Cradlepoint Launches Industry’s First 5G-Optimized Wireless WAN Edge Router for Enterprise Branch Deployments

Clean-Slate, All-In-One Design Provides Gigabit-Class Wireless Branch Solution With Performance And Investment Protection For Seamless Upgrade to 5G

Cradlepoint, the global leader in cloud-delivered LTE and 5G wireless network edge solutions, announced the Cradlepoint E3000 Series, the industry’s first 5G-Optimized, all-in-one wireless edge router for enterprise branch deployment. The clean-slate design optimizes performance and investment protection, enabling customers to deploy a wireless wide-area network (Wireless WAN) today using the latest LTE and Wi-Fi technology and seamlessly upgrade to 5G in the future.

The current coronavirus pandemic has fueled an already growing demand for agile and rapidly deployable wireless WANs based on LTE for primary connectivity. The new Cradlepoint E3000 Series directly targets this burgeoning market. According to a new Worldwide 5G and 4G LTE Router Forecast from IDC, the combined market for enterprise branch, mobile, and IoT wireless routers and gateways will reach $2.98 billion by 2024.

Packaged as part of the Cradlepoint NetCloud Enterprise Branch Service, the E3000 Series utilizes the latest multi-core, wireless system-on-chip technology to deliver compelling price/performance relative to traditional wired branch routers. The all-new, all-in-one design provides a mid-sized, enterprise-class “branch-in-a-box” solution. In a compact footprint, the E3000 contains an embedded Gigabit-Class LTE modem, integrated Wi-Fi 6, gigabit Ethernet ports for WAN/LAN connectivity, and expansion slots accommodate a secondary LTE modem module today with 5G modem and Bluetooth 5.0 modules slated for later in 2020.

Recommended AI News: Kahoot! Launches The New Interactive Presentations Feature To Make Any Presentation Awesome

The powerful E3000 can run processor-intensive WAN edge features within the NetCloud Service at gigabit speeds, including BGP routing and application-aware SD-WAN and security functions, such as firewall, analytics, IPS/IPS and content filtering. It also supports customizable services like Wi-FI guest portal and IoT edge computing capabilities.

The Cradlepoint E3000 Series is ideal for branch-oriented industry sectors that need the flexibility and freedom of primary wireless connections with robust WAN and LAN networking and security capabilities. These include retail stores, restaurants, healthcare clinics, financial services locations — such as banking, insurance, and tax preparation — construction sites, and field service offices.

“Initial SD-WAN deployments have been focused primarily on fixed Internet economics” said Lee Doyle, principal analyst at Doyle Research. “The next phase of WAN transformation broadens the definition of a ‘branch’ and will include an expanded role for LTE and 5G to drive Wireless WAN solutions. The Cradlepoint announcement expands its solutions to enable the transformation to a Wireless WAN.”

Protect Your Investment With The Most Paths to 5G

According to a recent survey by Infosys of 850 industry practitioners and leaders across the US, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, 90% are actively investigating business cases, defining use cases, or defining service portfolios based on 5G technology. The implications are clear: any IT executive that is planning a WAN edge technology refresh needs to have a defined pathway to 5G or risk having to rip-and-replace before the investment is fully depreciated.

Cradlepoint provides the most pathways from LTE to 5G in the industry. In February, the company introduced its W-Series 5G Wideband Adapter, the first 5G solution purpose-built for the enterprise. The E3000 Series is 5G Optimized and engineered to be a companion branch router for the W-Series, interconnecting over a high-speed 2.5Gbps Ethernet port. Pairing it with a W2000 indoor unit gives customers a complete wireless WAN solution for low-band and mid-band (Sub-6) 5G while paring with the W4005 outdoor unit delivers high-band (millimeter wave). Additionally, the E3000 expansion port will accommodate the new MC500 field-upgradable 5G modular modem (Sub-6) planned for early Q1 in 2021.

“Cradlepoint is committed to being the first and best choice for enterprise Wireless WAN and 5G solutions,” said Todd Krautkremer, Chief Marketing Officer at Cradlepoint. “We believe, as do many of our customers and partners, that Wireless WAN is the next big networking wave, driven by the emergence of 5G. The Cradlepoint E3000 Series, powered by NetCloud, is the latest addition to our next-generation of 5G-capable solutions, its design provides customers with no-compromise Gigabit-Class LTE performance and the most paths to a 5G future.”

Recommended AI News: NVIDIA Jarvis Simplifies Building State-of-the-Art Conversational AI Services

The Cradlepoint NetCloud Service for Enterprise Branch with the new E3000 Series Router is available today, with pricing starting at $2,023. While optimized for wireless WAN and 5G, it supports the broadest range of wired and wireless connections for both WAN and LAN of any edge router in its class, and at a breakthrough price point:

Wired and Wireless WAN Connectivity Options

• Embedded Gigabit-Class LTE modem (CAT 18)
• 2.5Gbps Ethernet WAN port
• Gigabit Ethernet WAN port
• SFP/SFP+ fiber WAN port
• Expansion port for secondary Gigabit-Class LTE or primary 5G modular modem (future)

Wired and Wireless LAN Connectivity Options

• 9 – gigabit Ethernet ports with 4 Power over Ethernet (PoE) capable
• Integrated Wi-Fi 6 access point
• Expansion slot for Bluetooth 5.0 module (future)