Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) is the platform that the company has used to launch some of its most loved innovations including the Mac Pro, OSX, the App Store, Facetime and the iPhone 4, to mention just a few. The 2013 WWDC was no different with iOS 7 taking centre stage.
The platform is without a doubt the most fundamental redesign of the operating system since the iPhone launched in 2007.
Love or hate Apple, there are very few people who will disagree that the late Steve Jobs knew how to launch a product and his presentation style has now become ubiquitous with all of the organisation’s unveilings. While these grandiose events certainly get people excited about the next big thing, the nature of launching a product via a keynote speech means that to cover every detail is simply impossible.
One unsung hero of the new iOS was the inclusion of Hotspot 2.0. While this new feature may not be as glamorous as some of the things that were mentioned in the keynote, such as the three-dimensional parallax effect, Hotspot 2.0 is one of the most disruptive technologies on the horizon.
The dilemma
4G – the current standard in mobile technology – has come along just in time to meet the needs of society. According to the Cisco Visual Networking Index, mobile data traffic in 2012 was nearly twelve times the size of the entire World Wide Web in 2000.
The data traffic generated from mobile devices grew 70 per cent last year alone. This trend is set to continue, with Cisco forecasting a 13-fold increase by 2017.
The portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that the global cellular market utilises is in the 600 MHz to 3600 MHz range. This is a finite resource and, much like land, no more spectrum can be produced. With demand for data increasing at current rates, the mobile industry is acutely aware that a spectral deficit is somewhere on the not-too-distant horizon.
Solution 1
One solution is to make better use of the spectrum. By transferring data in a more efficient way, the spectrum will do a better job at standing up to the impending pressures that are going to be placed on it. Fourth generation technologies such as LTE are up to 16 times more efficient than 3G technologies, which goes some way to alleviating the potential deficit.
However, it has taken seven years to develop 4G technology and bring it to market – in which time data traffic has increased 1,000-fold. Even using highly conservative estimates and assuming the next generation of mobile network technology arrives without any delays, the cellular network will be unable to sustain demand.
The new solution
So if cellular networks are tumbling inevitably towards full-capacity, surely there is something that can be done to prevent mobile data Armageddon? Enter data offloading.
The concept is a relatively simple one; take mobile data traffic and offload it to high-bandwidth, short-range, low-cost networks such as Wi-Fi.
The concept of leveraging WLAN networks to supplement mobile services is not entirely new. Early iterations of offload strategies came in the forms of Orange/France Telecom’s LiveBox in France, T-Mobile’s Hotspot@Home in the US, BT’s Fusion Service in the UK and Telecom Italia’s Unico service in Italy. However, these services predated the data avalanche and were a response to the threat posed by VoIP services.
The data explosion has brought the concept back into the limelight, providing carriers with a strong business case to implement low-cost WLAN solutions. Data offloading not only allows service providers to redistribute their resources, which ultimately leads to a better quality of service, but it allows them to remonetise their data networks. As the use of data continues to surge, the revenue generated from data has plateaued with many providers already offering unlimited data plans.
The missing pieces of the puzzle
The reality of introducing such a concept has been a long process. The Wireless Broadband Alliance, the Wi-Fi Alliance and telecommunications partners from around the globe have been working to develop a set of standards which will allow mobile devices to seamlessly roam between cellular networks and WLAN hotspots without the need for user input.
The Wi-Fi Alliance has been working diligently on the Hotspot 2.0 specification, which looks specifically at the hardware and device authentication. Devices that meet this certification are being referred to as ‘Passpoint® certified devices’. Following the Samsung Galaxy S4, the iPhone will now become the second major smartphone to be Passpoint® certified.
Meanwhile, the Wireless Broadband Alliance has been working on Next Generation Hotspot (NGH), which ensures the interoperability of Passpoint® with all other parts of the wider network. NGH also defines the standards for how customers and the carriers will be billed as devices hop seamlessly from one network to the next.
As both organisations work with international partners to bring this solution to market as quickly as possible, one of the final pieces of the puzzle is to put Hotspot 2.0 certified devices into the hands of consumers.
And so the story comes full circle, to the launch of Apple’s iOS7 and the tiny addition of ‘Hotspot 2.0’ on a fleeting slide behind Tim Cook.
While the technology may not have been quite glamorous enough to get a mention in the keynote, its inclusion is a significant step in the holy grail of super-fast and sustainable mobile data connectivity.
