Cisco Systems has finally announced its intelligent wireless mesh solution, in what was probably the most anticipated announcement in the booming municipal mesh network market so far. Predictably, Cisco’s competitors aren’t terribly impressed and say the crowded mesh vendor community is headed for a shake-up. "The market drivers that propelled widespread wireless adoption in the home and enterprise are now spurring a new demand to provide outdoor ubiquitous connectivity by wireless mesh technologies," said Alan Cohen, senior director of the wireless networking business unit at Cisco Systems, in a statement Tuesday announcing Cisco’s plans.

The announcement came a day later than many people in the industry expected, and well after other vendors--pioneers like Tropos Networks, Wireless Facilities Inc. (WFI) and Strix Systems, as well as major vendors like Motorola and Nortel Networks--have made significant moves into the mesh market.

Rick Rotondo, director of marketing at Motorola’s Mesh Networks division, said Cisco will have to learn many of the same lessons about deploying large-scale mesh architectures that other vendors already have learned.

“Meshing is not just about the product, it’s about the experience that you have,” said Rotondo, the former executive of Mesh Networks who joined Motorola last winter when the vendor giant acquired the mesh upstart. “Cisco is a formidable company, and they have wireless experience, but it’s indoor experience.”

“It’s really an extension of their enterprise product line, and we’d like to see what their scalability is,” added Mark Whitton, vice president and general manager of WiMAX and wireless mesh networks at Nortel Networks

Cisco’s news comes during what is expected to be a big week or two in the mesh market, with a handful of cities nearing announcements of municipal wireless projects. The first of those expected projects, in Tucson, Ariz., was awarded to WFI, the vendor said this morning. Also, Tropos yesterday announced several enhancements to its mesh offering, as well as a partnership with Ruckus Wireless.

Cisco’s mesh platform, which the company said has been deployed in the cities of Dayton, Ohio, and Lebanon, Ore., consists of a new dual-radio access point for outdoor mesh deployment called the Aironet 1500. One radio is dedicated to traffic between access points, while other channels can be devoted to applications such as public safety. The company said it is designed for easy installation of large-scale deployments, requiring only a power source and no additional configuration. There is also a self-healing capability in the event of power disruptions.

The Aironet 1500 leverages what Cisco calls the Adaptive Wireless Path Protocol, which enables a remote access point to dynamically select the best data path among other access points within the mesh coverage area. This provides greater data resiliency to RF interference, and helps to ensure optimal network capacity, the vendor said.

The system also uses wireless LAN controllers running Cisco Wireless Control System (WCS), which came to the company through its acquisition of Airespace last winter. The system allows for scalable management, security and supporting tools to manage a mesh network.

Motorola’s Rotondo took issue with Cisco’s dual-radio approach, suggesting the industry is already moving past that to multiple-radio, multiple-frequency strategies. He said Motorola has announced a four-radio approach for its MotoMesh topology, using both licensed and unlicensed frequencies, including the 4.9 GHz frequency licensed specifically for public-safety and emergency response.

“In municipalities, you have to have separate networks for public-access and public-safety uses,” Rotondo said. Also, many municipalities don’t know that they can separate their networks into different frequencies devoted at different users.

Both Motorola and Nortel said many municipal deployment opportunities remain available, but the market may not have room for any more vendors. “Start-ups in this market won’t have trouble finding the money, but a lot of the small guys will be consolidated,” said Nortel’s Whitton. “With companies like us, Motorola and Cisco, there won’t be enough room for everyone, and there’s going to be a shake-up.”

Rotondo said he sees the market consolidating to three or four vendors as competition continues to increase.