Run Your IoT Applications on an IP67-rated Industrial Router

This post is co-authored by Nipun Jain,
Cisco Technical Marketing Engineer, IoT Business Unit

Take it to the limit!

With this new DevNet sandbox you can get your hands on a real, IP67-rated, 5G router that’s fully modular and multi-access capable. It’s the Cisco Catalyst IR8140. You can deploy containerized applications leveraging its quad-core ARM CPU and even test the Wi-SUN and cellular interface! The IR8140 is powered by IOS XE and therefore you can configure the device via NETCONF/RESTCONF.

The Industrial Router 8140H

The Cisco IoT Gateway IR8140H delivers secure IoT connectivity for today and the future. Its 5G ready modular design allows you to upgrade to new communications protocols when they become available, avoiding costly rip-and-replace. Add or upgrade WAN, edge compute and storage components as technologies as your needs evolve. With its rugged hardware and compact form-factor, you can install it almost anywhere. With the unique WPAN / WiSUN interface modernize your Field Area Network over Mesh technology.

A closer look of the IR1840H and its main components

Here are a few examples of use cases for the IR8140H

Utilities and smart cities: Remotely manage thousands of Smart meters , Street Lights and Distribution automation points with Cisco Resilient mesh and Wi-SUN technology

Public safety and transportation: The IR8140H provides redundant WAN connectivity for increased reliability. And with intelligence at the edge, you can accelerate decision making for mission-critical applications such as public safety, so you can better regulate traffic flow and detect traffic violations.

Web-UI & high-end industrial feature-set

Get familiar with the user-friendly on-box Device Manger (Web-UI) as seen below. Users can easily navigate in their browser through the monitoring data, configuration and settings of their industrial device.

Graphical User interface on the IR8140H

Of course, you can access many other specific industrial features as well via SSH like QoS, VPN, seamless integration to SCADA with Raw socket and DNP3 Serial/IP and IEC 60870 T101/T104 protocol translation.

IOx Edge Compute

Furthermore, it is possible to install containerized applications directly on the switch. Test now deploying your Docker containers / IOx applications on the ARM powered CPU of the IR8140H. We have prepared a sample server application on the DevNet Code Exchange which you can download or build.

Device APIs NETCONF/RESTCONF & Wi-SUN interface monitoring

Since this switch series runs Cisco’s open and programmable operating system IOS XE, you can even configure the device via the device level APIs such as NETCONF/RESTCONF. This means for example that you can change any device configuration by simply running a Python script from your local machine and apply the changes on as many devices as you want.

For the first time, the DevNet learning lab includes an actual Cisco resilient mesh device connected to the IR8140H, the Cisco resilient mesh device connected is the IR510 series industrial gateway. The user can see how it connects to the router and monitor it in real-time via the provided CLIs.

A sample architecture of a multi service field area network (FAN) solution featuring the IR1840

Want to come up to speed quickly?

Get a self-guide tour through the programmability features of the IR8140.

Want to get hands-on and test out all of these use-cases and features?

Try out all the programmability features of the IR8140 in the DevNet Sandbox.

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