Cisco IR8100 Among First Products Certified for Wi-SUN FAN 1.1

Customers can take advantage of new capabilities of Wi-SUN FAN 1.1

With over 100 products certified by the Wi-SUN Alliance, Field Area Network 1.0 is a popular networking option for smart utility and smart city use cases. Electric utility metering, distribution automation, and municipal street lighting applications benefit greatly from FAN’s secure, self-forming, self-healing IPv6 wireless mesh networking which is able to support million scale deployments spanning large geographic areas.

Building on the strong foundation laid down by FAN 1.0, the Wi-SUN Alliance recently announced the availability of the first devices certified to support the new feature additions of FAN 1.1. These new FAN 1.1 capabilities include:

• Low energy device operation (LE). Low power nodes are able to function for up to 20 years on a single battery charge, targeting use cases such as methane detection, water metering, gas metering, and other low power field sensing applications.
• Higher performance (HP). FAN 1.1 adds Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing radio support, meaning FAN 1.1 now offers data rates from 50 Kbps (FSK) up to 2.4 Mbps (OFDM). The higher data rates are ideal for utility AMI 2.0 and Distribution Automation use cases such as Fault Location Isolation and Restoration (FLISR).
• Modulations and data rate negotiation (MDR). Mesh neighbors can now negotiate a “gear shift” to transition, for example, a section of a lower speed AMI mesh to a higher throughput mode for DA fault isolation operations.
• Expanded geographic support. North America, Brazil, Japan, and European Union operation is supported. Extension to additional 800 and 900 MHz regions is now practical.

Figure 1 depicts an example multi-hop FAN 1.1 mesh. The mesh forms automatically between a set of deployed Routers and a Border Router providing WAN connectivity. A Router’s frequency hopping capabilities and ability to determine alternate data paths provide superior resiliency. Routers are further able to “parent” low power nodes.

The sub-GHz mesh RF links can individually stretch to several kilometers (depending upon local conditions), with multi-hop meshes able to span distances of 10s of kilometers. A single FAN 1.1 mesh can support thousands of Router nodes, each able to parent low power nodes. A classic utility deployment scenario is an electric meters (Router) parenting one or more low power water meters, gas meters, or environmental sensors. Adding additional meshes scales a deployment to millions of nodes.

The Catalyst IR8100 Heavy Duty Series Industrial Router will be the first member of the Cisco Resilient Mesh solution to be FAN 1.1 certified. Given its rugged design for harsh outdoor environments, flexible backhaul configuration, and security capabilities, the IR8140 is an ideal FAN 1.1 Border Router. An individual IR8140 can root a mesh of thousands of FAN 1.1 devices, with millions scale device networks achieved with the deployment of additional IR8140s. Following the IR8140, IR530 Range Extender, and Cisco Resilient Mesh Endpoint SDK will also be scheduled for FAN 1.1 certification, rounding out a complete Cisco FAN 1.1 portfolio of Border Routers, Routers, and endpoint design SDK.

Figure 2: Cisco IR8140 Border Router

Large FAN 1.1 networks require a network management system able to provide lifecycle management for million node networks. Cisco IoT Field Network Director is purpose built, and field proven to manage these large-scale networks.

“Wi-SUN 1.1 provides improved flexibility, security, and adaptive performance to unlock newer markets demanding high performance or low energy use cases in the growing Utility or Smart city landscape. Cisco’s Wi-SUN commitment has been focused on ease of use through simplified Zero Touch Provisioning, resiliency in varying RF conditions, interoperability and network management for endpoints and border routers through industry leading OpenCSMP to enable customers to build production networks with its industry leading solution at scale in a secure manner.” says Lakshmi Narayana Jammi, Sr Product Manager for Cisco IR8140 and Cisco Resilient Mesh SDK

“With the introduction of low power nodes and higher data rates, FAN 1.1 supports many new and exciting use cases. Cisco is well positioned to support this increase in utility and smart city network demand with OpenCSMP and Field Network Director, device and network management solutions that have proven ability to scale to millions of endpoints.” says Clay Stroud, Product Manager for Cisco Field Network Director.

“Wi-SUN FAN1.1 provides highly flexible communications capability allowing both high performance and low energy functionality on the same network, making it the obvious choice for an even broader range of industrial IoT applications such as utilities and smart cities” says Phil Beecher, President and CEO of the Wi-SUN Alliance.  “We’re excited that Cisco will be supporting Wi-SUN FAN 1.1 communications infrastructure with its range of industrial routers, bringing proven reliability, scalability, and security to these critical infrastructure networks. “

For more information about the Wi-SUN Alliance and Field Area Network 1.1, head over to the Wi-SUN FAN information site.

Also see this additional information about Cisco Resilient Mesh products and Cisco Field Network Director.

Finally, if you are attending DISTRIBUTECH 2025, join us at Booth 1223 to see the Catalyst IR8140 and our IoT Field Network Director in person, as well key solutions to help utilities with their grid modernization projects in grid security, substation automation, distribution automation, renewable energy, and more.

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