In my last role, I worked as Cisco Solutions Engineer supporting service providers in the US, helping them create scalable, and powerful managed service practice to differentiate their network edge in the market.
Today I wanted to share my thoughts around Cisco's FWA solution and how service providers can go-to-market with an offer to a solution that's trending in today's market.
Needs of the modern businesses
We are seeing a lot of businesses in the US continue to expend their footprints nationally. Businesses generally build large branch footprint in order to be closer to their customers, partners and employees. This means, they have offices, stores and buildings that are spread out.
In order to provide connectivity to their applications and services, each location needs a WAN while being resource efficient, cost efficient. This is a primary challenge, especially in remote and unconventional locations.
Realities of wired WAN
We all know the benefits of having wired WAN connectivity - stability, reliability, and performance. In today's modern world, businesses are also looking at parameters like how long it'll take for an SP to deliver core fiber in the location where they are doing business. Some of the locations can take up to 9 months to install a core fiber.
While shared/broadband internet can be cost effective, cost of having a private/dedicated wired WAN can be a high OPEX for businesses with up to $60k median cost for five-years to maintain a high-performance wired WAN.
Some of the challenging repair issues with buried wires can also take a long time to fix. This downtime can be really negative impacting, especially if that is the only WAN connectivity a location has.
FWA is now a strong alternative
FWA is a great alternative now with the latest 5G standards that can provide up to gigabits of throughput. Previous generation cellular connectivity provided up to 150mbps download whereas new 5G standard can provide up to 2 Gbps of download and 300Mbps of upload with the latest Meraki Gateway - MG52.
Use cases for FWA
- Rural and remote regions where wired connectivity can take up to 9 months to deploy
- Popup sites - FWA works great for the small popup locations where temperiory connectivity is needed
- Wired-WAN complimentary - Run FWA alongside with wired WAN to provide a resilient SD-WAN capability to a location.
- Non-conventional locations like rooftops or basement where connectivity is needed
On-Prem "Point products" limit FWA potential
While on-prem products work great on their own and typically has a lot more features, they do limit the management at scale capability, which typically reduces overall revenue for service providers due to truck rolls and training of the staff. It also causes negative customer experiences due to complexity since its harder to catch issues if management systems are disjointed.
Benefits of Cloud-managed FWA
- A single cloud-managed platform that not only can be used to manage customer's FWA WAN edge, but also to manage the rest of the network.
- That means the devices are easily managed through a single portal, allows you to catch issues easily and requires less training overall for your staff.
- It also helps you decrease the cost by troubleshooting majority of the issues via the cloud-managed platform which reduces the truck roll cost.
Cisco Meraki MG portfolio
Latest MG portfolio can be found here. MG52 is the latest 5G model in Cisco's portfolio which provides 5G Standalone capabilities and its also backwards compatible with 5G NSA technology. Some of the key features include -
- IP67 rated - recommended to be mounted outdoors
- 2x mGig (2.5g) WAN ports - can be powered via PoE or DC
- Cloud-managed eSIM capabilities with support for 'try-and-buy' cellular plans
In summary, FWA can be a great way for service providers to target businesses who are looking for faster way to provide connectivity. It also allows SPs to create a unique differentiator against their competition by offering a powerful full-stack solution that can be used to provide secure connectivity all the way to the endpoints.