Hardware - Jiri Brejcha

How to power any 802.3bt Wi-Fi access point using standard USB-C battery pack

I’ve been on a mission to fully power my Wi-Fi demo kit using a standard USB-C battery pack. That way I don’t need to worry about power sockets, power cables with the right plugs, I can temporarily install the AP at the exact location where I want it, power up my AP anywhere and get work done while I am travelling.

With battery pack detached from the power injector, I can replace the battery back in case I need longer battery life. And when the battery pack loses capacity in few years, I can just swap the battery pack out. If I spot an AC 230 V socket nearby, I can just use a USB-C GaN charger instead and use the battery to fast-charge my phone or laptop.

“So what are your requirements?” you might ask. The solution should power a high-end access point using UPOE, 802.3bt, PoE++, PoE+++ (pick your favourite name) and allow it to negotiate up to 10 Gbps multigigabit Ethernet on its uplink. And I will take 4 hours of battery life, please.

Let me share the solution with you first. If you are interested in the (rather long, expensive and painful) journey, scroll all the way down.

It works! Here is how I use it.

Yes, yay, hurrah, sláva! It works great and does exactly what I wanted it to do! I guess you can feel my level of excitement 😊

Let’s enable site survey mode on this large public venue CW9179F access point for a couple of colleagues. Shout-out to you, Olu and Pete. I put a quick guide together on how to enable site survey mode.

USB-C battery pack delivering UPOE power to Cisco CW9179F AP

The other day, I profiled all iPhones 17 with N1 chip by connecting them to a battery-powered access point. The AP was my trusty CW9176I powered by 802.3bt injector. It happily ran for about 3.5 hours. No reliance on 230 V sockets.

Mobile Wi-Fi 7 CW9176I AP running in full power mode

Now, how do you join an AP to Dashboard and perform few quick configurations? You plug it in your switch, right? But what if that switch doesn’t support PoE (yes, those still exist)? I only had a small battery pack in my bag, but it still worked like a charm and gave me 1 hour of battery life.

CW9179F powered by 802.3bt using smaller USB-C battery pack

But how? Where did you buy this thing?

I tested many power injectors. Scroll all the way down if you are interested in the journey. This is the best solution that I could find for me.

Let me introduce you to Phihong POE90D-1BTP-R power injector. It takes 20-55 Volts DC on the 3-pin terminal block input and provides 802.3bt 90 W on its PoE output.

Phihong POE90D-1BTP-R 802.3bt 90W 2.5 GbE power injector

The battery packs I use are Anker A1336 (20,000 mAh). Potentially Anker 533 A1256 (5,000 mAh), but it has significantly lower capacity, and you would be pushing it to its limits with regards to power.

Always make sure that the battery pack can comfortably provide more power than the AP requires! They important part is that your battery must support 20 V on the USB-C output. Not all of them do. Check the data sheet.

Anker A1336 battery pack powering Phihong injector

Negotiation of 20 V with the battery pack is job for a USB Power Delivery (PD) trigger cable. It has a built-in chip inside the USB-C connector which tells the battery pack to supply 20 Volts.

20 cm USB PD trigger cable programmed to request 20 V

Wi-Fi is a discipline of engineering and art. So, here comes the art part! Let’s trim the trigger cable to the right length. We will keep the part with USB-C connector and keep the barrel jack with a bit of cable for another project.

Let’s terminate it onto the 3-pin terminal block of the injector. Take a deep breath. Double-check polarity to avoid any magic smoke escape moments.

USB PD trigger cable connected to injector

Finally, why don’t we make the connection aesthetically pleasing and permanent using about half sachet of black Sugru.

Cable connected to terminal block and protected by Sugru

That’s it.

All I need to power any 802.3bt access point by a USB-C battery pack

Tested access points

I am using about 2 meters of twisted pair CAT6 cable in total.

Cisco’s CW9176I access point as well as CW9179F large venue AP both negotiate 10 Gbps Ethernet connection. If you need a significantly longer twisted pair cable, you might want to test it first, since this injector is officially certified for 2.5 Gbps Ethernet.

Powering CW9172H wall plate access point was no problem at all. Ethernet port ran at 2.5 Gbps and the PoE Out port of the access point happily powered my WLAN Pi M4+.

Likewise, CW9172I access point negotiated at 2.5 Gbps and CW9174I ran at 5 Gbps.

To test backwards compatibility, Catalyst C9105AXI worked great too and used its 1 Gbps uplink.

If you tested any other models and vendors, share it with us in the comments below.

AC vs DC power injector

Here is side-by-side comparison of Cisco’s official 802.3bt 60 W power injector CW-INJ-8 with AC input to my 802.3bt 90 W battery-powered DC injector. Power socket not shown in the photo 🔌 There wasn’t any socket where I took this photo! 🤷🏻‍♂️

AC power injector CW-INJ-8 vs Phihong battery-powered injector

There are purpose-built site survey PoE battery packs available from the great people at AccelTex and Ventev.

Use whatever works best for you or your customer.

The journey

This is one of the very few projects when I’ve nearly given up. I purchased and tested all of these injectors hoping that the first, second, third, will hopefully work and I kept fast-failing again and again.

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” Attributed to Winston Churchill.

Few hundred pounds later, I thought I was done. Nothing seemed to work the way I wanted it to.

The industrial Procet injector on the left only provided 802.3at power although it was supposed to support 802.3bt. Their documentation was also extremely poor with conflicting information about input DC power range, they were heavy and not necessarily of the best form factor.

The Planet only provided 802.3bt to high-end CW9176 and CW9179F access points and failed to power CW9172I and CW912H APs completely.

I found this Phihong injector data sheet online but it was out of stock in the UK. I just couldn’t win! It was about time to get out of this rabbit hole and see what was the best way to deal with all of this. I contacted the manufacturer, who kindly helped me find a nice local distributor Heading Power Limited who had one in stock and the rest of the story you’ve just read above. I just had to figure out how to power it and connect everything as nearly as possible. Happy days!!!

To paint the full picture, the 2 injectors on the right were my shot in the dark into the 802.3at (the 30-Watt standard) world. I love the right-most PoE Texas 802.3at injector so much that it found its place in my every day bag. If you are looking for a light and compact injector and don’t mind 802.3at, read more about it here (I will add link as soon as I publish it).

The mandatory boring part

You are all smart people but let’s get the safety warning out of the way first.

Since we are modifying electrical equipment and dealing with batteries, please note that you are performing everything described in this blog post at your own risk. None of the hardware manufacturers and other parties including myself can’t be held responsible in case of any damage or harm caused.

Wi-Fi capabilities of all iPhone 17 models and Apple N1 wireless chip

Apple has done a excellent job at seamlessly migrating iPhones 17 from Broadcom to its own N1 wireless networking chip. It packs 2×2 Wi‑Fi 7 (based on 802.11be standard), Bluetooth 6 and Thread. Most users have probably not even noticed, have you?

Executing such a significant change takes some serious efforts, so I asked myself:

What has changed? Do iPhones with N1 chip behave differently from iPhones using Broadcom?
Are all the enterprise features supported?
Do Wi-Fi capabilities of standard iPhone 17 model differ from iPhone 17 Pro Max or iPhone Air?
From over-the-air captures, can I tell if an iPhone uses Broadcom or N1 Wi-Fi chip?
Does power saving work the same way?

Let’s see how many of these questions we can answer.

Consistent Wi-Fi capabilities across all iPhone 17 models

All iPhone 17 models use the same Apple N1 chip. Their Wi-Fi capabilities are fully consistent between iPhone 17, iPhone Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max. But how can I be so sure?

I “profiled” all 4 of the new iPhones on each of the 3 Wi-Fi bands.

WLAN Pi Profiler

Profiler is a Python app that runs on WLAN Pi and its Linux-based operating system. It uses a standard client Wi-Fi adapter, simulates an access point, and it broadcast beacon frames. Profiler pretends to be “the most capable access point” supporting all features and amendments.

As soon as a Wi-Fi client (think iPhone) attempts to join the Profiler SSID, Profiler captures all client’s Wi-Fi capabilities.

iPhone 17 Pro Max ready to connect to Profiler SSID

Finally, Profiler generates a client capability report – coming up in the next section. Beyond that, it also saves packet capture of the Association Request sent by the client device for future analysis.

Josh is the engineer, developer, and bright mind behind Profiler. Send him some kudos if you want the tool useful.

The 2.4 GHz band

With Profiler running on WLAN Pi on channel 11, I captured these Apple N1 capabilities. To remind us, all the iPhone 17 generation phones use the same N1 chip, and report the same Wi-Fi capabilities.

No surprises there, which is great! The usual amendments like 802.11k neighbour report, 802.11r Fast Transition, 802.11v, or 802.11w Protected Management Frames are supported.

The adapter runs in 2×2 MIMO mode, and reports maximum transmit power up to 25 dBm. Note that it indicates support for 6 GHz.

Apple N1 Wi-Fi capabilities in 2.4 GHz band

To put what we have captured for N1 into perspective, iPhone 15 Pro supports up to 21 dBm (not that you want it to run at maximum power).

iPhone 15 Pro Wi-Fi capabilities in 2.4 GHz band

The 5 GHz band

Before we dive into 5 GHz and 6 GHz, I should say that I am in the UK, my Profiler uses GB country code, and the iPhone is aware of its location too. Supported channels and transmit power levels will vary depending on which part of the world you are in.

This time we start Profiler on channel 36 and attempt to connect the iPhone to the Profiler SSID. Few seconds later we get a 5 GHz band report.

Apple N1 Wi-Fi capabilities in 5 GHz band

Here is a quick comparison to iPhone 15 Pro using the same channel. How many differences have you noticed?

iPhone 15 Pro Wi-Fi capabilities in 5 GHz band

The 6 GHz band

Since Profiler doesn’t support 6 GHz AP mode, for this test I brought my own battery-powered Wi-Fi 7 access point.

I used Profiler to capture iPhone’s association request to this AP using this command sudo profiler –noAP -f 5975. What 6 GHz channel is that? Can you tell by the centre frequency? I wrote a little tool called wifichannel for conversion between frequency and channel number.

N1 supports 6 GHz channel width up to 160 MHz (not that you want to use 160 MHz and let alone 320 MHz in enterprise).

Apple N1 Wi-Fi capabilities in 6 GHz band

Let’s compare N1 profile to iPhone 15 Pro and its Wi-Fi 6E Broadcom silicon.

iPhone 15 Pro Wi-Fi capabilities in 6 GHz band

Now, why does N1 show 802.11r as “Not reported”? That’s a Layer 8 problem. I didn’t have Fast Transition enabled on my AP, and when I noticed it was too late 😊 You can spot “802.11r Off” in the screenshot below and the 160 MHz max channel width captured by the AP.

PCAP or it didn’t happen!

As we mentioned, Profiler also saves Association Requests coming sent by the client devices. Here are PCAPs of iPhone 17 Pro Max associating to Profiler SSID in 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz bands.

How to tell from a packet capture what Wi-Fi silicon does an iPhone use?

iPhones 15 Pro and 16 include Broadcom vendor tag in their Association Request frames. iPhones 17 do not.

Association Request frame – N1 vs Broadcom

2 Spatial Streams in Low Power mode?

I switched iPhone 17 Pro to Low Power mode, and I was curious if it behaves the same way as previous generations. It doesn’t as far as I can tell as of iOS 26.0 release.

Unlike previous generations of iPhones which downshift from 2 Spatial Streams (SS) to 1 SS, iPhone 17 Pro keeps using 2 streams even in Low Power mode. This might be a new behaviour, unless it changes in a future release. Let me know if you have tested it too.

Unboxing Cisco 802.3bt 60W PoE power injector CW-INJ-8

To enable full radio capability of some of the latest access points, 802.3bt power source is required. If you don’t or can’t have a 802.3bt capable switch, power injector might be the right choice for you.

For Cisco’s CW9179F, CW9178I, CW9172H, and other APs, the correct injector is CW-INJ-8. It takes AC power and injects 802.3bt Type 3 Class 6 (up to 60 Watts) into your twisted pair copper cable, and it is designed for up to 10 Gigabit Ethernet.

Apart from documentation, there is just the power injector in the box. If you don’t have one in your “box of cables” already, order an IEC C13 power cable separately. It is not included.

When is injector not the best choice?

Here is my rule of thumb. If you can, power your AP using a switch. Why? Power injectors in general introduce extra points of failure. Unlike switches, they can’t be remotely monitored or controlled.

Now, if there is no switch available, use a power injector. Site survey, assuming that AC power or battery pack with inverter is available, is another good use case. Or lab use – for when you don’t have a 802.3bt switch.

Hardware overview

There are no surprises on the top side. Note the LED on the top right.

Here is a quick look at the label.

The injector has RJ-45 input, RJ-45 output, and AC power connector which accepts standard IEC C13 cable.

Status LED

Solid green LED indicates that a valid IEEE 802.3bt or 802.3at AP is detected, and the AP consuming PoE power.

Very occasional flashing green indicates that AC power is provided to the injector itself. Don’t expect it to be solid green with no AP connected.

Let’s test it

Microchip makes this pocket-sized PoE tester. Let’s see what we get at the output of this power injector. As we expected, 802.3bt Type 3 Class 6 (up to 60 Watts) it is.

Official documentation

Always refer to the official documentation, please.

How to enable site survey mode on Cisco Wireless CW9179F large public venue Wi-Fi 7 access point

The fact that you are here most likely means that you already have the AP on your desk, and you are readying for a site survey. Let’s skip all product detail this time, and go straight into the survey part.

Choose the right site survey mode

All Cisco Wi-Fi 7 APs, including the CW9179F, support cloud-managed (think Meraki Dashboard) and controller-managed mode (think Catalyst). You can easily switch between them. This gives you access to Catalyst Site Survey mode, or Meraki Site Survey mode.

As of September 2025, the Catalyst Site Survey mode supports all software-configurable beam patterns – Boresight, Wide, Front-and-back. That’s what we are aiming for.

Kit list

CW9179F access point
Power injector CW-INJ-8, switch, or PoE battery back and a couple of twisted pair cables
Wired internet connectivity
Console cable – the blue RJ-45 to USB-C or USB-A one
TFTP server on your laptop – Transfer on macOS is great
Terminal app on your laptop – Royal TSX, Putty, SecureCRT or the screen command
Download 17.18.1 Lightweight access point image from Cisco.com download section
No controller needed

Let’s do this

Power your AP by a switch, power injector or battery pack and connect it to internet. I am using Cisco’s 802.3bt power injector CW-INJ-8 here, and Internet Sharing feature on my Mac to get the AP online.

Create a new network on Meraki Dashboard, select the right country, and claim the AP in Dashboard using its Cloud ID (previously known as Meraki Serial Number). Make sure the AP connects to Dashboard and shows as online. The AP will set its country code and regulatory domain. Verify.

Switch the AP from Meraki mode to Catalyst mode using the Migrate to WLC button on Dashboard.

Don’t switch the AP mode using Meraki Local Status Page (LSP)! The AP might not broadcast the survey SSID if you go down that route.

Remove the grey Console port cap and console into the AP using RJ-45 console cable and your favourite terminal app.

We are now in Catalyst Lightweight access point mode. Log in using username cisco, password Cisco, type enable command, and enter default enable password Cisco.

Download the CW9179F lightweight access point image. Upgrade the AP to 17.18.1 release (or newer) which has all the survey features we need. The link is correct, this AP uses the exact same image as CW9178I.

Start a TFTP server on your laptop, and move the image file to your TFTP root folder.

Now, instruct the AP to download the image from TFTP server and upgrade its code to 17.18.1.

archive download-sw /reload tftp://192.168.2.1/ap3g4-k9w8-tar.17_18_1_8.tar

After it reboots, check its software version using show version command. Happy days we are running 17.18.1 now.

Finally, switch the AP to site survey mode using ap-type site-survey command. When asked for reboot, press y and enter.

In Site Survey mode, both the front and the back LEDs follow this pattern.

Set a static IP address on the Ethernet interface. This is important, without static IP address on the AP, you won’t be able to access its web interface.

capwap ap ip 192.168.2.20 255.255.255.0 192.168.2.1 208.67.222.222 208.67.220.220

The format is:

capwap ap ip <IP-address> <Mask> <Gateway> <Pri-DNS-server> <Sec-DNS-server>

The AP is now broadcasting site survey SSID.

Connect to it wirelessly.

And access the Site Survey mode web interface running on https://10.0.23.1. Username admin, password admin. Change the password after first login and save it to your notes or print a label.

That’s where we make the beam pattern selection.

Adjust the SSID name, Tx Power, channel number, enable/disable features to your needs.

Available 2.4 GHz (Slot 0 radio) configurations

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is cw9179f-site-survey-mode-web-interface-1024x724.png — Available 5 GHz (Slot 1 radio) configurations

Available 5 GHz (Slot 2 radio) configurations

Available 6 GHz (Slot 3 radio) configurations

Or even enable WPA2 pre-shared key security.

You’ve done it! Happy surveying!

Revert to standard client-serving mode

If you need to switch the AP back to Lightweight Catalyst mode, or Meraki mode, just use the ap-type capwap, or ap-type meraki command.

How to power Cisco Meraki access point by USB-C battery pack

Battery-powered access points are typically used for site surveys. The engineer uses a professional battery pack with 802.3at/802.3bt PoE output which delivers power to the AP via Ethernet. I do love professional battery packs. Accelerator and VenVolt are your friends. I haven’t had a chance to test either one, but I’ve seen them in very capable hands of others.

Now, when you don’t have a PoE battery pack by hand and want to achieve a similar outcome, this tip might help you.

Use case and requirements

I am building a compact pocket-sized package consisting of an AP, small battery pack and I want to achieve at least 2-3 hours of battery life.

What am I going to use it for? I need to temporary install (and hide) an AP which we will then locate during my presentation using WLAN Pi Go – a mobile Wi-Fi tool which snaps magnetically to iPhone.

In the coming weeks, I am going to use the same setup for point-to-point Wi-Fi testing. So, this will help us kill two birds with one … battery pack I guess 😊

Solution

Cisco Meraki APs do have 12V DC input via barrel jack 5.5 mm x 2.5 mm connector. I then researched USB-C battery packs with USB Power Delivery 12V output. This part is important! Not all USB-C packs support this output voltage.

Finally, I found a USB-C PD cable which negotiates 12V with the battery pack, and outputs 12V DC to the AP’s barrel jack input.

I run the APs in Site Survey mode. To enable this mode connect to this AP’s SSID in normal cloud-managed mode, and browse to the Local Status Page (LSP). It is powered by a web server running locally on the AP. Access LSP via http://10.128.128.126/ while associated to the AP. I do recommend MR32 or newer software release which has some great survey mode enhancements.

Now, it is time to test and see if we can break things. How long does the battery last for? We get 6+ hours of battery life.

Let’s appreciate that the battery pack is nearly 7x smaller in volume than the already compact access point.

Kit list

Cisco Meraki MR20, MR78, or other AP which accepts 12V barrel jack input. Newer Cisco Wireless APs do have a barrel jack connector but they require 54V input. This approach won’t work.

USB-C PD cable with 5.5 mm x 2.5 mm barrel jack connector

Anker 533 Power Bank PowerCore 30W or any other battery pack – just make sure it supports USB PD 12V output, not all do

It doesn’t stop there

Many other devices like routers, modems, home automation hubs use the same barrel jack connector and take 12V input. The main fact to keep in mind is that this Anker battery pack can output up to 12 Volts at 1.5 Amps on its USB-C port. We don’t want to overshoot these 18 Watts.

Unboxing Cisco Wireless CW9172H wall plate Wi-Fi 7 access point

Wall plate access points provide both wired Ethernet and Wi-Fi connectivity. Cisco has just started shipping the latest CW9172H Wi-Fi 7 wall plate AP. Same as all other Cisco’s Wi-Fi 7 APs, it is designed for global use. The regulatory domain is no longer dictated by the SKU. The CW9172H can be managed either by Cisco Meraki Dashboard, or Catalyst 9800 controller and Catalyst Center.

It can be mounted onto an electrical wall plate. The twisted pair cable runs inside the wall and there are no visible cables.

Wall plate mounting with no visible cables

If no wall plate is available, you can mount the AP using a spacer accessory kit on the actual wall surface with cables clipped to the wall.

Back to unboxing. What is included in the box? Well, if you order multiple access points, select the 6-pack option referred to as “multi packaging”. Who wouldn’t want a six pack? 😊

The 6-pack box dimensions are about 33 x 20 x 25 cm and it contains 6 APs.

Inside are 6 smaller boxes with 1 access point each.

Each AP is wrapped in paper. No plastic bags anymore.

Mounting bracket and accessories are placed underneath the AP.

Accessories are packaged in paper bags. Let’s have a closer look.

Finally, there is the access point.

The passthrough port covered by a plastic cover. There is 1 PoE out port and 2 standard Ethernet downlinks for your devices.

On the side is a standard RJ-45 console port, also covered by a plastic cover mainly for aesthetics reasons. Let’s remove the cover, shall we?

The Ethernet passthrough port cover follows similar style.

Back side of the AP hosts the up to 2.5 Gbps Ethernet uplink and passthrough port.

Optional accessories

There are extra parts you can order depending on how you wish to use and mount the CW9172H.

The spacer kit is designed for mounting on the actual wall surface.

Desktop cradle accessory is another option if you prefer to place the AP on a desk.

The port lock prevents users from connecting or disconnecting cables to the ports on the bottom side of the AP.

As per usual, refer to the Cisco installation guide and data sheet for official guidance.

Check down tilt angle of Cisco Wireless Wi-Fi 6E or Wi-Fi 7 AP remotely

What if you were able to detect access point’s down tilt angle remotely? Perhaps that would have explained unusual client connectivity issues at a remote site, spot an AP which has been installed incorrectly, or bent AP mounting hardware in a warehouse damaged by a scissor lift.

Problem statement

If you have ever deployed an access point with directional antenna (be it external or inbuilt), you know that orientation matters. Directional antennas focus the energy towards their main lobe. Access points or antennas deployed at incorrect angle mean that coverage is going to be very different from the desired one.

Location-based services and asset tracking accuracy very much depend on AP placement and orientation. What if the AP that was supposed to be mounted on a wall with 30 degree down tilt is actually sat flat on top of a network cabinet pointed towards the sky?

What if the down tilt angle of the AP changed literally overnight while maintenance was going on, and some heavy machinery was present inside your venue?

Solution

Selected Cisco’s Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7 APs ship with built-in accelerometer. It detects and reports down tilt angle of each supported AP.

Down tilt of 0° represents an AP mounted to the ceiling surface with its LED pointed straight down towards the floor.

AP sat flat on a desk with the LED pointed towards the ceiling reports 180°.

Supported AP models

Wi-Fi 6E: CW9166D1
Wi-Fi 7: CW9176I, CW9176D1, CW9178I

Cloud-managed AP by Cisco Meraki Dashboard

There is nothing you need to do on your part to enable this feature. As long as your AP is equipped with the accelerometer, you will see the down tilt angle on the Wireless > Access Points page.

It updates quite frequently. I would say every couple of minutes. So, if I remove the AP from its bracket and pop it on my desk, you can see that my desk desperately asks for about 2° of attention 😄

As of May 2025, the angle is not available via API yet. The product manager confirmed that this was already work in progress, and he asked me to let you know.

AP managed by Catalyst 9800 controller

In Catalyst mode, accelerometer is supported since 17.15.1. By default the sensor is disabled, and no angle is visible in the web UI. We can enable it on a per access point basis.

Either from the controller web UI:

Or by this CLI command – note the “no” keyword:

ap name CW9176 no sensor environment accelerometer shutdown

To verify that accelerometer sensor is now enabled, we use this show command:

show ap sensor status

We then view the angle from the web UI:

And “Show more” provides raw detail:

As of May 2025, there isn’t a CLI command available to display the angle yet. Stay tuned.

Refresh rate of the angle in my case was 15 minutes. Hand on heart, the refresh rate isn’t important. You mount the AP and by the time you get back to your desk, the angle updates. I was just curious. Just picture me refreshing the AP 360 View page for 15 minutes. Real story 😊

For reference

Nicholas Swiatecki presented on this very subject at the Mobility Field Day. Watch his session.

Kjetil Teigen Hansen built a nice Grafana dashboard that represents the angle visually.

Unboxing Cisco Wireless CW9176I Wi-Fi 7 access point

Cisco’s Wi-Fi 7 access points introduced new packaging, replaced plastic bags with paper, and introduced new ordering process. This particular AP is the CW9176I-RTG SKU. The RTG stands for Ready To Go. It is build to stock which means super fast shipping, 1 AP per box packaging, and mounting brackets are included with no option to customise it. This -RTG option is perfect if you just need a single AP urgently to perform an “AP on a stick” site survey for example.

Now, if you want to minimise the cardboard volume and storage space, I highly recommend you use the CW9176I-CFG SKU. It allows you to order a 10-pack (that’s 10 APs per box) and fully customise mounting hardware or even opt out from it and use your existing brackets. The CFG part stands for configurable and it is build to your order.

Where in the SKU is the regulatory domain?

It’s gone, and it’s great! Cisco’s Wi-Fi 7 APs are designed for global use. The SKU is no longer assigned to any particular region or country. Simply order an AP. It will detect its location, and set the right country code.

Is this the cloud-managed or Catalyst controller managed model?

It is whatever you want it to be. After you plug it in, claim in in your Cisco Meraki Dashboard inventory, and it will run in Meraki mode. If you don’t claim it, it will discover your Catalyst 9800 controller, and become a Catalyst lightweight access point. Same SKU, same hardware, you choose how you manage it.

You can even switch between the two modes at any point in time with no TAC support whatsoever.

Each Wi-Fi 7 AP consumes a Unified License. This license is the same for both modes. It gives you rights to either cloud-manage the AP in Cisco Meraki Dashboard, or you can join it to Catalyst 9800 controller, and manage it by Catalyst Center.

What’s in the CW9176I-RTG box?

This is the individually packaged RTG SKU, 1 AP per box.

Note the paper wrap around the AP. No more plastic bags.

Underneath the AP are the instructions, bracket, and ceiling grid clip.

Detail of the low profile AIR-AP-BRACKET-1 mounting bracket and bolts.

Detail of the AIR-AP-T-RAIL-R ceiling grid mounting clip.

Finally, there is the AP.

All Cisco Wi-Fi 7 APs ship with a white Console port cover by default. Its purpose is to prevent installers from plugging the twisted pair cable carrying Ethernet to the Console port. The cover can be removed without any extra tools.

Note: For official Cisco guidance and information, please refer to the Cisco.com data sheet and deployment guide.