UniFi Network 11 Release: Overview of What's New in the Latest Version

Improvements to the Telemetry Engine

The central telemetry engine has been redesigned to support larger network environments, resulting in a more than 30% increase in scalability. This update enables administrators to access real-time traffic insights and historical data with reduced latency.

To enhance this visibility, two key features have been introduced:

• Live Traffic Streams: This feature provides instant data on traffic patterns for every device connected to a UniFi gateway.
• Time Machine Topology: This tool allows administrators to visualize and review changes to the network topology over a specific period, making it easier to determine when and where configuration changes occurred.

Feature Enhancements for UniFi Gateways

UniFi gateways have received several updates to improve routing flexibility and ensure reliable connectivity. The updated software increases VLAN capacity, enabling more complex network segmentation.

Key improvements to connectivity and routing include:

• WiFi-WAN: This feature allows supported gateway models to use an available Wi-Fi network—such as a mobile hotspot—as a primary or secondary WAN connection to ensure uninterrupted Internet access.
• Network Lists: To simplify routing policies, network lists now support external URLs. This ensures that firewall rules and VPN resources are dynamically updated without requiring each change to be entered manually.

Cybersecurity and AI-Powered Threat Analysis

Security monitoring has been enhanced through a partnership with Proofpoint. The “Cybersecure Enhanced” feature now integrates daily threat signature updates. To assist administrators with triage, the system uses AI to provide technical explanations for detected threats. These AI-powered insights are designed to clarify the scope, risk level, and potential impact of a security incident while providing concrete, actionable recommendations for remediation.

Enhanced SD-WAN Policy Management

The new version introduces refined SD-WAN policies to enable granular control over traffic across multiple UniFi sites. Administrators can now implement custom failover policies to enhance network resilience. In addition, application-based routing enables precise control over the traffic of specific applications and ensures that critical data takes the most efficient path. These policies can be applied consistently across the entire enterprise for multiple sites via the management interface.

Integration of the Matter and Thread Protocols

UniFi Network 11 now supports the Matter standard, allowing the system to work with existing Matter controllers. Integration is achieved by entering a Matter pairing code, which registers the device with UniFi management. After integration, administrators can access detailed device metrics, including:

• Current battery levels.
• Firmware versions.
• Wi-Fi signal strength.
• General connection status.

In addition, the system now supports a unified IP and Thread topology. This allows both traditional IP-based and Thread-based devices to be visualized on a single topology map. This unified view is supported by custom alerts for critical devices of both protocol types, simplifying troubleshooting in mixed-device environments.

Device Identification and Customization

To improve hardware identification, UniFi Network 11 introduces a custom device icon system. Administrators can assign specific images to devices to ensure they are instantly recognizable. Icons can be created by using the camera in the UniFi Mobile app to take a photo of the hardware or by uploading existing image files directly via a web browser.