Aligning the Industry on Opportunities and Challenges
In 2019, the WBA and NGMN created a RAN Convergence White Paper to address some of the challenges outlined in creating a streamlined and seamless integration between both Wi-Fi and cellular access with the cellular operator core.
As society increasingly depends on fast reliable data connectivity, the WBA believes an important capability for the industry is the convergence at a network level between 5G and Wi-Fi, so that the unique and complementary capabilities of both RANs can be leveraged to provide seamless network services. Bearing in mind that a significant amount of data traffic from smartphones uses a Wi-Fi access, this will lead to a better user experience and create new business opportunities for both Wi-Fi and cellular providers.
As new emerging 5G use cases such as AR/VR, autonomous driving and industrial automation, connectivity becomes even more important, together with delivery of a harmonised set of 5G services (i.e. services from the 5G core), whether the access includes Wi-Fi, cellular or both. A new set of 5G use cases and verticals may require combined resources from both cellular and Wi-Fi networks in providing cost-effective solutions that meet diverse sets of requirements on throughput, latency, connection density, coverage, availability and reliability
Today, the cellular operators do not generally have control over and/or access to enterprise or public Wi-Fi, despite the market interest in balancing traffic load across cellular and Wi-Fi. The convergence of 5G and Wi-Fi can bring great benefits to cellular operators, Enterprise Wi-Fi and Public Wi-Fi solution providers, giving access to 5G and enterprise services from both Wi-Fi and 5G access networks.
Operators will be deploying new 5G networks and new capabilities across their cellular networks. Users can use either cellular or Wi-Fi or both in accessing the 5G services. In this new ecosystem, it makes sense to ensure continued operator control and management of the Wi-Fi access and for operators to have continued visibility and control of devices connected over Wi-Fi. The Wi-Fi only deployments can also benefit from the convergence with the 5G core network being used to provide a standard way to manage these Wi-Fi based networks.
This paper is organized into three main parts:
- Focuses on the integration of Wi-Fi with the 5G system as defined by 3GPP Release 15 and 16, including WLAN integration architecture, related features, functions, policies and associated procedures
- Identifies key challenges and gaps in current 5G defined solutions to support interworking between Wi-Fi and 3GPP 5G system and suggests some high-level solutions to address some of the identified gap items.
- Provides recommendations and next steps for the industry and the relevant standard bodies to address the key challenges and gaps identified related to the 5G and Wi-Fi convergence.
Specifically the paper covers the technical aspects of:
- 5G and Wi-Fi convergence architecture
- Multi-access functionality for Access Traffic Steering, Switching and Splitting (ATSSS)
- End-to-end QoS
- Policy Interworking and enhancements across 5G and Wi-Fi
- Support for Wi-Fi only devices.
Finally, the paper provides recommendations on what the industry can do to address key challenges and gaps identified to fully support the 5G and Wi-Fi convergence. It outlines the required liaisons with relevant standard bodies as the next step to align the industry on the challenges and issues, and facilitate standardization efforts for addressing these issues, to provide fully deployable end-to-end 5G and Wi-Fi convergence solutions. Ultimately, this is a technical paper that provides a detailed analysis of what needs to be addressed for industry benefits to be realized and for the full potential of 5G to come to market.
WBA’s 5G and Wi-Fi RAN Convergence whitepaper is brought to you by WBA 5G Work Group.
For additional publications, visit the WBA Resource Centre. To participate in future projects, contact WBA PMO
