WBA white papers

5G and Wi-Fi RAN Convergence Whitepaper – Executive Summary

Convergence between Wi-Fi and cellular access technologies is critical to the long-term success of 5G. That is according to WBA’s 5G and Wi-Fi RAN Convergence whitepaper, developed with input from mobile carriers, Wi-Fi providers, telecom manufacturers, and its own 5G Working Group.

The report is expanding on the WBA and NGMN RAN convergence whitepaper from 2019 which articulated the potential benefits and use-cases of Wi-Fi 6 and 5G convergence, provides a breakdown of the current standards and key business opportunities for operators with this technology.

Onboarding Evolution

Passpoint introduced seamless, automatic and secure authentication, initiating an important change from password-based networks to a disruptive experience, in which the end-user would simply be connected.

In an effort to support today’s data security trends and simplify roaming solutions, the move to WBA OpenRoaming^TM has seen a noticeable increase over the last few months within the Wi-Fi industry. The latest achievement was the launch of WBA OpenRoaming, a global Wi-Fi roaming federation that enables a seamless and secure connection to Wi-Fi among a trusted network of roaming partners.

The whitepaper “Onboarding Evolution – User Engagement in WBA OpenRoaming™ Era” explains the difference between what happens on a network authentication and interconnection level, from the software layer that can be added on top of it. It examines how OpenRoaming and Captive Portal work together on different layers and at different stages of the Wi-Fi onboarding process.

WBA’s previous white paper, “Captive Network Portal Standards” 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.

Wi-Fi & LoRaWAN® trials

Wi-Fi & LoRaWAN ^® Trials – An Overview of Use Cases Across Regions Combining Two Powerful Technologies, the latest joint white paper from the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) and LoRa Alliance, illustrates that selecting an intelligent multi-radio strategy is becoming increasingly important to succeed in a connected world. This paper provides details on practical trials and proof of concept deployments (POCs), representing a variety of use cases implemented across different geographies and verticals. It concludes that hybrid Wi-Fi and LoRaWAN connectivity increases market opportunities and provides a strong ROI while offering enhanced network solutions.

This paper builds on the two organizations’ earlier work, “Wi-Fi & LoRaWAN Deployment Synergies: Expanding Addressable Use Cases for the Internet of Things,” which compared the two technologies theoretically and sought to demonstrate how they could be utilized to effectively support a vast array of use cases.

Wi-Fi 6 Trial Report – Transportation hubs

In the U.S, Boingo, Cisco and Samsung worked together to launch Wi-Fi 6 at John Wayne Airport (SNA) to power a next generation connectivity experience and support airport operations. Following the SNA deployment, Boingo has moved its Wi-Fi 6 technologies from trials to commercial operations and most recently, Boingo has announced an airport-wide commercial deployment of Wi-Fi 6 at São Paulo/Guarulhos International Airport (GRU), delivering incredibly fast speeds and low latency to passengers.

Wi-Fi 6 Trial Report – Single-family and multi-dwelling units

CableLabs®, Intel and Kyrio® deployed Wi-Fi 6 in a mixed-use residential area to increase the user experience in a Wi-Fi loaded In this trial, Wi-Fi 6 delivered a significant increase in throughput, enabling the delivery of multiple 4K video with higher quality.

Wi-Fi 6 Trial Report – Industrial Manufacturing

Mettis Aerospace worked with Broadcom, Cisco, iBwave and Intel to deploy Wi-Fi 6 in a dense industrial environment with heavy metal, high temperatures and moving machinery, where previous generations of Wi-Fi did not perform well. The Wi-Fi 6 trial demonstrated much improved reliability, coverage, throughput and lower latency for supporting mission critical applications.

Wi-Fi 6 Trial Report – High-density malls

SK Telecom deployed Wi-Fi 6 to improve connectivity for consumers, increase quality of experience (QoE) for densely populated areas and provide high throughput for immersive media services. Wi-Fi 6 reduced latency by 80 percent, reduced throughput fluctuation, and improved service reliability to customers anywhere, anytime, throughout the mall.

Wi-Fi 6 Trial Report – Education in rural areas

C-DOT and Intel deployed Wi-Fi 6 in a rural school trial in India to enhance new learning technologies, and improve signal coverage and streaming performance. Wi-Fi 6 improved throughput by more than 50 percent throughout the network.

Wi-Fi 6 Trials Report

WBA’s Wi-Fi 6 program aims to drive the adoption of Wi-Fi 6 and has previously released the Wi-Fi 6 Deployment Guidelines white paper, which outlines different vertical use cases and and provides guidance on best practices for deployments. WBA provides a platform for end-to-end Wi-Fi 6 trials based on a comprehensive test plan to demonstrate key Wi-Fi 6 capabilities in end-to-end real life networks and showcase the readiness for carrier Wi-Fi deployments across different geographies and various key verticals.

Wi-Fi Opportunities for Connected Vehicles

The connected and autonomous driving vehicles market is driving the evolution of the vehicular industry and is growing at an eight-year compound annual growth rate of 22.3%, i.e., 5 times faster than the overall car market. The business opportunity for connected vehicles is significant, with the global market expected to grow to over $212 billion by 2027.

WBA’s latest white paper, “Wi-Fi Opportunities for Connected Vehicles – Demand for Data and Multi-Access Edge Computing”, evaluates the data exchange requirements for enabling the various connected vehicle use cases, irrespective of the choice of the communication technology and the spectrum band to be used, re-enforcing the need for multi-access edge computing architectures for connected vehicles. The gaps and opportunities for Wi-Fi in such architectures are analyzed and the WBA’s potential role in addressing them is outlined.