60 GHz Is Reshaping Fixed Wireless: Inside Cambium cnWave
For years, fixed wireless meant a trade-off: the licensed and 5 GHz bands you could reach far with, versus the capacity you wished you had. 60 GHz mmWave is quietly rewriting that math, and Cambium's cnWave platform is one of the most practical ways to deploy it.
Why 60 GHz now?
The 60 GHz band (V-band) offers enormous, lightly-used spectrum — which translates to gigabit-plus throughput over the last mile without a spectrum license. The historical knock on 60 GHz was range and rain, but modern radios with high-gain antennas and smart link adaptation have made it a serious tool for dense deployments, campus links, and multi-dwelling units.
Distribution vs. client nodes
cnWave uses a mesh-capable architecture. The V3000 client node pairs a high-gain antenna with the radio for long, fast point-to-point and point-to-multipoint links, while the compact V1000 is built for the subscriber side and MDU access. Because the platform supports mesh, a single fiber drop can feed a chain of nodes — handy where trenching more fiber isn't an option.
Where it shines
- MDU and campus: gigabit to every building without digging.
- Dense last-mile: offload congested 5 GHz sectors onto V-band.
- Temporary and event networks: stand up a high-capacity link in an afternoon.
Planning tips
60 GHz is line-of-sight and rain-sensitive, so budget your link with fade margin and keep hops shorter than you would on 5 GHz. Rigid mounting matters — at these frequencies, a little antenna sway is a lot of misalignment. Plan power and grounding the same way you would for any tower radio.
Curious whether V-band fits your build? Explore Cambium cnWave and fixed-wireless radios in stock now.