MultiTech Introduces World’s First Industrial 5G Router

Multi-Tech Systems, Inc., a leading global supplier of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) communication devices and services, today announced the world’s first 5G NR router designed for use in industrial environments.

The new MultiConnect® rCell 700 Series router includes support for dual subscriber identity modules; three local- and wide-area network ports; serial and Modbus interfaces, with an industrial operational temperature range. It uses the latest MultiTech mPowerTM Edge Intelligence software for streamlined edge-to-cloud data management and analytics, as well as advance security.

With a dual-core performant Arm Cortex-A53 processor, 8GB flash and 1GB RAM, and high-bandwidth, low-latency connections, the new MultiConnect rCell 700 Series router is ideal for robotic automation, augmented reality, video-intensive monitoring and autonomous guided vehicles emerging with the deployment of industry 4.0.

It was designed to address the deployment challenges of mobile network operators beginning their macro network investments with a Non Stand-Alone (NSA) architecture, as well as those of service organizations and enterprises which may prefer to make the move immediately to a Stand-Alone (SA) network leveraging shared or NR unlicensed (NR-U) in unlicensed bands.

Daniel Quant, Vice President of Strategic Development for MultiTech, said:

“With the introduction of 5G NR devices, industrial enterprises can now address the pent-up demand to transform their operational efficiency and customer engagement.”

“This technology was developed from the ground up to address the needs of a diverse set of stakeholders, and its adoption will be driven by the enterprise mobility and digitization needs of industry, government and transportation.”

 

The MultiConnect rCell 700 series supports a long list of Frequency Range 1 (FR1) sub-6GHz global 5G NR and 4G-LTE licensed, shared and unlicensed bands including:

  • Mid-band n48/b48 for CBRS shared access;
  • n77, n78, n79 covering the C-Band now being auctioned by the FCC with more than $80M in bids and climbing;
  • And LAA in b46 at 5GHz Unlicensed ISM-Band.

“5G is perhaps the most technically challenging evolution in the history of wireless, and has the promise to provide the greatest societal impact. So while getting to market early is key for any organization, with 5G, the impact of timing things right has never been greater,” said James Brehm, Founder and Technology Evangelist of consultancy James Brehm & Associates.

“MultiTech really hit the ball out of the park this time, but that’s not uncommon for them. For over 50 years, MultiTech has not only anticipated technology changes, it has consistently delivered products that hit the peaks of major technology transitions.”

The MultiConnect rCell 700 series delivers Gigabit Ethernet, serial, USB and Wi-Fi to up to 128 simultaneous users in an industrial aluminum form factor that is DIN-rail mountable. In addition to mPower Edge Intelligence for network flexibility, enhanced security and manageability, it also comes with DeviceHQ® remote device management for scalable IIoT solutions.

This new industrial 5G router from MultiTech is sampling now to select customers.