Networking giant Cisco Systems Inc. today revealed its intent to acquire Fluidmesh Networks LLC, which makes a wireless backhaul system for connecting “internet of things” devices.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Cisco was keen to impress on the value of Fluidmesh’s technology, which enables zero loss of data transfer when assets such as trains are moving rapidly, or in other situations where Wi-Fi coverage can be patchy. The company’s platform is used in various operations, including rail, port and public mass transit.

The plan is for Fluidmesh to be absorbed into Cisco’s IoT business unit, so it can extend its industrial wireless services to more industries and customer segments, Cisco said. In addition, the company plans to leverage Fluidmesh’s specialized sales teams and system integrator relationships to broaden the reach of its IoT business. Cisco plans to complete the acquisition by the fourth quarter of this year.

Liz Centoni, senior vice president and general manager of Cisco’s Cloud, Compute and IoT businesses, stressed that having access to reliable wireless connectivity is vital for companies that operate IoT environments.

“The acquisition of Fluidmesh strengthens Cisco’s offerings in this space with leading technology that’s designed to provide zero loss of data transfer at speeds in excess of 300 Km/h,” Centoni said in a statement.

The acquisition will enable Cisco to provide a stronger offering to customers in key IoT use cases, Constellation Research Inc. analyst Holger Mueller told SiliconANGLE.

“It turns out keeping real world “things” reliably connected is not one of Cisco’s core competencies, but luckily that’s precisely what Fluidmesh networks is all about,” Mueller said. “We will see how well the offering will integrate and increase Cisco’s competitiveness at the edge in a few months.”

Cisco has made a big bet on IoT in the last couple of years, with its main focus being to provide intent-based networking at the edge, where a preponderance of IoT devices reside. Last year, the company announced its Catalyst IE3x00 series of Ethernet switches, which brings features, such as security, visibility and overall management, to IoT device processing at the edge.

Cisco’s Centoni stopped by theCUBE, SiliconANGLE’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the Cisco Live conference last year to discuss the company’s evolving IoT strategy in more depth:

Photo: Cisco