Cisco today revealed a series of Catalyst routers and IoT gateways designed for industrial environments packed with support for WiFi 6, 5G, 4G LTE, public safety, and private networks.

The routers — Cisco Catalyst IR1800 Rugged Series, IR8100 Heavy Duty Series, and IR8300 Rugged Series — aim to simplify enterprise requirements for IoT connectivity at the network edge. Based on Cisco’s IOS XE operating system, the routers can be configured for mobile or fixed assets and effectively extend an organization’s network and SD-WAN to the edge, according to Cisco.

The vendor said the unified architecture embedded into the devices can help simplify management and security for IT and operations teams. The new Cisco IoT Gateway Series, which are designed for indoor and outdoor connectivity, are packed with the company’s IoT Operations Dashboard that eases deployment in a cloud-based framework, according to the vendor.

The Catalyst Industrial Routers, which are available starting this month, are also modular so customers can swap out the CPU or batteries in the field, extending the life of the device.

“Our customers need our hardware to be in play for 7-10 years in their operational environments. This modularity eliminates a rip and replace cycle to take advantage of 5G and whatever comes next,” Vikas Butaney, VP and GM of Cisco IoT, said in a statement.

The portfolio of routers are also integrated with Cisco Cyber Vision, the vendor’s converged IoT security architecture for IT and operational technology environments, to extend visibility from the enterprise to the edge. The gear also supports secure remote access for monitoring.

Landis+Gyr, a company based in Switzerland that makes connected meters and software for utility companies, applauded Cisco for including support for Wireless Smart Utility Network (Wi-SUN), a wireless mesh technology standard for smart city and utility IoT devices. 

“As a core part of supporting critical infrastructure, utilities require networking products that provide long life, enable open standards to prevent vendor lock-in, and strengthen end-to-end security with tight integration into their enterprise systems,” Tim Weidenbach, SVP of technologies at Landis+Gyr, said in a statement. 

“By unifying the routing capabilities across their portfolio with modularity, support for the Wi-SUN standards, and a choice of public and private cellular technologies, Cisco is bringing a reliable, scalable, and future-proof platform our utility customers demand,” Weidenbach added.

Industrial Networking Solutions President Mike Finley called Cisco’s new cellular gateways “the most complete IoT solution for industrial vertical markets.”

Cisco previously unified its Integrated Services Routers, Aggregation Services Routers, and Cloud Services Routers under the Catalyst umbrella in October 2020, and unveiled a new crop of Catalyst routers with a 5G cellular gateway earlier this year.