In the era of ubiquitous connectivity, people will not only consume vast amounts of data but stay continuously connected across more devices and platforms. But what will become of WiFi as an access technology? What role will WiFi play when 5G promises near-instant connectivity across several applications? Will WiFi disappear into the mobile ether?
We don’t believe so. On the contrary, WiFi will prosper in the 5G era. Network densification will mean that WiFi should continue to play a strong support role for mobile broadband end users and for newer applications such as IoT and Smart City. In many ways, WiFi is evolving along lines that run in parallel to 5G as both technologies try to meet the IMT-2020 requirements because they are both trying to meet the same demand for pervasive connectivity.
How does next-gen WiFi relate to the evolution of 5G?
WiFi is critical in meeting many of the 5G needs and use cases; the two technologies are complementary. WiFi has a huge penetration indoors—enterprises, homes, coffee shops, and airport lounges, for example. Cellular, of course, is prevalent outdoors. Cellular can also provide coverage indoors, but signal quality is lower. Where the quality of the cellular link falls short indoors, WiFi fills that gap and can supplement the use case for cellular in offering 4K video streams, AR, or VR. Technologies like Passpoint support WiFi offloading. Even if there is cellular connectivity, the high capacity of WiFi complements cellular, and together they deliver a better user experience. 5G is going to open even more opportunities for WiFi because the 5G capacity and latency requirements suit the WiFi technology that is being developed today. New capabilities will open alongside more business opportunities. It is here that 5G networks will coexist with WiFi across a variety of devices, applications, and technologies.
In fact, IHS Markit expects an uptake in carrier WiFi investments through the mid-term of our forecast period, aligned with 5G network development. In our biannual Carrier WiFi Equipment Market Tracker, we note that revenue reached $626M million for the full year 2017, increasing 1.3% from the prior year. We forecast the market will hit $725M in 2022. We expect a cumulative market size of over $3.5B from 2018 to 2022 based on two strong segments: standalone WiFi access points (predominantly deployed by fixed-line operators and wireless ISPs) and dual mode WiFi/cellular access points (deployed by mobile operators).
WiFi evolution in the 5G era: 802.11ac and beyond
5G promises the network of tomorrow will evolve to handle a variety of applications and bring about a plethora of new business opportunities across a variety of industry verticals. In its three incarnations of fixed wireless access (FWA), enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), and massive IoT, 5G will help usher in new transformative technology landscapes from machine connectivity and Smart Cities to ubiquitous video. WiFi still has a place in the mobile connectivity ecosystem from carrier WiFi networks to enterprise wireless LANs and home WiFi networks. The sustained relevance of WiFi is a result of continuing evolution of the technology. It has come a long way so far, but the roadmap extends for a long while yet.
In terms of development, the focus is on many different aspects of WiFi, from the lower layers, where efforts concentrate on increasing data rates and providing a richer user experience, all the way to the highest layers, where it is more about manageability, as well as addressing new use cases and new markets. The major new thing coming to the market is the next evolution of WiFi with .11ax, which will provide much higher data rates compared to .11ac, the current generation. It is going to make WiFi even more usable in dense environments, where there is a multitude of devices. Densification is the core value proposition for .11ax, but it will also deliver additional capacity and provide better power efficiency. For example, it allows IoT devices, which are very low power, to sleep for longer periods of time to save power.
At the same time, WiFi is evolving in higher frequency bands, like 802.11ay, which uses high frequency 60 GHz spectrum. This is akin to a kind of wireless PON or 60 GHz FWA that competes with 5G FWA and is already gaining traction—GLP China Holdings Limited is deploying it for its IT needs. This band is also driving the speeds needed to address use cases for augmented reality/virtual reality applications (AR/VR). It also supports other use cases that need wireless docking and high-speed networks.
WiFi keeps rising with faster speed, higher spectrum, and new specs
With 5G poised to deliver higher bandwidth and lower latency connectivity than your typical home WiFi connection—up to 10 Gbps (10 to 100 times faster than most home broadband connections today)—why even bother with a WiFi network? Well, other than the fact that not everyone is going to sign up for 5G FWA and, therefore, we’ll continue to use WiFi at home for a long time to come, WiFi continues to develop in ways that make it a more enhanced technology, not just a “make-do” or “best-effort” option.
The future of WiFi is currently dependent on the IEEE 802.11ad “WiGig” standard, which was developed as a subsequent protocol to 802.11ac. An 802.11ad router adds a new 60 GHz antenna to older 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz antennas, enabling data to transfer at up to 7.2 Gbps—so long as the router is in the same room with an 802.11ad device. However, if an 802.11ad device is not in the room, the router will lose the 60 GHz antenna’s connection and default to slower speeds. As a result, a newer standard alternative, 802.11ax, is being developed–-instead of using WiGig’s short-range 60 GHz antenna, 802.11ax makes more efficient use of the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands.
As a finite resource, spectrum is vital to the deployment of 5G networks, and limited spectrum resources could still inhibit the potential of 5G. This is why current developments in utilizing unlicensed spectrum to boost licensed spectrum performance are so vital. Methods such as LWA (LTE-WiFi Aggregation), LWIP (LTE and WLAN integration with IPsec tunnel), MulteFire, and CBRS (Citizens Broadband Radio Service) all have the potential to utilize and integrate cellular and WiFi technologies together. The harmonization among these technologies underscores how WiFi will continue to play a vital role in the 5G era.
In many ways, WiFi is evolving along lines that run in parallel to 5G as both technologies try to meet the IMT-2020 requirements because they are both trying to meet the same demand for pervasive connectivity. Although 5G will usher in faster networks that will be able to handle larger bandwidth with lower latencies, 5G is not a panacea–-5G will need backup with both 4G and WiFi fallback.
New WiFi opportunities abound…but integration with 5G is the key
WiFi will continue to grow alongside 5G due a variety of factors, not least because it is simply so fundamentally established as the cornerstone of users’ connectivity behavior: WiFi is a readily available, accessible, and affordable access technology, traversing home, enterprise, and public networks. The IHS Markit recent WLAN Strategies and Vendor Leadership North American Enterprise Survey notes that nearly 50% of employees will connect exclusively via WiFi networks by 2020, underscoring the near ubiquity of WiFi in the 5G era.
Carrier WiFi networks are not only crucial for offloading mobile data traffic but also for offering a consistent broadband user experience where 5G or LTE coverage is weak, ensuring delivery of revenue-generating services to the mobile device based on location, advertising, roaming agreements, hosted or bundled services
We believe 5G offers new opportunities for that integration to happen. One of them is the separation between control units and distributed units adopted in the 5G architecture. This opens a new level of integration of WiFi into the 5G core that did not exist in 4G. 5G and WiFi can be integrated to a level that makes it possible for an operator to treat WiFi as a 5G radio access technology (RAT). This will offer new opportunities for a richer user experience, not only when you are talking but also when you may be watching a movie and going between WiFi and cellular. That should be completely seamless for the user.
5G will be a single agile programmable autonomous network that features edge computing and network slicing components that bring the network closer to the enterprise. Enterprises will have a much finer control of the network. They want to have very predictable service and dedicated quality and to be able to manage their own devices—they can do this with 5G. The combination of the enterprise wireless LAN with edge services provided by operators or deployed by the enterprise allows a closer integration between the WiFi infrastructure and the 5G core. Operators and enterprises can use elements of that 5G core, if they want to, so that they can manage their devices in the enterprise or outside in a mobile worker scenario. Being able to marry the elements of the 5G core with the existing and future installed base of WiFi is a differentiator for 5G.
发表于 2019-12-19 17:00:52
