Cisco Acquires Fluidmesh Networks
Last updated on July 26th, 2020
Cisco has announced that it has completed the acquisition of New York based privately held Fluidmesh Networks,LLC. Fluidmesh is a notable player in the wireless backhaul Industry. Cisco had earlier announced its intent to acquire Fluidmesh in April 2020, during the onset of the raging pandemic. Cisco is intending to strengthen its Industrial Wireless and IoT portfolio through this acquisition.
Fluidmesh Networks specializes in outdoor wireless networking topologies like point-to-point and point to multipoint connections. It is providing solutions to various Industries like Railways, Shipping Ports, Mining, Oil & Gas, Utilities etc. It was founded in 2005 with a goal “to reliably deliver fiber-like performance via unlicensed wireless spectrum”. It has stated on its website about its products as “enablers of outdoor and large-scale applications of the Internet of Things: smart cities, urban video-surveillance, connected vehicles and trains, and industrial automation.”
Featured radio products of Fluidmesh include FM3500ENDO, FM3200ENDO, FM3200 BASE & FM1200VOLO and FMPONTE used for point to point, multi-point and mesh networks. Radios FM4500MOBI & FM4200MOBI are used in high speed vehicle networking applications; Radio FM1300OTTO is used for long distance point to point links exceeding 10 miles. They also manufacture wired network gateways like FM1000GWY and FM10000GWY. They manufacture many associated products and network monitoring solutions as well.
In its press release Cisco has specifically highlighted the high speed network connectivity solution provided by Fluidmesh to trains moving at more than 200 MPH with “zero loss of data transfer”. On this Fluidmesh claims that roaming between their base stations happens within less than 3 ms when a vehicle is traveling even at 220 MPH. Cisco has also highlighted the technologies available with Fluidmesh to provide high speed connectivity to large outdoor areas like shipping ports and cities.
Cisco’s SVP and General Manager of Cloud, Compute and IoT business Liz Centoni had written blog on this acquisition. She had said that Cisco will use Fluidmesh products to applications where reliable backhaul is mission critical, including rail and transportation, Mining operations, Manufacturing and Industrial automation.
