Cradlepoint’s new 5G wireless edge solutions for business

Mon, 24th Feb 2020

FYI, this story is more than a year old

Networking tech vendor Cradlepoint has released a comprehensive portfolio of 5G for Business solutions.

Telstra is the launch partner for the W2000-Series 5G Wideband Adapter, the 5G wireless edge solution for Telstra's Enterprise Wireless service. Customer trials are scheduled to begin in April 2020.

"We know the networking needs of our business and enterprise customers are very different from consumers', and this point was a determining factor in our decision to partner with Cradlepoint for our Enterprise Wireless 5G solution," says Telstra mobility executive Andrew Stormont.

By combining its NetCloud platform with a clean-sheet-of-paper design for its new 5G modems and antenna systems, Cradlepoint addresses network availability, security, and manageability and provides business customers with a pathway to 5G.

Specific capabilities include:

combining LTE, Gigabit-Class LTE and 5G in a single wireless WAN;
support for all variants of 5G – low-band and mid-band (Sub-6Ghz) and high-band (millimetre wave) – across major wireless operators;
interoperability with existing customer SD-WAN and router infrastructures; and
delivering the entire network management lifecycle.

"Our new NetCloud-powered portfolio of 5G wireless edge solutions represents another industry first for Cradlepoint," says Cradlepoint chairman and CEO George Mulhern.

"Our strong belief is that business customers are looking to embrace 5G to enable new and disruptive business applications and capabilities, but not at the cost of impaired network availability, security, and manageability.

The forthcoming W-Series 5G Wideband Adapters are controlled and managed by the Cradlepoint NetCloud Service and are based on the company's software-defined modem technology.

The W-Series is designed to support the wide range of 5G deployments by wireless operators around the world based on low-band, mid-band, and millimetre-wave spectrum, and can be remotely connected to a customer premise router using 1Gbps or 2.5Gbps Ethernet or a fibre connection.

Integrated Wi-Fi 6 support enables local configuration and future use cases.

A new 5G version of Cradlepoint's field-upgradable modular router modems is also planned.

The specific models include:

W2000-Series 5G Wideband Adapter for low-band and mid-band (Sub-6Ghz) deployments comes in both an indoor unit (IDU) and a rugged outdoor unit (ODU). Telstra customer trials of this model are scheduled to begin from April 2020 and on other wireless operators starting in mid-2020.

W4000-Series 5G Wideband Adapter is designed for millimetre-wave mobile networks with a rugged outdoor unit (ODU) design that can be directionally mounted on exterior walls, poles, and rooftops. The W4000-Series is slated for Q3 2020 availability.
5G Modular Modem (Sub-6Ghz) provides a field-upgradable pathway to 5G for Cradlepoint 5G Ready dual modem routers. Availability is planned for later in 2020.

The NetCloud Service underpins all Cradlepoint wireless edge solutions, including the new 5G offerings.

The new NetCloud features that support the 5G edge solutions are:

Captive Mode: When paired with a Cradlepoint 5G Ready router, the remote W-Series modems appear and function within NetCloud Manager like an integrated modem. This feature is available today.
Cradlepoint Verify Mobile Application: A companion mobile application to help installers find the ideal location and orientation to mount the W-Series IDU or ODU units for maximum 5G signal reception.
The mobile app is designed to help an employee or third-party installer quickly and accurately install 5G Wideband Adapters while automatically sending all of the vital installation data to NetCloud Manager. Both Android and iPhone are supported with a beta release planned for Q2 2020.

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