Cisco IR8340-AP Full English Description

Listing Title

Full Commercial Product Description

1. Autonomous standalone AP image: Operates locally without external Catalyst 9800 wireless controllers for isolated remote field sites, unmanned substations and off-grid industrial locations
2. CAPWAP lightweight unified AP image: Discovers, registers and joins centralized Catalyst 9800 wireless controllers for enterprise-wide unified RF orchestration, global security policy management and multi-site wireless monitoring.

1. Concurrent dual-band access point: Simultaneous 2.4GHz and 5GHz broadcast of segmented SSIDs for mixed legacy IoT sensors, battery-powered handheld maintenance scanners and modern high-bandwidth field tablets/laptops
2. Self-healing wireless mesh backhaul: Dedicates the high-speed 5GHz radio to create multi-hop wireless mesh links between multiple IR8340 routers, extending network coverage to remote industrial zones where fiber cabling installation is cost-prohibitive or physically unfeasible
3. Workgroup Bridge (WGB): Bridges wired industrial control hardware (PLCs, IP surveillance cameras, remote RTUs, HMI panels) wirelessly to the IR8340 router’s cellular or wired WAN transport
4. Wireless client isolation gateway: Segregate wireless IoT devices from critical industrial control network traffic via SSID-to-VLAN mapping, reducing industrial network attack surfaces.

Plug-In Wi-Fi 6 Radio & Hardware Architecture

1. 2.4 GHz Industrial Wi-Fi 6 Radio: 4×4 MU-MIMO, four spatial streams, fixed 20 MHz channel bandwidth, backward compatible with 802.11b/g/n/ax legacy IoT hardware. Optimized for low-bandwidth battery-powered industrial sensors, RFID readers and field handheld devices; maximum single-band PHY throughput 1.4 Gbps.
2. 5 GHz High-Speed Wi-Fi 6 Radio: 4×4 MU-MIMO, four spatial streams, supports 20/40/80MHz wide channels, DFS radar frequency avoidance, 1024-QAM high-efficiency modulation, OFDMA multi-user resource allocation. Designed for high-speed industrial video streaming, real-time PLC control data transfer, AR/VR field training workloads and wireless mesh backhaul links; maximum single-band PHY throughput 4.4 Gbps.
   Total aggregate dual-band Wi-Fi 6 PHY throughput reaches5.8 Gbps.
3. Onboard WIM Module Memory & Storage:
   • Dedicated wireless processing SoC optimized for industrial Wi-Fi 6 OFDMA/MU-MIMO
   • 1 GB DDR4 dedicated radio RAM
   • 256 MB NAND flash storage, preloaded with dual autonomous and CAPWAP lightweight firmware images, plus RF calibration and configuration persistent storage.
4. RF Antenna Interface: The IR8340 router front panel provides dedicated SMA female RF antenna connectors for the IR8340-AP WIM module; compatible with Cisco certified industrial dual-band omnidirectional, directional, sector and high-gain external antennas, supporting customized coverage layouts for complex industrial plant terrain.

Supported Operation Modes & Core Industrial Wireless Software Features

1. Dual Independent Pre-Loaded AP Firmware Modes

• Autonomous Standalone Mode: Runs fully local wireless services on the IR8340 router without external wireless controllers; independent SSID, VLAN, QoS and security configuration via unified IOS XE CLI or embedded web GUI
• CAPWAP Lightweight Unified Mode: Automatic discovery and registration to Catalyst 9800 Series wireless controllers for centralized RF planning, global wireless security policies, rogue AP containment, multi-site mesh orchestration and enterprise-wide wireless monitoring.

2. Multi-Purpose Wireless Deployment Profiles

• Concurrent Dual-Band Access Point: Broadcast separate isolated SSIDs on 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands to segregate IoT sensor traffic, maintenance staff guest access and industrial control device wireless traffic
• Resilient Wireless Mesh Backhaul: Dedicates 5GHz radio to establish self-healing multi-hop wireless links between IR8340 edge routers, extending industrial network coverage without wired cabling
• Workgroup Bridge (WGB): Converts wireless uplink into wired LAN connectivity for stationary industrial wired equipment including PLCs, RTUs, IP cameras and control HMIs; supports both IPv4 and IPv6 industrial data transportCisco.

3. Industrial-Grade Wireless Optimization Technologies

• Cisco CleanAir RF Spectrum Intelligence: 24/7 continuous background scanning of full 2.4/5 GHz frequency bands to detect industrial electrical EMI interference, unauthorized rogue wireless transmitters and signal noise; triggers automatic dynamic channel and power adjustment to stabilize critical industrial wireless links
• ClientLink 3.0 Digital Beamforming: Targeted multi-antenna transmit beamforming to extend RF range, boost throughput and improve connection reliability for low-sensitivity legacy Wi-Fi industrial handheld hardware
• Dynamic Frequency Selection (DFS): Automatically detects and vacates radar-operated 5 GHz channels to comply with global regional RF regulatory emission standards
• OFDMA Multi-User Resource Allocation: Wi-Fi 6 orthogonal frequency division multiple access to split wireless channels into sub-channels, enabling simultaneous low-latency transmission for hundreds of concurrent industrial IoT wireless endpoints
• 1024-QAM High-Density Modulation: Improves wireless spectral efficiency to deliver higher throughput for high-bandwidth industrial video and real-time control traffic
• Packet Aggregation (A-MPDU / A-MSDU): Transmit and receive frame aggregation to reduce wireless packet latency for time-sensitive industrial automation data streams
• Cyclic Shift Diversity (CSD): Multi-antenna signal diversity to mitigate multipath RF fading inside metal industrial enclosures, cabinet stacks and vehicle cabins.

Deep Integration With Host IR8340 Rugged Industrial Router Platform

1. 5G/LTE Cellular WAN Failover: All wireless AP client traffic is natively routable over the router’s dual-slot 4G LTE / 5G FR1 cellular PIM modules, providing redundant off-grid wireless WAN backhaul when wired Ethernet uplinks are unavailable
2. Industrial PoE Switching Fabric: Wi-Fi client traffic seamlessly mapped to the IR8340’s onboard 14-port Gigabit Ethernet switch fabric, supporting PoE/PoE+/UPOE (up to 60W) on the first four copper LAN ports to power external industrial IP cameras, IoT gateways and field sensorsCisco
3. Industrial Serial Control Interfaces: Enables Wi-Fi-connected field wireless devices to communicate bidirectionally with wired industrial serial equipment via IRM-NIM-RS232 asynchronous/synchronous serial modules (T1/E1, 8-port RS232)
4. Cisco IOx Fog Edge Container Runtime: Supports local edge IoT application processing running natively on the IR8340 router’s multi-core x86 CPU, wireless sensor data ingested directly into edge Linux containers without round-trip cloud latency for real-time industrial analytics
5. Precision Timing & Synchronization: Native integration with the IR8340’s timing module supporting IRIG-B analog/digital, SyncE and PTP IEEE 1588 (power profile, Dot1AS, telecom G.8265.1/G.8275.1) for time-synchronized industrial control and substation automation networksCisco
6. Industrial Security Stack Integration: Unified security policy enforcement combining wireless AP WPA3 enterprise encryption, IR8340 onboard next-generation firewall (NGFW), Cisco Cyber Vision industrial IoT threat detection, IPsec/DMVPN/FlexVPN encrypted site-to-site industrial tunnels and AAA identity authentication.

Enterprise & Industrial Wireless Security Suite

• Encryption Standards: WPA3-Enterprise 192-bit, WPA3-Personal, WPA2-PSK, WPA-PSK with AES hardware acceleration for all wireless client traffic
• Enterprise Authentication: IEEE 802.1X AAA authentication with complete EAP suite (EAP-TLS, PEAP, EAP-FAST) natively integrated with the IR8340 router’s IOS XE identity security stack
• VLAN Segmentation: Granular SSID-to-VLAN mapping to fully isolate industrial control network traffic, field staff guest wireless access and low-priority IoT sensor data
• Air Marshal WIDS/WIPS Rogue Wireless Containment: Detects unauthorized rogue access points and unlicensed wireless transmitters via continuous CleanAir spectrum scanning, executes automatic containment to block rogue RF signal propagation across industrial plant sites
• Wireless Client Isolation Mode: Prevents direct peer-to-peer communication between wireless field IoT devices to minimize industrial network attack surface
• SSID Broadcast Suppression: Configurable hidden SSID operation for secure industrial control wireless segments to avoid unauthorized device probing.

Unified Management Interfaces

1. Cisco IOS XE Command-Line Interface (CLI): Complete AP radio tuning, firmware switching, SSID/VLAN/QoS/security configuration and real-time wireless monitoring via router front-panel console port or remote SSH/Telnet secure access
2. Embedded Web-Based GUI: Simplified graphical wireless configuration dashboard for field maintenance technicians without CLI expertise
3. SNMPv2c/v3 Industrial Network Monitoring: Full wireless RF metrics, client connection statistics and fault alarm data exposed for integration with IoT Field Network Director (IoT FND) and third-party industrial SCADA monitoring platforms
4. Syslog Centralized Event Logging: Unified wireless security incidents, RF interference alarms, client association logs and AP fault event logging for industrial plant audit trail compliance.

Key Specification Bullet Points

• Model: IR8340-AP (Plug-In Wi-Fi 6 Dual-Band 4×4 MU-MIMO Wireless Interface Module (WIM) for Cisco Catalyst IR8340 Rugged Industrial All-In-One Routers)
• Wi-Fi Standard: IEEE 802.11ax Wi-Fi 6 concurrent dual-band radio (2.4 GHz + 5 GHz), 4×4 MU-MIMO per band
• Radio Hardware: Dedicated industrial Wi-Fi 6 OFDMA/1024-QAM wireless processing SoC
• Memory & Storage: 1 GB DDR4 dedicated radio RAM, 256 MB NAND flash storage (dual autonomous/CAPWAP lightweight firmware preloaded)
• Spatial Streams: 4 spatial streams for each radio; maximum total aggregate dual-band PHY throughput up to 5.8 Gbps
• Supported Operating Modes: Autonomous standalone AP mode, CAPWAP lightweight unified controller-managed mode, resilient wireless mesh backhaul mode, industrial Workgroup Bridge (WGB) wired equipment bridge mode (IPv4 + IPv6 support)
• Core Wi-Fi 6 & Industrial Wireless Technologies: OFDMA multi-user scheduling, 1024-QAM modulation, Cisco CleanAir full-spectrum RF interference monitoring, ClientLink 3.0 digital beamforming, DFS radar frequency avoidance, A-MPDU/A-MSDU packet aggregation, CSD multi-antenna signal diversity
• Wireless Security: WPA3/WPA2 AES hardware wireless encryption, IEEE 802.1X EAP enterprise authentication, granular SSID VLAN segmentation, Air Marshal WIDS/WIPS rogue AP detection & containment, wireless client isolation, hidden SSID suppression
• Host Router Deep Integration: Fully integrated with IR8340 router’s multi-core x86 CPU, dual-slot 5G/LTE cellular PIM WAN, 14-port Gigabit PoE switching fabric, IRM-NIM industrial serial modules, Cisco IOx fog edge container runtime, PTP/IRIG-B precision timing subsystem and NGFW/Cyber Vision industrial security stack
• Management Access: Unified IOS XE CLI, embedded industrial web GUI, SSH/Telnet remote secure access, SNMPv2c/v3 industrial network monitoring, Syslog centralized audit event logging
• Typical Deployment Scenarios: Electric utility remote substations, freight rail transit carriage on-board wireless connectivity, oil & gas wellhead and pipeline monitoring sites, heavy manufacturing factory floor handheld scanner/IoT sensor access, smart city roadside edge routing nodes, off-grid construction site temporary industrial wireless networks, agricultural field remote sensor monitoring, transportation tunnel wireless coverage extension, industrial campus multi-zone resilient mesh networking

Model Quick Reference

• IR8340-AP: Hot-pluggable Wi-Fi 6 WIM wireless module exclusively designed for insertion into PIM/IRM-NIM modular slots of the Cisco Catalyst IR8340 rugged industrial all-in-one routing/switching/security router
• Distinction from standalone external industrial APs: This is an internal plug-in module without independent chassis or power supply; all power, data and management bus connectivity is delivered via the host IR8340 router backplane, RF antenna connections route to the router’s front-panel SMA antenna ports
• Firmware Image Differentiation:
  1. Autonomous standalone firmware image: No external Catalyst 9800 wireless controller required for isolated remote industrial sites
  2. CAPWAP lightweight LWAP unified controller-managed firmware image: For enterprise industrial campus deployments with centralized Catalyst 9800 wireless controller orchestration
• Compatible Host Hardware: All IR8340 rugged industrial router base chassis SKUs, supporting dual PIM modular slots for concurrent deployment of cellular 5G/LTE PIM modules alongside the IR8340-AP Wi-Fi 6 WIM module