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Where Wi-Fi 6 and 5G are Complementary
April 05, 2020
2020 will be a landmark year for wireless connectivity and the Internet of Things (IoT), with the launches of Wi-Fi 6 and 5G. In 2018, the Wi-Fi Alliance, the organization behind developing and naming the Wi-Fi standard, introduced a new generation of Wi-Fi labelling designed to demystify and simplify wireless selection. Gone is the daunting 802.11ax, 802.11ac, 802.11n naming convention, which caused a real annoyance for the average person trying to figure out what those numbers and letters at the end meant. By replacing them with a user-friendly naming system, 802.11ax is now Wi-Fi 6 – the new name for the latest generation of Wi-Fi. This will apply to the upcoming Wi-Fi 6, but will also be retroactive, applying to older standards.
For example:
MU-MIMO (Multi-User, Multiple Input, Multiple Output) also gets an upgrade with the introduction of Wi-Fi 6. Before MU-MIMO, imagine your WiFi as a single lane road, along which cars must pass in both directions to receive and send information. You can easily imagine how slow this would be, having to stop periodically to allow traffic in the opposite direction to pass. With MU-MIMO, extra lanes are added to the road, so that you now have dedicated lanes for transferring information in both directions.
Wi-Fi 6 dramatically increases efficiencies by doubling the number of downstream and increasing the number of upstreams that can be handled by a factor of eight with the potential to deliver four simultaneous streams to a single device. Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access improves numerous aspects of Wi-Fi delivery by making it more efficient by lowering latency and improving the overall quality of service in congested, high-demand areas such as conference halls and stadiums.
This new Wi-Fi standard has the potential to improve customer experience, and provide faster Wi-Fi for customers as well as for connected devices such as smart speakers, smart screens and self-service checkouts. There is also the potential for the efficiency of Wi-Fi 6 to help reduce network and device costs, allowing businesses of all sizes to embrace increased connectivity.
5G will be a gamechanger as it can also provide the speeds and necessary bandwidth for Internet connections in local and personal networks, such as small office spaces. 5G will prompt the introduction of new opportunities for businesses, like the simple and rapid deployment of security systems that can send their recorded video directly to Cloud-hosted video recorders, intelligent vending machines, or smart lighting capable of detecting someone on the road and switching street lights on and off as necessary. 5G-enabled Customer Premises Equipment (CPE), which will be deployed globally by 2020 and will allow businesses to operate in areas where no fixed high-speed Internet is available, such as rural areas and in older buildings. Internet connectivity has predominantly been provided via a fixed-line wired connection. In most countries, this has been delivered using technology originally deployed and developed for the transmission of voice traffic. The technologies have had to rapidly evolve to address the need for faster speeds. However, the demand for ever greater Internet speeds has meant copper cabling will no longer be suitable for future needs. Because 5G can be utilized on both a larger and smaller scale, business and personal networks –including those that connect entire buildings – can be connected with 5G. Devices will either connect directly to the 5G network or via a Local WLAN using Wi-Fi access points and existing wired infrastructure.
5G could create a wide range of new opportunities for businesses; from creating new products, services and industries to remotely helping small businesses to become more productive and competitive. Selecting an ISP will no longer be limited to picking a company based on the current connection such as wired (FTTH, xDSL or GPON) and also other criteria like speed or customer service. Switching ISPs will increasingly become as easy as switching electricity or gas suppliers. Hybrid solutions encompassing both Wi-Fi 6 and 5G make this possible, enabling businesses to connect simply by plugging and sharing Internet access without having to resort to elaborate network topologies.
Both 5G and Wi-Fi 6 will be complementary across different industries due to their unique strengths – 5G brings speed and mobility, while Wi-Fi 6 can provide ubiquitous connectivity and traditional local area network access. Businesses face the choice of deciding how their Internet will be provided, either via a wired connection or via a next-generation hybrid 5G Router that will emulate a traditional fixed-line Internet. It may take time for 5G to become a standard for mainstream devices, but a hybrid solution such as a Wi-Fi router with an integrated 5G modem can definitely bring additional flexibility. This allows multi-Gigabit Internet connectivity to be deployed without having to lay a physical cable, greatly reducing deployment cost and time. In both urban and rural areas, 4G is being used as an alternative to xDSL and cable for broadband Internet. Other initiatives like MP-TCP (Multi-path Transmission Control Protocol) enable simultaneous use of several interfaces or IP-addresses to aggregate Internet connectivity, so that slow wired connections can be combined with new 5G services to provide faster and better-quality services.
5G coupled with Wi-Fi 6 could change the way we live and work; rather than congregate in large urban clusters, we now have the possibility to live and run businesses almost anywhere, including our homes, and experience superfast broadband. By the end of March, 381 operators in 123 countries have announced plans to invest in 5G with 70 operators in 40 countries having launched at least one 5G compliant service. 63 of those have launched 5G mobile services and 34 have launched home broadband services. 27 of those are fully available while 7 remain limited. From: Phil Huang, European Product Marketing Manager, D-Link Europe
Where Wi-Fi 6 and 5G are Complementary
April 05, 2020
2020 will be a landmark year for wireless connectivity and the Internet of Things (IoT), with the launches of Wi-Fi 6 and 5G. In 2018, the Wi-Fi Alliance, the organization behind developing and naming the Wi-Fi standard, introduced a new generation of Wi-Fi labelling designed to demystify and simplify wireless selection. Gone is the daunting 802.11ax, 802.11ac, 802.11n naming convention, which caused a real annoyance for the average person trying to figure out what those numbers and letters at the end meant. By replacing them with a user-friendly naming system, 802.11ax is now Wi-Fi 6 – the new name for the latest generation of Wi-Fi. This will apply to the upcoming Wi-Fi 6, but will also be retroactive, applying to older standards.
For example:
- 802.11n = Wi-Fi 4
- 802.11ac = Wi-Fi 5
- 802.11ax (upcoming) = Wi-Fi 6
MU-MIMO (Multi-User, Multiple Input, Multiple Output) also gets an upgrade with the introduction of Wi-Fi 6. Before MU-MIMO, imagine your WiFi as a single lane road, along which cars must pass in both directions to receive and send information. You can easily imagine how slow this would be, having to stop periodically to allow traffic in the opposite direction to pass. With MU-MIMO, extra lanes are added to the road, so that you now have dedicated lanes for transferring information in both directions.
Wi-Fi 6 dramatically increases efficiencies by doubling the number of downstream and increasing the number of upstreams that can be handled by a factor of eight with the potential to deliver four simultaneous streams to a single device. Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access improves numerous aspects of Wi-Fi delivery by making it more efficient by lowering latency and improving the overall quality of service in congested, high-demand areas such as conference halls and stadiums.
This new Wi-Fi standard has the potential to improve customer experience, and provide faster Wi-Fi for customers as well as for connected devices such as smart speakers, smart screens and self-service checkouts. There is also the potential for the efficiency of Wi-Fi 6 to help reduce network and device costs, allowing businesses of all sizes to embrace increased connectivity.
5G will be a gamechanger as it can also provide the speeds and necessary bandwidth for Internet connections in local and personal networks, such as small office spaces. 5G will prompt the introduction of new opportunities for businesses, like the simple and rapid deployment of security systems that can send their recorded video directly to Cloud-hosted video recorders, intelligent vending machines, or smart lighting capable of detecting someone on the road and switching street lights on and off as necessary. 5G-enabled Customer Premises Equipment (CPE), which will be deployed globally by 2020 and will allow businesses to operate in areas where no fixed high-speed Internet is available, such as rural areas and in older buildings. Internet connectivity has predominantly been provided via a fixed-line wired connection. In most countries, this has been delivered using technology originally deployed and developed for the transmission of voice traffic. The technologies have had to rapidly evolve to address the need for faster speeds. However, the demand for ever greater Internet speeds has meant copper cabling will no longer be suitable for future needs. Because 5G can be utilized on both a larger and smaller scale, business and personal networks –including those that connect entire buildings – can be connected with 5G. Devices will either connect directly to the 5G network or via a Local WLAN using Wi-Fi access points and existing wired infrastructure.
5G could create a wide range of new opportunities for businesses; from creating new products, services and industries to remotely helping small businesses to become more productive and competitive. Selecting an ISP will no longer be limited to picking a company based on the current connection such as wired (FTTH, xDSL or GPON) and also other criteria like speed or customer service. Switching ISPs will increasingly become as easy as switching electricity or gas suppliers. Hybrid solutions encompassing both Wi-Fi 6 and 5G make this possible, enabling businesses to connect simply by plugging and sharing Internet access without having to resort to elaborate network topologies.
Both 5G and Wi-Fi 6 will be complementary across different industries due to their unique strengths – 5G brings speed and mobility, while Wi-Fi 6 can provide ubiquitous connectivity and traditional local area network access. Businesses face the choice of deciding how their Internet will be provided, either via a wired connection or via a next-generation hybrid 5G Router that will emulate a traditional fixed-line Internet. It may take time for 5G to become a standard for mainstream devices, but a hybrid solution such as a Wi-Fi router with an integrated 5G modem can definitely bring additional flexibility. This allows multi-Gigabit Internet connectivity to be deployed without having to lay a physical cable, greatly reducing deployment cost and time. In both urban and rural areas, 4G is being used as an alternative to xDSL and cable for broadband Internet. Other initiatives like MP-TCP (Multi-path Transmission Control Protocol) enable simultaneous use of several interfaces or IP-addresses to aggregate Internet connectivity, so that slow wired connections can be combined with new 5G services to provide faster and better-quality services.
5G coupled with Wi-Fi 6 could change the way we live and work; rather than congregate in large urban clusters, we now have the possibility to live and run businesses almost anywhere, including our homes, and experience superfast broadband. By the end of March, 381 operators in 123 countries have announced plans to invest in 5G with 70 operators in 40 countries having launched at least one 5G compliant service. 63 of those have launched 5G mobile services and 34 have launched home broadband services. 27 of those are fully available while 7 remain limited. From: Phil Huang, European Product Marketing Manager, D-Link Europe
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