If you close your eyes and picture a mine, you probably imagine dusty boots, heavy machinery, and the rhythmic sound of rock being crushed. And while that’s still part of reality, the “brains” of the operation have shifted dramatically. Today’s mining landscape is less about brute force and more about bytes, bits, and the invisible threads of wireless connectivity that keep everything moving. The industry now relies on automation and innovation as its operational reality.

The Automation Revolution: Why It Matters

Automation has become foundational to the modern mining industry. The following applications are a reality in many mining operations.

• Autonomous Haulage Systems (AHS): Autonomous trucks are now a cornerstone of large-scale surface mining. These systems remove personnel from hazardous environments and significantly reduce accidents caused by human error or fatigue.
• AI-Driven Predictive Maintenance (PdM): AI is being used to move the industry from reactive to proactive asset management. Machine learning models analyze sensor data (vibration, heat, acoustics) to predict failures weeks in advance, reducing unplanned downtime.
• Tele-Remote Operations: Mining is now adopting remote-controlled operations which allow operators to man equipment from a remote safe location. This significantly enhances safety and enables operations in areas that would otherwise be hazardous for personnel.

Why the rapid adoption? It comes down to two primary drivers: safety and productivity. Safety is the most critical factor; by moving operators from hazardous pits into remote control centers, we effectively remove humans from the most dangerous zones. Simultaneously, productivity gains are substantial. For example, autonomous haul trucks do not require coffee breaks or shift changes, allowing them to keep the cycle moving 24/7.

However, there is a caveat: automation is only as effective as the network that powers it.

 The Invisible Backbone: Why Mining Needs “Ultra-Reliable” Connectivity

You can have the most advanced tele-remote dozer in the world, but if its connection drops while it’s navigating a steep grade, you end up with expensive paperweight.

Mining environments are notoriously hostile. We’re talking about massive open pits or deep, signal-dampening underground tunnels filled with dust, vibration, and extreme temperature swings. A standard office Wi-Fi setup simply won’t cut it.

To support mission-critical applications, the network must provide:

• Ultra-Reliable, Low-Latency Connectivity: Tele-remote operations require instantaneous camera feeds and command execution. Minimizing latency is critical, as any delay could result in accidents and damage to expensive equipment.
• Seamless Handoffs: As a haul truck moves across a site, it needs to switch between access points without dropping a single packet. “Zero packet loss” isn’t just a marketing term here; it’s a requirement.
• Ruggedized Hardware:Equipment must be industrial-grade to ensure maximum durability. Key requirements include IP66/IP67 certification for dust and water resistance, as well as the capacity to withstand extreme temperatures and high-vibration environments.

Powering the Future: Cisco’s Industrial Wireless Solutions

To meet the extreme demands of modern mining, Cisco has developed a portfolio specifically engineered for these harsh environments. At the heart of this solution is the Cisco Catalyst IW9167E Heavy Duty Access Point. Built to survive the most challenging conditions, this device is IP66/IP67-rated, ensuring total protection against dust, water, and it can withstand extreme temperature fluctuations and vibrations.

When paired with Cisco Ultra-Reliable Wireless Backhaul (URWB), the IW9167E transforms from a simple access point into a mission-critical communication backbone. Unlike traditional wireless technologies, URWB is designed specifically for continuous mobility. It provides fiber-like reliability and seamless handoffs, ensuring that autonomous trucks and remote-controlled equipment maintain a rock-solid connection even while traversing vast, rugged pits at speed. With URWB, “zero packet loss” becomes a standard operational reality, eliminating the risk of equipment downtime due to network drops.

Proven in the Field: Validated Designs and Partnerships

We know that in mining, theoretical performance isn’t enough; solutions must be proven under pressure. Cisco doesn’t just provide hardware; we provide a roadmap for success.

Our commitment to reliability is best demonstrated through our Cisco Validated Designs (CVDs). These are comprehensive, validated design guides that remove the guesswork from network deployment. By visiting our Cisco Mining Design Zone, you can access architectures that have been tested and verified in lab environments to ensure they meet the rigorous demands of the mining sector.

Real-world success stories, such as our work with Aterpa, highlight the transformative power of these solutions. Aterpa leveraged our technology to support tele-remote operations for dam decommissioning projects, enabling work in environments where human presence was not allowed.

Furthermore, our strategic partnership with global industry leaders like Caterpillar allows us to rigorously test and validate our wireless solutions against the specific applications and machinery used on-site. This collaborative approach ensures that when you deploy Cisco, you are deploying a solution that has been tested and validated by key players in the mining industry.

Want to know more? Let’s chat

Whether you are looking to enhance safety by removing personnel from hazardous zones or aiming to boost productivity through 24/7 autonomous operations, the right network is foundational to your entire operation.

Don’t let connectivity gaps hold your operation back. Cisco is here to help you design, deploy, and scale a wireless network that is resilient to support your operations. If you are ready to learn more about how our industrial wireless solutions can drive efficiency in your specific mining environment, we invite you to reach out to our team today. Let’s build the future of mining together.

If you’re reading this from a desk in a climate-controlled office at HQ, take a second to appreciate your Wi-Fi. It doesn’t have to deal with strong winds, flammable vapors, or the constant threat of combustible gases. But for the IT teams managing “The Patch”- the remote rigs, sprawling pipeline networks, and high-stakes refineries—connectivity is a completely different beast.

In the Oil & Gas (O&G) world, “standard” equipment doesn’t just struggle – it fails. And in this industry, failure isn’t just an IT ticket: it’s a multi-million-dollar downtime event or, even worse, a safety hazard. As the industry pivots toward the “Digital Oilfield,” the demand for high-speed, reliable data at the extreme edge has never been higher. You need a network as tough as the crews operating the drills.

The “Mud, Sweat, and Gears” of O&G Connectivity

Let’s be real: trenching fiber to a remote wellhead or a moving offshore platform is a logistical nightmare and a financial black hole. Traditional wireless has often been the “best-effort” alternative, but it comes with its own baggage.

First, there are environmental extremes. We’re talking temperatures from -50°C to +75°C. Then there’s the HazLoc (Hazardous Location) factor. If your access point isn’t certified for Class I Division 2, ATEX, or IECEx, it may not even be allowed on your site. Finally, there’s a mobility challenge. Assets in O&G move—drilling rigs shift, service vehicles roam, and autonomous robots are now entering the fray. Maintaining a seamless connection while these assets are in motion has historically been the “Holy Grail” of industrial networking.

Enter the Heavyweight: The Cisco Catalyst IW9167E-HZ

This is where the Cisco Catalyst IW9167E-HZ steps into the ring. Think of it as the Swiss Army Knife of industrial wireless, specifically engineered for some of the most volatile environments on Earth.

The “HZ” stands for Hazardous Locations, and it wears its certifications like a badge of honor. With a heavy-duty, IP67-rated design, it’s built to withstand the vibration of a rig floor and the corrosive air of a coastal refinery. But it’s what’s inside that really changes the game for O&G IT professionals.

The Secret Sauce: Wi-Fi 6/6E + URWB

Why choose between local access and robust backhaul when you can have both in one box? The IW9167E-HZ features tri-radio capabilities that allow it to run Wi-Fi 6/6E and Cisco Ultra-Reliable Wireless Backhaul (URWB) simultaneously.

• Wi-Fi 6/6E for the Workforce: Provide high-bandwidth connectivity for tablets, handheld scanners, and worker safety wearables. With the 6GHz spectrum, you’re looking at lower latency and higher capacity for the growing number of IIoT devices on-site.
• URWB for the Infrastructure: This is Cisco’s “fiber-like” wireless technology. It delivers near-zero latency (<10ms) and zero packet loss during handoffs. Whether you’re connecting a moving autonomous vehicle or backhauling critical SCADA data from a remote wellhead, URWB ensures the data gets through without the “make-before-break” drops common in standard Wi-Fi.

By integrating both into a single device managed through a “single pane of glass” with Cisco Catalyst Center, you’re not just improving performance – you’re slashing your Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). No more managing separate, siloed networks for backhaul and access.

AI in the Patch: Not Just a Buzzword

We know IT teams are under pressure to “AI-enable” their operations. According to the 2024 State of Industrial Networking Report, 48% of industrial leaders believe AI will have the greatest impact on their networking strategy over the next five years. In O&G, this isn’t science fiction – it’s happening now.

• Precision Drilling:  Industry giants like BP are already utilizing AI to steer drill bits and predict potential well issues before they occur. This requires real-time data streams that only a high-performance wireless network can support.
• Autonomous Monitoring:  Chevron has deployed AI-powered drones to fly over shale operations in Texas and Colorado, remotely monitoring for emissions leaks and reducing the need for manual inspections. These drones need a reliable “home base” for data offloading and control.
• Predictive Maintenance: By collecting vibration and temperature data from turbines and pumps in real-time, operators can move from “fix it when it breaks” to “fix it before it fails,” potentially saving millions in avoided downtime.

Securing the Future of the Digital Oilfield

The right connectivity does more than keep systems running; it acts as a safeguard for your personnel and a catalyst for operational efficiency. Whether you are connecting a remote wellhead or managing a complex refinery, with the IW9167E-HZ you are building a resilient foundation that supports advanced AI, strengthens cybersecurity, and ensures that critical data is always available, even in the most volatile environments.

It often starts quietly.

A customer-facing AI assistant hesitates before responding.
An automated workflow pauses, then resumes.
A recommendation engine delivers inconsistent results—right one time, wrong the next.

Nothing is technically “down.”
No alerts are firing.
But confidence begins to slip.

Teams look first at the model. Then the data pipeline. Then cloud capacity. Everything appears healthy—until someone asks the uncomfortable question:

Could this be the network?

Across large, globally distributed enterprise networks, this pattern is emerging with increasing consistency. As organizations embed AI into core business workflows—customer engagement, software development, security operations, supply chain optimization—the network is being asked to support workloads it was never originally designed for.

Clearly understanding the limitations of your existing architecture can help you anticipate challenges before they impact operations, refine deployment strategies, and establish safeguards that prevent costly disruptions. This will enable smoother AI adoption and drive more reliable and successful technology outcomes for your organization. So, let’s examine AI workloads and where conventional networks struggle.

AI is not “just another application”

One of the most common missteps enterprises make is treating AI workloads like traditional applications.

They’re not.

AI workloads are highly sensitive to latency, intolerant of jitter, and dependent on continuous, real-time data movement across campuses, branches, clouds, and edges. They introduce new traffic patterns—east-west, north-south, machine-to-machine, agent-to-agent—that many existing network designs were never optimized to observe or assure.

In an AI-driven workflow:

• A single user request can trigger multiple AI agents.
• Those agents may access local GPUs, cloud models, and SaaS services simultaneously.
• Decisions must happen in real time—often without retries or graceful degradation.

When performance degrades—even slightly—the impact isn’t just slower response times. It shows up as inconsistent outcomes, unreliable automation, and hesitation to trust AI-driven decisions.

Networks built for predictable applications don’t fail catastrophically here.
They struggle inconsistently—which is harder to diagnose and more damaging at scale.

Performance is the first stress point—and the cause isn’t obvious

Traditional network performance models assume:

• Relatively static traffic paths
• Predictable application behavior
• Reactive troubleshooting when issues arise

AI breaks all three.

Traffic shifts dynamically based on where inference occurs. Application behavior changes in real time. Congestion doesn’t appear as a clean outage—it surfaces as erratic AI behavior that’s difficult to reproduce or explain.

Operations teams are left asking:

• Is the model slow?
• Is GPU capacity constrained?
• Is the cloud provider at fault?
• Or is the network introducing micro-latency we can’t see?

Many existing monitoring tools struggle here, but they report utilization, not experience. Health, not intent. Metrics without the context needed to explain why AI outcomes fluctuate.

The lack of insight is inevitably paired with the following result:
AI workloads run—but rarely deliver consistent performance as they scale.

Why AI turns assurance into a requirement

Before AI, network teams relied on assurance to gain end-to-end visibility and pinpoint network issues impacting user experience.

In an AI-driven world, assurance becomes foundational, providing dynamic, continuous monitoring and proactive management to keep pace with the complexity and speed of AI workloads.

AI systems depend on continuous confidence that:

• Data is flowing correctly
• Policies are enforced consistently
• Performance objectives are met end-to-end, not just at isolated points

Networks designed for manual intervention rely heavily on after-the-fact investigation. Humans piece together logs, dashboards, and alerts across multiple tools and teams.

That approach doesn’t hold when AI systems operate continuously and autonomously.

AI doesn’t wait for tickets.
AI doesn’t pause for triage.
When visibility and trust degrade, AI systems don’t stop—they make poorer decisions.

Without assurance integrated into the network itself, organizations often slow AI adoption—not because the use cases lack value, but because outcomes become unpredictable.

Security was historically designed to protect human-driven applications moving at human speed.

AI operates at machine speed—and it exposes every point of friction in between.

Many traditional security approaches rely on:

• Traffic backhaul
• Centralized inspection
• Static enforcement points

That friction was manageable for human-driven applications. For AI workloads operating continuously and autonomously, it becomes a limiting factor.

Every additional hop adds latency.
Every policy mismatch introduces unpredictability.
Every blind spot increases risk.

When security isn’t integrated directly into the network fabric, teams are forced into trade-offs they shouldn’t have to make—between protecting the environment and keeping AI responsive.

Architecture is where the pressure accumulates

Performance, assurance, and security challenges are symptoms. The underlying constraint is architectural.

Most enterprise networks evolved as collections of domains:

• Campus
• Branch
• WAN
• Cloud
• Security

Each optimized independently. Each managed with its own tools, policies, and operational workflows.

AI workflows span all of them—simultaneously.

They require shared context, coordinated policy enforcement, and the ability to reason across domains in real time. When architecture remains fragmented:

• Visibility becomes partial
• Automation becomes fragile
• Policy enforcement becomes inconsistent

This is why many AI initiatives stall after early success. The models work. The pilots prove value. But scaling exposes friction—not in AI itself, but in the network layers beneath it.

The turning point: recognizing when your network is holding back AI progress

As AI moves from experimentation to everyday operations, a pattern is becoming clear.

AI doesn’t struggle because models lack sophistication. It struggles because the networks they run on were designed for a different operating model.

Networks optimized for predictable, human-driven applications need to support continuous, autonomous, and outcome-driven workflows.

For many organizations, this realization doesn’t arrive as a dramatic failure. It surfaces through inconsistency, operational friction, or difficulty scaling what initially worked. Over time, these signals accumulate—prompting a broader rethinking of how the network fits into the AI roadmap.

Your AI roadmap can’t wait for pressure to build. In the years ahead, as AI becomes embedded into every workflow and decision loop, networks will increasingly be judged not just on availability, but on their ability to assure outcomes at machine speed. The time for recognition and action is now.

Because in the AI era, the network isn’t just infrastructure.

It’s part of how intelligence moves, reasons, and delivers value.

Your industrial footprint keeps expanding – more manufacturing plants, pumping stations, and power substations. But your security team isn’t growing at the same pace. Here’s what keeps CISOs awake: every new site increases your attack surface while resources stay flat.

If you’re managing OT security across multiple sites, you know this challenge. Teams spend weeks manually updating sensors with the latest firmware and threat intel in a never-ending loop. Site 12 runs the latest threat intelligence while Site 7 operates with firmware and threat intelligence that are six months old – leaving you exposed.

When the board or auditors request enterprise-wide reporting, you’re compiling spreadsheets from 30 sites – often taking weeks at a time. As the CISO, you have no aggregated view of vulnerabilities and threats, let alone the capability to stand-up an enterprise-wide governance program to drive down cyber risk strategically.

This approach isn’t sustainable – or secure.

The Real Cost of Siloed Security

Security teams at large industrial organizations spend significant time maintaining tools instead of remediating vulnerabilities and hunting threats. Your experienced security team should not be contending with out-of-date software, needing to troubleshoot connectivity, let alone having to manually distribute threat intelligence on a site-by-site basis – tasks that should be automated.

The business impact: regulatory fines from inconsistent security posture, operational disruptions from undetected threats, and budget overruns from inefficient resource allocation. Most critically, you can’t confidently answer stakeholder or board questions about your OT security posture because you lack consistent, enterprise-wide visibility.

What Multi-Site Industrial Operations Need

Industrial organizations require five capabilities to secure operations at scale:

1. Centralized control: Enterprise-wide management without complexity. Monitor all security site infrastructure from one console, not dozens of interfaces.
2. Automation at scale: Push updates to 100 sites as easily as one. Manual updates don’t scale and create dangerous security gaps.
3. Up-to-date threat intelligence: Always up-to-date and consistent zero-day vulnerability detection, malware detection, IDS signatures to detect malicious traffic across all sites.
4. Insight on global security posture: Security insights that serve both IT security teams and OT engineers. Dashboards should display asset health, vulnerabilities, and security posture together.
5. Executive reporting: Board-ready views showing security posture, risk trends, and compliance status across all sites.

Traditional point solutions create more silos, manual work, and security gaps.

Cyber Vision Site Manager: Scalable Industrial Security Management

Cisco Cyber Vision Site Manager delivers enterprise-wide management for every Cyber Vision Center and sensor across all industrial sites from a single console. Monitor sensor health, their connectivity status, license usage in real-time.

Site Manager automates software management across your entire infrastructure. Schedule and deploy updates to all sites in hours instead of weeks. The system respects operational windows – you control update timing to avoid production disruptions.

Site Manager also automatically distributes the latest threat intelligence to your entire OT security infrastructure from one location. This ensures zero-day vulnerabilities and threats are identified consistently across all sites. No intelligence gaps. No outdated protection. Additional capabilities include secure integration of Cyber Vision Centers with Cloud security solutions such as IP address geolocation to create allow and deny-list to prohibit communication to unauthorized geolocations.

Instead of updating Cyber Vision security infrastructure manually, on a site-by-site basis, your security team can instead focus on more important tasks. Existing Cyber Vision customers get to leverage this capability as part of their existing Cyber Vision license.

New Cyber Vision Application for Splunk: Turning Fragmented Data into Actionable Insights

Now that we’ve made it easier to manage your multisite industrial security infrastructure, how do you gain aggregated visibility from all sites to drive an enterprise-wide cyber risk governance program?

The Cyber Vision app for Splunk seamlessly enables Cyber Vision Center telemetry to be ingested into prebuilt and customizable dashboards in Splunk Enterprise – the Splunk Platform. Security analysts get a complete overview of all Cyber Vision telemetry, including focused views per sensor, operational and security overviews, vulnerabilities, asset summaries, and the ability to detect and remediate malicious activity across sites in one platform.

Pre-built dashboards provide immediate value by aggregating security telemetry from all sites into a single interface. The real power of the platform lies in customization bringing OT, IT and security together for specific use cases and personas. For example, plant managers can monitor local asset health, security teams can track cross-site vulnerability or security event comparisons and get context for faster threat detection, and executives can get a birds-eye view on operational and security data.

This transforms vulnerability management from site-by-site exercises into strategic, enterprise-wide programs. Gain comprehensive visibility into security weaknesses across all industrial assets, with prioritized risk scoring based on asset criticality, exploitability, and operational context.

The Cyber Vision application can be downloaded on Splunkbase.

The Complete Solution

These capabilities work together as an integrated approach:

Cyber Vision Site Manager handles infrastructure management – centralized deployment, automated software and threat intelligence updates, health monitoring, and troubleshooting across all sites.

Cyber Vision app for Splunk powers security operations – unified Cyber Vision telemetry aggregation, transforming industrial cyber risk management from a site-by-site exercise into a strategic, enterprise-wide OT security governance program.

Together, they deliver operational efficiency, security effectiveness, and strategic oversight. Manage industrial security infrastructure with confidence at scale, remediate vulnerabilities and threats faster, and effectively communicate cyber risk to executives and auditors.

The Path Forward

The question isn’t whether you’ll face sophisticated OT threats – it’s whether you’ll detect them in time. As industrial connectivity increases, so does your attack surface. Manual, site-by-site security management can’t keep pace.

Multi-site industrial operations require enterprise-wide security management without enterprise-wide complexity. With centralized management and unified visibility, security teams can finally scale industrial security programs to match their operational footprint.

Ask yourself: Can you confidently answer, “What’s our OT security posture right now across all sites?” How long would it take to deploy critical updates across all sites? Is your team stuck in a never-ending deployment and management loop, or are they able to proactively resolve vulnerabilities and detect threats?

Ready to see how leading industrial organizations scale OT security? Visit cisco.com/go/OTsecurity, download the solution at-a-glance or contact a Cisco sales representative to learn more about Cyber Vision Site Manager and the Cyber Vision app for Splunk.

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The enterprise branch has evolved from a simple extension of the data center into a critical gateway for cloud applications, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platforms, and an increasingly AI-driven workforce. But as encrypted traffic and threat volumes surge, IT leaders face an impossible choice: robust security or acceptable performance. Most branch deployments sacrifice one for the other.

To avoid compromising security or performance, branches have traditionally turned to a two-box model: a router for connectivity and a firewall for protection. This legacy approach increases complexity, costs, and operational risk. Cisco 8000 Series Secure Routers change that model by converging industry-leading routing and next-generation firewall into a single, purpose-built platform for the branch WAN edge.

Better yet, independent testing by NetSecOPEN proves that with Cisco 8000 Series Secure Routers, IT leaders no longer have to choose between performance and security.

Why independent validation matters

NetSecOPEN is a widely trusted, vendor-neutral organization known for its rigorous security efficacy and performance testing. Their evaluations use real-world traffic mixes, enterprise workloads, and current threat samples following RFC 9411 open-standard testing methodology.

NetSecOPEN’s independent validation provides an objective, unbiased assessment. Transparency and impartiality are crucial in helping to inform vendor selection and confirm that products meet industry standards and perform as claimed in practical scenarios.

Test results: setting a new benchmark

In NetSecOPEN’s rigorous evaluation, our latest generation 8375-E-G2 Secure Router sets a new benchmark for branch security and performance, with proven intrusion prevention system (IPS) effectiveness of 99.3%, 99.8% malware detection, and HTTPS and HTTP throughput of 1.63 Gbps and 8.01 Gbps, respectively. These results validate the router’s ability to block exploits, malware, and evasive threats under real-world conditions without compromising performance.

What this means for organizations

Powered by the new secure networking processor and unified Cisco platform, Cisco 8000 Series Secure Routers combine multi-threaded parallel processing, hardware-accelerated cryptography, an integrated artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) engine, hardware trust anchor, and a post-quantum cryptography (PQC)-ready encryption engine. It’s built to deliver high-performance encrypted traffic inspection without impacting application experience—game-changing capabilities in today’s AI-driven enterprise.

This also delivers end-to-end operational and business benefits to the branch:

• Simpler operations: One platform, one dashboard for networking and security.
• Comprehensive security: Efficacy delivered with no performance trade-off.
• Continuous innovation: Access to new features and capabilities through software-driven updates, eliminating the need for disruptive hardware refreshes.
• Lower total cost: A single secure edge platform that replaces the need for standalone router and firewall appliances—reducing hardware footprint, power, space, and licensing complexity across branch deployments.

Taking the next step

The convergence of routing and secure access secure edge (SASE) with comprehensive security capabilities represents the future of branch connectivity. That future is available today with proven, independently validated performance.

Ever found yourself circling a packed parking lot, heart sinking as you realize the only spot left is impossibly tight? Or perhaps you’ve experienced the dreaded “door ding” aftermath, wishing your car could just… park itself? And what about the sheer frustration of trying to squeeze yourself into your vehicle when it’s boxed in by other cars? What if we told you that future is already here, and it’s smoother, smarter, and more seamless than you can imagine? Prepare to say goodbye to parking woes and hello to a whole new era of convenience, thanks to innovative robotics and the ultra-reliable power of Cisco technology!

Watch the incredible video below showcasing HL Robotics’ “Parkie, – a revolutionary automated parking solution that’s changing the game in Korea. This isn’t just about parking; it’s about transforming the entire experience. You’ll see firsthand how Cisco’s Ultra-Reliable Wireless Backhaul (URWB) ensures the seamless, continuous connectivity these intelligent robots need to operate flawlessly. Get ready to witness parking perfection!

The Brains Behind the Bots: Why Connectivity is Key

You’ve seen the magic, but how does it work? For a fleet of parking robots like Parkie to operate flawlessly, the underlying network isn’t just important – it’s absolutely critical. Imagine robots zipping around, precisely maneuvering vehicles, coordinating with each other, and responding to commands in real-time. Any hiccup, any delay, any dropped signal, and the whole system grinds to a halt.

These mechanical marvels demand uninterrupted, strong wireless communication. They need stable connectivity even in complex, dynamic environments like multi-story parking garages. High-speed roaming, seamless handoffs between access points, and zero packet loss are non-negotiable. It’s like a finely choreographed dance, and the network is the music that keeps everyone in perfect sync.

Meet Parkie: Your New Parking Pal from HL Robotics

Enter HL Robotics, a visionary company dedicated to making our lives easier and more efficient. Their flagship product, Parkie, is a testament to their innovative spirit. Parkie isn’t just a robot; it’s your personal parking valet! These intelligent robots take the stress out of parking by autonomously moving your vehicle into tight spots, eliminating door dings, and even handling your luggage with ease.

HL Robotics understands that parking lots come in all shapes and sizes, requiring flexible solutions. Whether it’s a single pair of robots or a fleet of ten or more working simultaneously, Parkie ensures seamless service, optimizing space and delivering unparalleled convenience.

Cisco Powers the Precision: URWB and Industrial Wireless in Action

So, what’s the secret sauce enabling Parkie’s smooth moves? It’s Cisco’s powerful wireless technology, specifically our Ultra-Reliable Wireless Backhaul (URWB). Cisco URWB technology is engineered for environments where even a millisecond of disruption can be costly.

Here’s how Cisco URWB ensures Parkie’s flawless performance:

• Uninterrupted Signal: Cisco’s wireless signal remains strong and consistent throughout the entire parking space, ensuring robots are always connected. Near-zero latency and lossless communication provide stable signal quality.
• Seamless Mobility: With URWB, robots maintain seamless connectivity through “Make Before Break” handoffs, even while constantly on the move. This means stable, high-speed roaming without a hitch, tracking the movement of the wheels.
• Multipath Operations (MPO): Even when multiple robots are moving and changing access points, URWB’s MPO keeps moving devices connected by sending high-priority traffic to multiple access points at once on different paths and frequencies, guaranteeing stable performance without packet loss or delays.
• Built-in Network Monitoring: Unforeseen communication interruptions can happen. That’s why Cisco’s solution includes a robust network monitoring system, IW Monitor. It logs network status in real-time, allowing operators to quickly identify the exact time, access point, and client affected by any disconnection. IW monitor’s invaluable insights help in swift troubleshooting and corrective action, keeping operations running smoothly.

This robust, industrial-grade wireless infrastructure is what allows Parkie robots to constantly communicate with the server, send appropriate commands, and coordinate their intricate dance with absolute precision.

Beyond the Lot: Cisco’s Rugged Reach

The challenging environment of a parking lot – with its concrete structures, moving vehicles, and harsh environmental conditions like humidity, rain, or extreme temperatures – perfectly illustrates the need for truly resilient networking. This is precisely where Cisco’s Rugged Enterprise Networking solution truly shines.

Just as URWB ensures Parkie’s reliability in a demanding parking garage, Cisco’s broader Rugged Enterprise Networking solutions are designed to extend your secure campus network beyond traditional office walls, across rugged environments. This enables innovation, reduces complexity, and enhances security in even the toughest conditions. These solutions, which include our Industrial Wireless Access Points with URWB technology, are purpose-built to withstand extreme conditions, delivering secure, reliable, and high-performance connectivity where standard networks simply can’t. Ultimately, it’s about empowering businesses to connect everything, everywhere, no matter how tough the terrain.

Ready to See the Future of Parking?

Don’t just read about it – experience it! Watch the video above to see HL Robotics’ Parkie, powered by Cisco URWB, in action. Prepare to be amazed by the convenience, efficiency, and sheer brilliance of automated parking. The future of parking is here, and it’s connected by Cisco!

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The state of business Wi-Fi right now

The business landscape isn’t just changing fast—it’s transforming at the speed of AI. Networking teams now face challenges their Wi-Fi isn’t built for. AI and IoT operations need continuous, often instant access to data. Device proliferation is clogging up networks. And unmanaged devices are increasing risk exposure.

Without the right approach, network bottlenecks become business bottlenecks. That means more support tickets, more security incidents, and less time spent focusing on business growth.

The solution is simple: enhanced performance, resilience, and security with Wi-Fi 7.

Why businesses need faster, more secure Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi 7 uses advancements like wider channels and multi-link operation (MLO) to dramatically transform network performance. If your business depends on high-speed connectivity (looking at you retail, manufacturing, and financial services), the outcomes are tangible: 

• Drastically lower latency
• Much higher bandwidth for data-intensive apps
• Faster data transfer speeds
• Enhanced network reliability

By implementing Wi-Fi 7 solutions, you’ll be able to support everything from 4K and 8K video streaming to data-hungry AI applications with ease.

Wi-Fi 7 also provides security enhancements by incorporating Wi-Fi Protected Access 3 (WPA3). As your network scales and your company grows, WPA3 enables more advanced encryption and authentication methods, ensuring more reliable connectivity for employees and customers.

Why companies of all sizes are moving to Wi-Fi 7

What do the most successful companies across industries consistently deliver? Experiences. And every experience in today’s digital-first world depends on the power of the network. Wi-Fi 7 unlocks new, bespoke experiences at scale, securely—no matter the retail location, event venue, or crowd size.

When you move to Wi-Fi 7, you can expect massive upgrades, like:

• Ultra-high performance: 4x data transfer rates compared to Wi-Fi 6 and 6E, and 2x wider channels up to 320 MHz.
• Built-in security: WPA3 certification with mandatory Protected Management Frames to protect against deauthentication attacks.
• Simplified IT operations: Flexible management across cloud, on-premises, or hybrid environments.
• AI-driven assurance: Predicts and resolves issues proactively, ensuring consistent, high-quality connectivity.

Now, let’s take a look at Cisco Wi-Fi 7 in action.

How a global retailer delivers bespoke experiences with Wi-Fi 7

Samsøe Samsøe is a retailer that puts innovative customer experiences first. With 69 locations in 19 countries, creating those differentiated experiences in every store is no easy feat.

Then they moved to a cloud-first, wireless-first model with Cisco. By deploying Wi-Fi 7 access points in stores, Samsøe Samsøe made in-store experiences unique and frictionless for customers.

Picture this:

• Joining the loyalty program with one tap
• Syncing instantly with POS and automatically connecting to Wi-Fi in every store
• Using Wi-Fi 7 infrastructure to gain actionable insights into customer behavior
• Experiencing innovations like smart dressing rooms that simplify try-before-you-buy

Advanced Wi-Fi 7 features like high throughput, location services, and OpenRoaming data make it all possible. Best of all, these outcomes are repeatable. With the Meraki dashboard, Samsøe Samsøe can use network templates to spin up new locations with 300% fewer IT resources.

But retail isn’t the only industry where Wi-Fi 7 use cases are changing the game.

Event experiences in the AI era: Live Nation and BottleRock

Live Nation Entertainment produces 40,000 shows and 100 festivals every year, and BottleRock Napa Valley continues to be a marquee event.

This year, Live Nation’s production team had clear goals:

• Provide secure, high-performance connectivity for thousands of simultaneous users in a high-density environment
• Support massive real-time data transfer volumes without hiccups
• Ensure zero downtime during peak moments
• Deliver comprehensive network and operational visibility to manage crowd flow, security, and vendor transactions

The math was daunting: 55,000 unique Wi-Fi users, more than 20,000 concurrent connections, 44 terabytes of data, and three days of unforgettable festival experiences.

Cisco and partner Clair Global delivered advanced wireless solutions to meet these goals. The new Cisco Wireless 9179F large public venue access point and Catalyst 9300 switches provided robust, low-latency, high-bandwidth connectivity. Thanks to OpenRoaming, festivalgoers enjoyed password-free, automatic, and secure Wi-Fi access for more convenient event experiences.

Live Nation also leveraged AI area occupancy and presence analytics directly on Cisco MV cameras to get real-time telemetry on crowd flow and security. Plus, Splunk dashboards aggregated data from network sensors, cameras, and applications to deliver comprehensive operational insights and help optimize future events.

Now, let’s move to our epic team-up with the USGA at the U.S. Open.

U.S. Open Golf: Connectivity from the tee to the clubhouse

How’s this for a challenge: powering secure network access for more than 225,000 attendees across four days, 900 screen displays, and 191 acres of ground at Oakmont Country Club.

The USGA deployed CW9179F Access Points—designed specifically for large-scale environments like the men’s U.S. Open—to deliver faster network speeds, lower latency, and reliable, high-density connectivity. Campus Gateways were also deployed, a cloud-based wireless solution purpose-built for seamless roaming at scale, so fan devices stay connected as they traverse the course.

The results speak for themselves:

• 82 terabytes of data transferred over the USGA network (including 13 TB of fan data)
• 40,195 unique devices supported
• 4x faster upload and download speeds in high-density areas of the course

The ecosystem at the USGA also integrated Splunk observability to deliver real-time network visibility and insights, Cisco Spaces to understand crowd movement and hotspots, and Webex to make staff collaboration a breeze.

How Cisco Wi-Fi 7 enhances business connectivity

Cisco Wi-Fi 7 access points are designed to support growing businesses of all sizes. Our APs go beyond the standard with built-in Ultra-Reliable Wireless Backhaul (URWB) and Ultra-Wideband (UWB) technologies. These innovations deliver low-latency connectivity to support advanced applications and seamless mobility for users across diverse environments. And now, our Wi-Fi 7 access points are even simpler to purchase and deploy with unified licensing and a single support model.

Security is fused into the network with WPA3 and Cisco ISE, enabling dynamic segmentation and adaptive policy management. This empowers IT to protect every Wi-Fi 7 connection to devices, users, apps, and more.

To keep pace with AI advancements, we’ve infused AI-powered assurance across our entire Wi-Fi 7 portfolio:

• Automated Root Cause Analysis (RCA): Quickly identifies and expedites issue resolution to reduce troubleshooting time.
• Client Analytics: Provides real-time device identification and profiling to manage and troubleshoot unmanaged devices.
• AI-Enhanced Radio Resource Management (AI-RRM): Uses machine learning to optimize wireless configurations proactively to improve connection quality.
• Seamless integration with ThousandEyes: Enables predictive network optimization to ensure more efficient traffic flow.
• Unified AI-powered platform: Supports continuous performance optimization to drastically reduce manual errors and ensure every user experience is flawless.

Why now is the time to upgrade

As the digital landscape changes at the pace of AI innovation, your business needs to keep up. More devices, higher data consumption, AI applications, and more demanding customer expectations require it.

With Cisco Wi-Fi 7 solutions you’ll be able to:

• Fuel employee innovation and collaboration with reliable, high-speed wireless
• Deliver bespoke experiences in any setting, from boutique retail locations to epic events
• Power new levels of operational efficiency and IT agility, all while reducing costs
• Lay a foundation for the future-proofed workplace, with a more secure, resilient network that scales at the speed of your growth

So, are you ready to see what Cisco Wi-Fi 7 solutions can do? Check out our latest offers now.