Cisco will introduce Aironet 1500 Series wireless access points, each with two radios. The Wi-Fi radio handles access and the second radio will be dedicated to wireless interconnectivity or the meshing across wireless and wired access points.

Along with the hardware, Cisco introduced its Adaptive Wireless Path Protocol, essentially its algorithm for selecting the best data path among the many access points laid out in a coverage area.

Like all wireless access points, the 1500 can be mounted anywhere there is access to a power source. The significance of mesh for both the enterprise and municipalities is the lower cost of deploying a wireless network outdoors. Mesh does not require each access point to be hard-wired to an Ethernet connection.

"The cost of wiring, especially outdoors, is huge and outweighs the higher prices being charged for wireless mesh access points," said Craig Matthias, principal with the Farpoint Group.

In addition to the cost savings, the time to lay out such a wireless network is also greatly reduced, Matthias said.