MWC 2022: Cisco unveils new innovations to drive real business outcomes

Cisco has revealed specifics on its go-to-market plan for Cisco Private 5G in collaboration with partners, driving a new wave of productivity for organisations with mass-scale IoT adoption.

Initially announced at Mobile World Congress Barcelona, the solution is based on Cisco’s mobile core technology and IoT portfolio, including IoT sensors, gateways, device management software, as well as monitoring and dashboard tools. Open Radio Access Network (ORAN) technology is an important part of the solution. Cisco is collaborating closely with ORAN providers JMA and Airspan, and is actively conducting client trials with their technology.

Key differentiators of Cisco Private 5G for Enterprises:

• Delivered as-a-Service: Delivered together with global service providers and system integration partners, the offer reduces technical, financial, and operational risks for enterprise private 5G networks.
• Complementary to Wi-Fi: Cisco Private 5G integrates with existing enterprise systems, including existing and future Wi-Fi versions – Wi-Fi 5/6/6E, making operations simple.
• Visibility across the network and devices: Using a simple management portal, enterprise IT teams can maintain policy and identity across both Wi-Fi and 5G for simplified operations.
• Pay-as-you-use subscription model: Cisco Private 5G is financially simple to understand. With pay-as-you-use consumption models, customers can save money with no up-front infrastructure costs, and ramp up services as they need.
• Speed time to productivity: Businesses can spare IT staff from having to learn, design, and operate a complex, carrier class private network.

Key Benefits of Cisco Private 5G for Partners:

• Path to Profitability for Cisco Partners: For its channel partners, Cisco reduces the required time, energy, and capital to enable a faster path to profitability.
• Private Labeling: Partners can private label/use their own brand and avoid initial capital expenses and lengthy solution development cycles by consuming Cisco Private 5G on a subscription basis. Partners may also enhance Cisco Private 5G with their own value-added solutions.

Cisco also announced upgrades to its internet of things (IoT) portfolio at MWC, allowing service provider clients to manage LPWAN/4G/5G IoT connections for new and developing use cases in a more straightforward manner.

Cisco IoT Control Center now fulfills industry needs for Mass IoT with a new simplified and secure connectivity management package purpose-built for lower complexity IoT devices. Cisco IoT Control Center manages nearly 200 million devices today, across all licensed cellular networks (LPWAN/4G/5G), giving operators and enterprises the flexibility to choose thae network that works best for their use case.

Stationary devices are frequently linked over vast regions using 3GPP LPWAN networks due to their low bandwidth consumption and predictable usage patterns. From a water metre that delivers a burst of data once a week to a city parking metre that processes transactions all day and night, LPWAN enables a wide range of IoT use cases. These devices are easier to handle remotely than those that require continuous, real-time, mission-critical data collecting, such as linked autos.

Service providers can now cover the complete spectrum of enterprise use cases – from low to high complexity – from a single platform with Cisco’s new Cisco IoT Control Center subscription service. The new solution simplifies connectivity maintenance and costs without sacrificing quality, allowing service providers to generate new income streams and capitalise on new Mass IoT market prospects.