in high-density or interference-prone areas, remains a constant challenge.

Security and compliance: Protecting the network from unauthorized access and cyber threats, while ensuring regulatory and corporate compliance, is more crucial than ever.

The good news is that wireless technologies are evolving rapidly to meet these demands. Let’s look at three key advances shaping the future of industrial connectivity:

Wi-Fi 7: Raising the Bar for Wireless Performance

Wi-Fi 7 is the latest evolution in wireless networking, offering significant improvements in speed, capacity, and efficiency. With support for higher throughput, lower latency, and advanced management of dense device environments, Wi-Fi 7 is well suited for many industrial applications—from high-definition video streaming and AR/VR to large-scale IoT deployments. Its improved spectrum utilization and multi-link operation help organizations overcome many traditional bottlenecks, setting a new benchmark for enterprise wireless.

Private 5G: powerful, but not without hurdles

Private 5G networks are generating excitement for their potential to deliver ultra-low latency, strong security, and robust support for a diverse range of industrial use cases. However, deploying Private 5G can be complex. It often requires dedicated spectrum licenses, specialized expertise, and a significant upfront investment in infrastructure. For many organizations, these factors make widespread adoption a longer-term goal rather than an immediate solution.

Multipath Operations (MPO) technology replicates high-priority packets via up to 8 different paths on uncorrelated frequencies at the same time to multiple access points.

URWB: purpose-built for industrial reliability

Ultra-reliable Wireless Backhaul (URWB) addresses the specific needs of mission-critical applications that are very sensitive to latency or require uninterrupted roaming. URWB delivers the ultra-low latency, seamless mobility and consistent reliability that traditional wireless technologies may struggle to guarantee in harsh, dynamic, or mobile industrial environments.

URWB is built on 802.11, and like Wi-Fi, it operates in unlicensed spectrum which simplifies deployment and reduces costs. URWB delivers near-zero latency (<10ms) and seamless handoffs —enabled by key technical innovations:

• An end-to-end overlay technology emulates a virtual switch over 802.11 wireless links to deliver ultra-low latency (<10ms).
• Ultra-fast failover in less than 500ms delivering carrier-grade availability.
• “Make-before-break” handoffs ensures moving assets establish a reliable connection with a new access point before dropping connectivity from the previous access point.
• Multipath Operations (MPO) technology replicates high-priority packets via up to 8 different paths on uncorrelated frequencies at the same time to multiple access points, exploiting time, spatial, and frequency diversity.

This functionality, combined with cutting edge hardware capability, can further reduce latency and improve reliability, addressing both interference and hardware failures.

With these capabilities, URWB is able to bridge the gap between the promise of next-generation wireless and the realities of industrial operations—enabling organizations to confidently connect autonomous vehicles, robotics, remote sensors, and more, even in the most demanding settings. URWB has been successfully used across diverse industrial settings:

In factories, warehouses and healthcare facilities, it keeps hundreds of automated guided vehicles continuously connected, boosting uptime and workplace safety.

In mines, it enables critical remote control of unmanned vehicles in treacherous terrain, ensuring instant response for improved precision and safety.

In ports, it connects cranes, machinery, and automated vehicles, feeding real-time data to Terminal Operating Systems to maximize port capacity, throughput, and efficiency.

And on the rails, it ensures continuous telecommunications for traffic management, delivering safer, more efficient, and higher-capacity rail operations.

URWB has been used across different industrial settings to support mission-critical applications that require near-zero latency and uninterrupted hand-offs.

Tackling operational complexity with unified wireless integration

Together, Wi-Fi and URWB offer an unparalleled wireless solution, with Wi-Fi supporting high-speed, low-latency requirements and URWB ensuring reliable communication for applications that require ultra-low latency and seamless roaming.

That is why we integrated URWB and Wi-Fi technologies in a wide selection of our Wi-Fi 7, 6E and 6 access points enabling organizations to unlock new use cases and capabilities without overhauling their existing network.

URWB and Wi-Fi technologies are now integrated in a wide selection of Cisco Wi-Fi access points enabling organizations to support a wider range of devices and applications while streamlining deployments, simplifying management, and reducing costs.

This unified approach offers several advantages:

Streamline deployment and save costs: Both Wi-Fi and URWB operate simultaneously on the same hardware platform, so there is no need to duplicate the infrastructure.

Simplified operations: Administrators can manage URWB and Wi-Fi from a single pane of glass using Wireless LAN Controllers (WLC) or Cisco Catalyst Center. This greatly simplifies network operations and lifecycle management.
Increased security: Security policies can be pushed across Wi-Fi and URWB networks.

End-to-end solution: Wi-Fi with URWB access points come in a variety of form factors supporting indoor, outdoor and industrial use cases eliminating complexities, and the additional cycles of dealing with point solutions and multiple vendors.

By bringing together the strengths of high-speed Wi-Fi and ultra-reliable URWB, Cisco delivers a comprehensive wireless solution that supports a wide range of industrial use cases—without the need for costly network overhauls or complex, siloed systems.

The future of industrial wireless

As industrial organizations accelerate their digital transformation, driven by the adoption of AI and automation, the need for reliable, high-performance wireless connectivity will only grow.

Cisco’s integrated approach—combining the robust capabilities of URWB with the operational flexibility and performance of our Wi-Fi access points—empowers organizations to power complex, innovative use cases, such as autonomous systems, predictive analytics, and real-time monitoring, all of which require seamless, always-on connectivity.

By leveraging Wi-Fi and URWB, industrial enterprises can unlock the full potential of agile, resilient, and intelligent wireless networks—empowering them to lead the way in deploying next-generation, AI-powered solutions across even the most challenging environments.

Patricia Costa, Sr. Marketing Manager, Industrial Wireless, Cisco