Vertical Divider

WiFi 6 and 5G – A Battle for Networking Supremacy in Business and Homes 
October 21, 2019
 
The imminent arrival of widespread 5G and WiFi 6 is expected to change the networking business substantially over the next few years, as 5G will have the capacity to deal with long-haul, consumer, and high-density applications depending on which slice of spectrum it uses, it could become a viable competitor to WiFi within industrial applications. In Australia, Telstra is pushing 5G in cities with limited but expanding coverage, and Optus is focusing the initial stages of its rollout as an alternative to the NBN in offering fast wireless broadband.  It's inevitable that 5G will become ubiquitous in Australia. Telstra and Optus are already pushing 5G and Vodafone -- or TPG Telecom if the ACCC's bid to block the TPG/VHA merger fails -- would eventually have to come up with a plan or risk being left behind.  But,compared to WiFi 5 (as 802.11ac has been renamed), WiFi 6 is faster, can deal with greater device density and uses less energy than. 

Erin Dunne, from the Vertical Systems Group said at recent event hosted by NetEvents in San Jose: "Networking used to be designed to connect sites. We're not there anymore as the traffic flow has changed that impacting not only the design decisions, but certainly the implementations that enterprise customers make. Networks are now about connecting more and more end-points -- that's where the battle lines will be drawn between the two types of networks.”  For example, Telstra's 5G plan will utilize three different spectrums.  The recent announcement that the 3G network is set to shut down in 2024 is not just about decommissioning old tech. The 850MHz spectrum used by 3G will be repurposed for 5G to transmit data faster and over longer distances. The 3.6GHz spectrum will be used to connect new laptops, tablets, and smartphones to 5G over the coming years, but Telstra plans to grab some of the 26GHz, or millimeter wave, spectrum when it becomes available, allow them to connect hundreds of devices in close proximity. Dave Bolan, a core industry analyst from the Dell'Oro Group, said "… Today 5G services are spotty; you can get a Samsung phone with a Snapdragon X50 5G modem that works in the millimeter-wave bands, it works in the low bands. It can only do time division duplexing, and it can only work with what's known as the non-standalone mode,". "Next year’s devices will add frequency division duplexing. A person buying a 5G phone today, won't be able to work on the lower bands next year and in the 5G standalone they will". 
 
In terms of the choice between WiFi 6 and 5G use-cases where there is a high density of connected devices isn't easy. Both technologies offer faster connections than their predecessors along with the ability to support more concurrent devices. But, retro-fitting devices to support either of the new standards is a massive undertaking, and then there's question of which option is the best fit. Qualcomm's Rasmus Hellberg said: "We looked at all the Wi-Fi access points we have today, then we added in millimeter wave at the exact same points. It's a big opportunity to drive millimeter wave indoors as a private network". With the number of IoT devices forecast to increase rapidly over the next few years, businesses will need to consider how to link all of those devices to existing networks. WiFi 6 seems like a safe path for transitioning from existing WiFi 4 and WiFi 5 networks. But 5G could make tasks such as comms configurations easier. Once a SIM card is programmed correctly, simply installing it would allow for devices to connect almost instantly. Currently, the safer choice seems to be to stick what’s installed, which means sticking with WiFi and moving to WiFi 6. But as high-capacity and fast 5G networks become more available, 5G will become an option as the technology evolves and more hardware become available. From: Anthony Caruana 
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