Nokia introduces new wireless router for smart grids, other critical communications

Lam said the potential uses of the 7705 SAR-Hm extend beyond the utility sector.

“Besides utilities, the product is applicable to many other verticals for mission-critical operations—for instance, mining, gas, smart cities and so on,” Lam said, noting that the wireless router also can be used to provide local-area Wi-Fi connectivity to devices. “Basically, it can be used to meet many different mission-critical infrastructure operators’ requirements for connecting field devices and powering that need with wireless connectivity.”

Public safety is another potential sector that could leverage the new Nokia wireless router, although Lam declined to talk about any possible inclusion in the much-anticipated FirstNet system.

“I cannot comment how this product would fit into that particular opportunity in FirstNet,” he said. “However, looking at it from a generic perspective for public safety, one use case would be to deploy this router as a vehicular router and then use an LTE uplink to the network.”

Nokia is exhibiting the 7705 SAR-Hm wireless router in booth #645 this week at the DistribuTECH show in San Diego.