Mumbai  : Cisco today announced new products based on the next-generation 802.11ac wireless networking standard that offer data transfer speeds of up to one gigabit per second – fast enough to download significant amounts of Web content and run streaming video simultaneously. The new products, which are already being adopted around the world by hospitals, universities, law firms and other organizations, will enable businesses to more easily support the growing number of devices connected to their wireless networks, and to ensure the high performance of high-bandwidth applications, such as HD streaming video, Web conferencing, and data backup and transfers.

The 802.11ac standard and Cisco’s new product offerings arrive at a time when businesses are becoming increasingly complex and placing intense bandwidth demands on the network, caused by the growing number of employee-owned mobile devices. These demands will only increase, and by 2017, as mobile network connection speeds increase, the average bit rate of content accessed through the mobile network will increase. High-definition video will be more prevalent, and the proportion of streamed content as compared to side-loaded content is also expected to increase with average mobile network connection speed, according to Cisco research.

Operating in the 5GHz range, 802.11ac allows customers to provide end users with greater speeds and access to more bandwidth-intensive applications. Cisco’s field-upgradeable modules help ensure high performance for connected users and also extend the battery life of mobile devices.

The Methodist Hospital System and the University of New South Wales (UNSW) are early adopters of Cisco’s 802.11ac products. Methodist is Houston’s third largest health system and listed among U.S. News World and Report’s best hospitals, and UNSW is a leading Australian research and teaching university. Both organizations wanted to accommodate mobile devices in greater quantity and provide them with better performance. After deploying Cisco’s 802.11n products and with plans to further upgrade their networks to .11ac, these customers can now provide the capacity required to support the growing influx of personal devices from employees, doctors, students, faculty and staff.

New 802.11ac Product Highlights

The industry’s first enterprise-class 802.11ac Access Point – The 802.11ac Wave 1 Module for the Cisco Aironet® 3600 Series, announced in October 2012, is available now and shipping to select customers. This module supports Wi-Fi speeds of up to 1.3Gbps and delivers extraordinary investment protection and wireless network leadership – allowing customers to decide when and where to deploy wireless today and cost-effectively migrate to the high capacity 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard in the future.

Support for 802.11ac Wave 2 Module –Cisco’s aggressive plans include future versions of the Cisco Aironet® 3600 Series field upgrade module to support the second part of the 802.11ac standard Wave 2, which includes MU-MIMO for switchlike performance in a wireless environment and higher bandwidth support via additional spatial streams and channels.

Supporting Quotes

Chris Spain, vice president of product marketing, Wireless Networking Group, Cisco

“We are continuing our leadership in the market with this rollout of 802.11ac offerings and are positioned to change the landscape for enterprise-class network infrastructure. We are in a new era of the digital lifestyle and our customers are looking to increase employee productivity for those working on their mobile devices, by supporting the higher bandwidth applications popular amongst these users. Cisco’s new 802.11ac modules will support devices now operating on this standard while more effectively utilizing spectrum in the workplace.”

Armand Stansel, director of IT Infrastructure Services, the Methodist Hospital System

“Our team is dedicated to finding ways to use technology to improve staff operations and create an efficient workflow to treat patients faster, all the while decreasing costs. Implementing a WLAN infrastructure has provided us with reliable and predictable wireless connectivity. We’re looking ahead to upgrade to 802.11ac to advance the use of mobile devices in our environment, including video collaboration for viewing remote operations, real-time medical imaging and medical device connectivity in the hospital. Now, it is easier to manage the multiple mobile devices used by staff, patients and doctors, so we can stay focused on enriching our healthcare operations and patient care.”

Greg Sawyer, manager of Communications Services, University of New South Wales

“We are seeing a widespread adoption of Wi-Fi enabled devices used in teaching – up to 21,000 concurrent devices on the network. Students are requiring faster, more efficient and reliable wireless connectivity. We deployed the Cisco 3600 Access Point and module, which has helped us to reach our goal of meeting the increasing bandwidth requirements of the students while providing an overall better classroom and education experience.”