Cisco has started certifying a number of its industrial routers for smart grids, smart cities, and smart manufacturing under new Wi-SUN standards, as the San Jose based outfit throws its weight behind the Wi-SUN Alliance’s field area networks (FAN) certification programme.
Wi-SUN, based on open standards published by the IEEE and IETF, defines a secure, multi-service IEEE 802.15.4 mesh network that supports IPv6 industrial IoT field applications at massive scale.
More than Wi-SUN 50 million plus nodes have been deployed during the past decade. The Wi-SUN Alliance claims around 180 members with more than 80 Wi-SUN products, and an installed base of 89 million capable devices. It is the “most widely deployed IoT network technology in the world”, it claims.
Support for the technology is gathering pace. While Wi-SUN has been adopted by utilities for metering and smart grid networks, other sectors have been turned onto the technology too, notably smart cities and industrial IoT applications, which require advanced engineering with wireless outdoor networking.
The new FAN certification provides customers confidence that certified products in the programme are interoperable with one another and sourced from multiple vendors. It is relevant to applications like street lighting, parking systems, and traffic management.
Cisco is a ‘promoter’ member of the Wi-SUN Alliance, alongside Analog Devices, Itron, Landys+Gyr, Murata, NICT, Omron, Renesas, and Toshiba.
“In the same way that diverse smartphones, tablets, computers and other devices can connect via Wi-Fi, the Wi-SUN FAN standards help ensure that diverse utility, smart city and industrial devices can securely connect to industry-grade smart utility and smart city networks,” commented Vikas Butaney, vice president of IoT connectivity at Cisco.
Cisco has begun the process to certify the CGR1240, IR509, IR510, IR529, and the IR530 industrial routers under the new Wi-SUN standards. It will offer its first Wi-SUN certified IoT products by the end of 2018, it said.
Among recent deployments, Oklahoma Gas & Electric is using Wi-SUN to network 250,000 streetlights, whilst cities including Bristol, Copenhagen, Halifax, Glasgow, London, and Paris have also used the technology in smart streetlight projects and as a “platform of choice” as they expand their smart city infrastructure.
Phil Beecher, president and chief executive at the Wi-SUN Alliance, said: “Wi-SUN continues to be at the forefront of IoT innovation, and as cities, utilities and the industry grows their IoT networks, they are increasingly recognizing that industry-wide open standards are essential for interoperability and scalability. FAN Certification is an endorsement for governments and the industry that our members’ products are compliant to these open standards, and safeguards quality, interoperability, security, scalability – and ultimately gives customers a competitive advantage.”
