WBA white papers

Wi-Fi Sensing

Wi-Fi Sensing is a new technology which enables motion detection, gesture recognition as well as biometric measurement by using existing Wi-Fi signals. It creates opportunities for service providers within the home security, health care, enterprise, and building automation/management markets and many more.

Wi-Fi Sensing technology and its applications are new with no standard that is specific to this technology. While some applications can be enabled using existing standards, there are technology gaps that limit the range of applications. Some of these gaps may be addressed via proprietary means, however such an approach would inhibit interoperability, integration, and deployment. Alternatively, there could be opportunities for the introduction of new capabilities into the Wi-Fi standards. Standard support would allow for more efficient handling of existing use-cases and enable new use-cases previously not possible.

This Wi-Fi Sensing Whitepaper provides an overview of the Wi-Fi Sensing technology, classifies the Wi-Fi Sensing use cases and requirements, and identifies the gaps in Wi-Fi standards which would lead to the enhancement of the technology and ease of deployment if those gaps are addressed. Furthermore, the paper shares a Home Monitoring case study as an example application is presented, examining topics related to testing.


 
01 - 10 - 19  |  WBA white papers

Wi-Fi & LoRaWAN® Deployment Synergies

The Wi-Fi & LoRaWAN® Deployment Synergies white paper illustrates new business opportunities for Mobile operators, enterprises, cities and other key Internet of Things (IoT) market players that are created when Wi-Fi networks that are traditionally built to support critical IoT are merged with LoRaWAN® networks. This paper summarizes the strengths of each technology, their individual positions in the IoT ecosystem, state their complementary nature, the way that both technologies can be easily deployed simultaneously and provide testimonials.

When utilized in conjunction with one another, Wi-Fi and LoRaWAN networks optimize a number of IoT use cases, including Smart Building/Smart Hospitality, Residential Connectivity, Automotive & Smart Transportation and many more.

This paper showcases to Wi-Fi network owners and/or network service providers how LoRaWAN® can be deployed on the top of an existing Wi-Fi network and, as a complement, will allow for operational costs optimization.


 
24 - 09 - 19  |  WBA white papers

RAN Convergence

The WBA & NGMN Joint Task Force: RAN Convergence White Paper explores the importance of existing and future Wi-Fi and cellular convergence, highlighting techniques that enable convergence and identifying solutions to bridge technology gaps – critically this is a major step towards realizing the full benefits of the 5G vision enabled by Wi-Fi.

The paper outlines how mobile operators will benefit from the convergence of Wi-Fi and 5G by gaining improved visibility into Wi-Fi networks, affording them the ability to control customer experience, deliver better services to customers and provide enterprise Wi-Fi network management solutions to enterprise customers. Wi-Fi operators, meanwhile, will benefit from convergence by gaining improved visibility and transition management as they operate overlapping cellular and Wi-Fi networks, ultimately resulting in an improved user experience. Additionally, enterprise Wi-Fi networks will gain the ability to access operator-provided 5G services.

Previously WBA has outlined the new business opportunities created through the convergence of Wi-Fi and 5G – this paper outlines the ‘how’ at the network and RAN layers, we can enable these opportunities including enterprise use cases, manufacturing, public hotspots and residential applications. We outline how a new set of 5G use cases and verticals will require combined resources from both cellular and Wi-Fi networks. This will provide cost-effective solutions that meet diverse sets of requirements on throughput, latency, connection density, coverage, availability and reliability. This is especially important for smartphones that carry a significant amount of data traffic by accessing Wi-Fi. Convergence of Wi-Fi and 5G will lead to better user experience for smartphone customers and create new business opportunities for both Wi-Fi and mobile operators. As Wi-Fi 6 deployments start to mature, then convergence benefits are manifold and to benefits from the maximum ROI operators will need to address a number of challenges that exist when integrating Wi-Fi and cellular networks in enterprise, residential and public Wi-Fi deployments. In particular, the paper explores the benefits of creating a standardized interface between Wi-Fi and cellular networks to improve end-to-end network performance, elevate user experience and, ultimately, empower both mobile and Wi-Fi operators to create new business opportunities utilizing the converged technologies.


 
03 - 09 - 19  |  Wi-Fi 6 Resources, WBA white papers

Captive Network Portal Standards

The Captive Network Portal Standards white paper defines some existing use cases, aligns user experience (UX), presents practices to consider and provides suggested guidelines for future features that can be adopted as a unified standard by client devices, client manufacturers and network hardware manufacturers.

This paper includes:

· How the current operating systems behave by Client, OS, and Version

· Key use cases for NGH/Passpoint™ with monetization opportunities

· Illustration of pre-authorization connectivity & onboarding process

· Recommendation for enhancing clients and onboarding user experience and future features


 
07 - 08 - 19  |  WBA white papers

Understanding The Global Implications Of Wi-Fi 6 & 6GHz

WBA’s latest white paper explores the implications of opening the 6GHz band to Wi-Fi by first clarifying what Wi-Fi 6 is and then by detailing how Wi-Fi will make use of this added spectrum. It explores the benefits and challenges of doing so, and it strives to address concerns raised by providers of public utilities, public safety and wireless backhaul, all of whom currently use the 6GHz band for vital microwave communications.


 
17 - 07 - 19  |  Wi-Fi 6 Resources, WBA white papers

Wi-Fi 6 Deployment Guidelines & Scenarios

The WBA’s Wi-F 6 Deployment Guidelines provide a number of possible scenarios utilizing Wi-Fi 6 technology. Operators, enterprises and cities can leverage the guidelines as the tools needed to embrace and deploy Wi-Fi 6 when it’s released later this year.
Savvy deployment of Wi-Fi 6 can mitigate some of the growing pains that Wi-Fi is experiencing, while ensuring that operators, enterprises and vendors meet important service-level agreements (SLAs). As such, the work released today 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, today’s release addresses ways that Wi-Fi 6 deployments can provide seamless mobility and backward compatibility with previous Wi-Fi generation technology.

 
10 - 07 - 19  |  Wi-Fi 6 Resources, WBA white papers

In-Flight Connectivity

The whitepaper provides perspectives of the key drivers to growing demand for in-flight Wi-Fi access in airplanes and the evolving technical advancements in offering seamless customer experiences in connectivity from the latest in-flight solutions.
Growing demands generate new business opportunities and revenue streams for airlines and industry stakeholders to monetarize through better services, a new ecosystem and more convenient experiences offered to the passengers.
The paper covers the technical enablement that generates better backend capacity, allows frictionless connectivity and how international travellers connect via mobile sim card subscription to their mobile service provider with seamless, automatic and secure roaming.
The study summarizes the key areas of the future state of in-flight services and the potential follow-up stages for the WBA In-flight Connectivity work stream.


 
20 - 05 - 19  |  WBA white papers

The Connected Vehicle

Automobile manufacturers globally that have integrated telematics into their vehicles can utilize Wi-Fi today and generate significant revenue for a number of use cases, including predictive maintenance and repairs, as well as over-the-air (OTA) firmware updates.
This WBA whitepaper, “The Connected Vehicle: Understanding The Wi-Fi Opportunities And Use Cases“, provides new use cases and identifies monetization opportunities which are now available for telematics services.
Learn more about the WBA’s Connected Vehicle project, click here. 


 
15 - 05 - 19  |  WBA white papers

In-Home Wi-Fi Industry Guidelines

In-Home Wi-Fi Industry Guidelines, which identifies the gaps in current in-home Wi-Fi standards and highlights the need for intelligent network optimization. Led by CableLabs, Intel,  together with other members, WBA aims to tackle the challenges that have contributed to inconsistent performance in the home, including a lack of uniform coverage and visibility into the in-home Wi-Fi experience.

The paper provides an industry go-to reference when preparing for ‘Smart Home’ deployments. It identifies the gaps in current in-home Wi-Fi standards and services and highlights the need for intelligent network optimization.

WBA has proposed key guidelines and recommendations for different functional areas and as a follow up this paper identifies future lines of work and possible directions the In-Home Wi-Fi network may take.

To find out more and/or participate in the Smart Home 2.0 initiative and programs please click here


 
23 - 01 - 19  |  WBA white papers

RAN Convergence

NGMN and WBA have joined forces to address the very important topic of RAN Convergence. In this paper NGMN and WBA have highlighted some of the requirements and key challenges that need to be addressed to realize service and network convergence over 3GPP Access and Wi-Fi. As we move into the 5G era with new emerging use cases and URLLC use cases such as autonomous driving and industrial automation, connectivity becomes even more important, together with delivery of a harmonized set of 5G services, whether the access includes Wi-Fi, cellular or both.

This white paper serves as an introduction to the joint Task Force work, that NGMN and WBA members are undertaking. The full whitepaper will provide more detail on some of the challenges outlined in this short paper and will answer the question of why deployments integrating both Wi-Fi and cellular access with the cellular operator core have been so limited to date, and what we as a community can do differently with the launch of 5G to change this. The whitepaper will also present and review potential solutions to these challenges and recommend a future strategy for Converged RAN deployment ensuring the best user experience. To get involved with WBA work or to join the joint task force, contact us


 
17 - 01 - 19  |  WBA white papers
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