August 19, 2025

The Industrial Wi-Fi Shop Podcast – Ep. 19 CURWB Appeal!

1 hour 11 minutes

IWS Episode 19 Show Notes – C-URWB Appeal!

Free 3D Printer Plans!

Oscium WiPry790x and Clarity/Lucid DIY bracket posted on Thingiverse. Bring your own hair ties. I have been informed Printables is better so I will post there soon.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6991943

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Keith Jones CEO of Prism Systems has provided 2 license codes for the PrismStats Live software (iOS) a URWB commissioning tool. Helpful for spot checking, parsing, and troubleshooting Cisco URWB Fluidity deployments created by Prism Systems!

If you are interested in one of these two license keys, please email Jeremy at [email protected]

Don’t forget to check out our new document library with free valuable downloadable content to help you in your wireless endeavors in the industrial and manufacturing air space!

On with the show! IWS Episode 19 – C-URWB Appeal!

URWB technology was first introduced in the market in 2005 by Fluidmesh Networks, focusing on ultra-low latency and ultra-reliability for mission-critical wireless connectivity.

Cisco acquired Fluidmesh Networks in 2020, integrating URWB technology into its portfolio and advancing its capabilities alongside Wi-Fi technology.

URWB uses a specialized implementation of MPLS over wireless links to enable very low latency and reliable transmission in mobility scenarios, supporting “make-before-break” handovers for seamless connections to moving vehicles.

*** What is MPLS! ***

Multiprotocol Label Switching, is a networking technology that uses labels to route data more packets efficiently. MPLS works by attaching a small “label” to each data packet as it enters the network. This label acts like a shortcut, indicating the path the packet should take through the network. Instead of routers making complex routing decisions based on destination IP addresses, they can quickly forward packets based on the attached label, leading to faster data transmission

The technology features patented Multipath Operations (MPO), which delivers uninterrupted connectivity by duplicating high-priority traffic on multiple uncorrelated frequency paths, dramatically reducing packet loss and latency. This provides greater redundancy for implementations.

URWB has been widely adopted in various industries including mining, entertainment, utilities, ports, manufacturing, rail, and smart cities, supporting heavy applications like autonomous vehicles, remote-controlled cranes, and industrial automation.

In 2025, Cisco announced combining URWB functionality with Wi-Fi capabilities in its access points, allowing unified infrastructure and management to support both technologies simultaneously, thus simplifying deployments and reducing operational overhead.

C-URWB is NOT 802.11 !!! – although it is built upon and extends the 802.11 technology foundation.

802.11 is mainly an access technology for end-user devices like computers and smartphones, URWB functions as a wireless backhaul technology. It connects network infrastructure elements (such as access points, controllers, and industrial devices) with managed, optimized communication links.

URWB offers features beyond standard Wi-Fi, including seamless “make-before-break” handoffs, multipath operations (sending duplicate packets over separate paths to ensure reliability), and RF interference mitigation for highly reliable connectivity in challenging environments.

Has two flavors: FluidMax which is the backhaul (fixed point) and Fluidity where mobile clients need to roam as in rail or warehouse AGVs.

Igor – been at Cisco 5 years as a pre-sales engineer, came over as part of the Fluidmesh acquisition in 2020. Prior to that, worked in the transportation sector as a systems integrator for airport people, movers and commuter rail systems for about 7 years. Back in 2012 i was tasked with finding a commercial off the shelf wireless product that would be good for mobility and wire-like roaming for airport people movers. It was at that time we were testing cisco, fluidmesh, and a few other vendors to see what would meet our success criteria as our wireless product for our train systems. We initially went with cisco 3602Es and 5500 wlc controllers running WGB and pre .11r neighbor table configurations…with later projects shifting to Fluidmesh, Fluidity architectures, and that seamless roaming, high-throughput and low latency connectivity over wireless.

Matt – been at Cisco for 18 years, pre-sales engineer supporting lots of customers – financial, professional services, hosted collaboration, shuffled to the IoT team about 4 years ago. I grew up farming and live on a small farm now, about 60 acres give or take. I have the property covered in Wifi+CURWB and have hundreds of IoT devices on-net across the property. Neck deep in all things RF and wireless – lora, 433, BLE, you name it and i’m interested. 4400, 5500, 9800, I’ve worked with all the things.

What is URWB and why should we care about it?

High level, it’s an ethernet backhaul technology over wireless, which utilizes the unlicensed 5 GHz and eventually 6 GHz spectrum with our recent announcement with catalyst 9800 controllers

It’s great for fixed point to point point, multipoint and mixed backhaul for static environments with a set and forget antenna alignment and stable RSSI

As well as mobility connectivity, to connect moving assets such as trains, utility vehicles, ship the shore cranes, mining dozers, and AGVs back to their OT edges and cores

What is the next big release on the roadmap?

17.18.1

Next would be Catalyst Center support and configuration…sometime next year

Currently, this is considered a beta release, with the gold star release firmware coming out in 3-6 months.

Highly encourage downloading and playing with it.

What problems will the 802.11/URWB simultaneous modes solve?

1 box solution for reliable WiFi and wireless backhaul to Cisco controllers via URWB

Providing a cheaper solution (vs 2 box), less SmartNet and DNA license seats…and a true commercial grade wireless backhaul product on a proven Cisco Catalyst wireless platform.

Digital divide or equity projects, where you want wi fi for underserved areas (mostly outdoor)

Similarly, providing Wi-Fi on moving vehicles. Take for example a commuter rail system that has public facing Wi-Fi in the vehicle and an external URWB Fluidity backhaul to the trackside network. Couple that with urwb seamless roaming, you’ll have bidirectional high-throughput, and low-latency connectivity for Wi-Fi passenger use.

Wi fi hotspots in typical IoT vehicles. Think of your outdoor utility vehicles, container handler vehicles at a port. Maybe it’s a forklift running over urwb and then providing wi fi connectivity within a hundred foot radius of that parked forklift for tablet, cell phone connectivity, whatever is needed to manage the day to day operations and manufacturing process at that site.

Overhead crane connectivity in manufacturing environments to backhaul fisheye cameras and PLC comms.

Are there any plans to provide beacons so standard tools can be used for RF Validation, or is Telemetry king?

For now, telemetry is king, and using software tools such as PrismStats to capture, analyze and post process the telemetry stream for both fixed and mobile connectivity. Nothing beats real empirical measurements in RF environments, and PrismStats is a quick, easy, cheap and reliable way to get this data in the hands of the engineers.

TBD, I’m sure there will be better hooks into AI-RRM, Wireless Config Analyzers, and other standard features you see with Cisco Wireless, though it’ll take some time to fully integrate to the bells and whistles we offer with Wifi.

What are the most useful documents you reference even at your current level of expertise?

Right now, digging into the Cisco Live On Demand Library. Lots of great wi fi and u r w b content there…and goes back a few years.

Unplugged Connectivity YouTube channel. 100s of videos and episodes about all things Cisco Catalyst and Meraki Wireless…and a few URWB sessions there

Cisco TDM, Ordering Guides, and CVDs

Google AI searches…digging through all of the public facing configuration guides; hardware install guides, datasheets, etc to answer very specific RF questions.

Tell us about an interesting project you have worked on and how URWB solved the complications the customer faced.

Igor – Digital divide during covid using Meraki MRs for wifi and FM URWB radios to underserved areas in Dallas-Fort Worth, as well as City of Wake Forest. PtMP and relay architectures mostly. Something that can also be replicated with outdoor campus connectivity we see in hospitals, colleges, and corporate campuses. With DoTs, lots of intersection connectivity to traffic management solutions and cctv cameras on those tall vertical assets. So next time you are at a red light, look up and you might see a square panel used as the directional backhaul to another traffic light a quarter mile away.

Indoor AGV connectivity has also been a top use case with fluidity, so various customers there using fluidity, and in some cases, using wi fi wgb for not so mission, critical connectivity. MPO is a great benefit here, with packet duplication/deduplication of that mission-critical PLC.

Ports and terminals, fluidity, connectivity to these vehicles using multiple 90 degree horn antennas off of those high mast light poles to provide connectivity for terminal operating system (tos) applications.

Train to ground for mission-critical traffic backhaul, as well as not so mission-critical wifi ap backhaul, passenger signage and VoIP e-tel

Open pit mining, combination of fixed PtP and PtMP backhaul to temporary trailer setups, and then configuring fluidity to those large mining vehicles. Great for ad hoc environments with constantly changing topology and redesigning with line of sight in mind.

Jeremy- I really like the new hardware, no more overly protective hiding of my M12 cable.

Use cases & Stories

Scott – I deployed what was originally a FluidMesh system for a wood chip yard for a paper mill. Four giant automated machines for the dispersal and reclamation of wood chips for the beginning of the paper making process. Two monster chip “Stackers” and two giant chip “Reclaimers”

Deployment ran great for several years. Ended up replacing original FluidMesh hardware with updated C-URWB hardware due to FM being end-of-life and could not get spares (well, and one did fill with water after a particularly bad storm)

Jeremy – I have participated in several POCs for passenger rail control, a Smart Farm using Fluidity and FluidMax as the backhaul. Commissioned production systems include several steel mill cranes, a port or two, some modified R-Coax applications, several themed rides, and a partridge in a pair tree.

If you would like to connect with Matt Virus or Igor Moiseev or learn more about their employer, Cisco, then check the following:

Matt Virus – https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-virus-1953869/

Igor Moiseev – https://www.linkedin.com/in/igormoiseev1989/

Cisco – https://www.cisco.com/ go/curwb

Unplugged Connectivity – https://www.youtube.com/@getunplugged

If you would like to connect with Scott or learn more about his employer, Global Process Automation (GPA), then check the following:

Scott McNeil – https://www.linkedin.com/in/americanmcneil/

GPA – https://www.global-business.net/

If you would like to connect with Jeremy or learn more about his employer, Prism Systems Inc, then check the following:

Jeremy Baker – https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremyabaker/

Prism Systems Inc – https://www.prismsystems.com/

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By Scott McNeil & Jeremy Baker

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