The Wireless Broadband Alliance released a new white paper that provides deployment guidelines for a number of possible scenarios utilizing Wi-Fi 6 technology.
The entity said that this new white paper will allow operators, enterprises and cities to have access to the tools needed to deploy Wi-Fi 6 when it’s released later this year.
The WBA said that the global dependence upon Wi-Fi technology continues to grow exponentially, driven by a number of factors included the growing number of Wi-Fi devices in the world (9 billion) and the growing IP traffic generated by enterprises.
Global enterprises this year will generate more than 33 billion exabytes of IP traffic. By 2022, that number will grow to more than 63 billion exabytes of IP traffic, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23%.
Wi-Fi is also the primary access technology in most broadband households, with 76% of U.S. households using Wi-Fi as the primary broadband connection.
The entity highlighted in its new white paper that deployment of Wi-Fi 6 technology can mitigate some of the growing pains that Wi-Fi is experiencing, while ensuring that operators, enterprises and vendors meet important service-level agreements. Specifically, the work released by the WBA proposes guidelines to ensure SLAs around bandwidth, throughput, latency, traffic prioritization and numerous other factors.
The paper also provides guidelines for RF planning and design, with consideration given to factors like band steering, MU-MIMO and adjusting for high-density deployments that demand increased capacity. Additionally, it also addresses ways that Wi-Fi 6 deployments can provide seamless mobility and backward compatibility with previous Wi-Fi generation technology.
“Since its inception 20 years ago, Wi-Fi has become a fundamental expectation for consumers and enterprises alike,” said Tiago Rodrigues, general manager of the WBA. “This latest white paper comes at a crucial time; not only is global demand for Wi-Fi continuing unabated, but operators worldwide are ramping up 5G networks, and governmental authorities around the world are preparing to open 6GHz spectrum to Wi-Fi traffic. Today’s announcement illustrates the dedication of the WBA and its member companies to providing timely, expert direction to ensure that Wi-Fi deployments successfully accommodate all of these global factors.”
The paper provides a number of deployment scenarios for Wi-Fi 6, including public venues, stadiums, residential and multi-dwelling units, the Internet of Things (IoT) and enterprise WLANs. The paper was developed in conjunction with WBA’s Next Gen Wi-Fi Work Group develop, including operator representatives from Boingo Wireless, BT and Charter Communications, as well as vendor representatives from Broadcom, Cisco and CommScope.
“Technologies like Wi-Fi 6 and PasspointTM are steering unlicensed networks into the 5G era, meeting high performance expectations across speed, latency, reliability, security and traffic management. To realize digital transformations for both people and things, we’ll need Wi-Fi and its ability to carry the bulk of data traffic with unparalleled efficiencies,” said Derek Peterson, CTO at Boingo Wireless and co-chair of the WBA.
“Enterprises like hotels, travel hubs and retail, can use Wi-Fi 6 to build carrier-grade infrastructure that will complement 5G,” said Chris Bruce, managing director of GlobalReach Technology and a WBA board member “Deploying Wi-Fi 6 alongside Hotspot 2.0/NGH allows venue owners to control their entire user experience. This next generation of Wi-Fi will also allow these venues to negotiate mobile data offload access to their infrastructure on equal terms with cellular operators.”