The Cisco^®IR500 range extender provides unlicensed 902-928MHz, ISM-band IEEE 802.15.4g/e/v Wireless Personal-Area Network (WPAN) communications to diverse Internet of things (IoT) applications. It extends the range of the RF wireless mesh network, providing longer reach between WPAN endpoints and other WPAN networks. There are two products in the family: The IR529 and IR530. IR530 represents a high performance, new generation of the Cisco RF Mesh range extender.

The IR530 Range extenders take full advantage of world class Cisco networking expertise in IPv6, security. It provides an open, high performance RF mesh solution based on the following standards:

• IEEE 802.15.4 g/e/v
• IETF 6LoWPAN
• IETF Routing Protocol for Low Power and Lossy Networks (RPL)
• IETF Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP)

Solution overview

The IR530 are components of the Cisco Industrial IoT FAN Solution, which meets these challenges using designs from the industry-leading Cisco GridBlocks^™Architecture. A typical communications network for the distribution grid is a two-tier architecture with a Neighborhood Area Network (NAN) and a Wide Area Network (WAN).

The NAN connects smart endpoints via meshing and the mesh network is aggregated at an intelligent device such as Field Area Router (FAR) mounted on a pole top of in secondary substations. The WAN tier provides network connectivity from the FAR to the utility's control center, over either a public cellular network or Ethernet fiber network. For areas that need extended RF coverage, a range extender is deployed rather than another CGR to increase the field RF coverage at lower cost.

The Cisco FAN solution comprises important elements as shown below:

• Cisco Resilient Mesh End point reference design, which provide Resilient Mesh connectivity to end points such as DA devices, sensors and smart meters.
• Cisco IR509 or IR510 (DA gateway).
• Cisco IR529 or IR530 (Range extender).
• Cisco 1000 Series Industrial IoT Routers providing FAR capabilities.
• Cisco ASR 1000 Series Aggregation Services Routers providing Headend Router (HER) capabilities.
• Cisco IoT Field Network Director and Industrial Operations Kit for network management.

• IR530 Wireless Range Extender
• 1 x Antenna
• Battery