Why Belden wants it and how it fits
Belden sells passive networking infrastructure including structured cabling, fiber and industrial connectivity products, along with OT wireless and industrial switching for automation environments. What it has not had is enterprise Wi-Fi or enterprise switching. “This is not an overlap story,” Chand said. “It is a completion story.”
During Belden’s earnings call, financial analysts pressed Chand on why this pairing works when CommScope, which previously owned Ruckus alongside a structured cabling business, could not produce similar results. Chand attributed the difference to market timing.
“What we’ve seen in the last three to five years is a lot more convergence,” he said. “And I think it’s accelerated significantly over the last, let’s say, 18 to 24 months because of the whole idea that customers want to go towards autonomy and they need converged networks for that.”
The move from Wi-Fi 6 to Wi-Fi 7 and eventually Wi-Fi 8 is part of that shift. As networks become more deterministic, AI-driven optimization becomes a practical necessity at scale rather than a feature.
“If you think about traditional Wi-Fi 6, which is more based on RF technology, as you get to more Wi-Fi 7, Wi-Fi 8, this has to become more deterministic and you need AI optimization really to make that happen,” Chand said. “Otherwise, it’s just too complex. So Ruckus is pretty advanced in terms of how they are working on that entire capability.”
On the software side, Belden runs the Horizon platform for OT network management. Ruckus One covers unified wired and wireless management on the IT side. Chand said the two are candidates for eventual consolidation. Horizon carries vertical-specific depth while Ruckus One is designed for broader horizontal management.
