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Covid-19 has taught us all how critical to our well-being the state of our network is, the quality of our connectivity, and its ability to scale. The current reality speeds up the need that was already clear to the regulators before: that significant capacity enhancements are due. Even before this new reality came to be, Cisco published in their Annual Internet Report (2018 - 2023) figures that show very clearly the urgent need for more capacity. Here are a few of the figures that demonstrate the clear need in the market: “Broadband-speed improvements result in increased consumption and use of high-bandwidth content and applications. The global average broadband speed continues to grow and will more than double from 2018 to 2023, from 45.9 Mbps to 110.4 Mbps. The table below shows the projected broadband speeds from 2018 to 2023. Several factors influence the fixed broadband-speed forecast, including the deployment and adoption of Fiber-To-The-Home (FTTH), high-speed DSL, and cable broadband adoption, as well as overall broadband penetration. Among the countries covered by this study, Japan, South Korea, and Sweden lead in terms of broadband speed largely because of their wide deployment of FTTH.”
Projected broadband speeds from 2018 to 2023
“Video and other applications continue to be of enormous demand in today’s home, but there will be significant bandwidth demands with the application requirements of the future, even beyond the forecast period of 2023. In the figure below, a scenario with video applications of the future is explored; today’s bandwidth needs are a sliver of the future needs.”
“Current and historical speeds are based on data from Ookla’s Speedtest.net. Forward projections for mobile data speeds are based on third-party forecasts for the relative proportions of 2G, 3G, 3.5G, and 4G among mobile connections through 2023. The figure below shows the Global mobile average speeds by device type: Smartphone and tablet speeds accelerate due to 5G.
In the figure below, Cisco shows the anticipated number of devices as they are expected to grow worldwide. As the number of devices served per home grows so does the need for bandwidth of course.
By 2022, Wi-Fi and mobile devices will account for 79 percent of Internet traffic.
Source: Cisco Annual Internet Report (2018–2023) White Paper
Wi-Fi 6E utilizes the 6GHz frequencies. The allocations for FCC and EU are as seen below:
Total available spectrum of the Wi-Fi networks has increased with the European allocation of 6GHz band by more than double, and in the countries adopting the US standard by much more than that - allowing for 14 additional 80 MHz channels and 7 additional 160 MHz channels. Imagine traffic experience shifting from a 2-lane road to an 8-lane mega highway. Wi-Fi 6E allocates channels that do not overlap with each other, which help reduce congestion significantly, particularly in areas where lots of networks are operating. An additional important aspect is that 6GHz includes more contiguous spectrum - this enables future generations of Wi-Fi such as the 802.11be to utilize broader channel bandwidth (e.g. 320MHz) for the future 10Gbps+ networks.
It is a long-known fact that Wi-Fi offload is a key enabler for the business case of mobile networks (as Wi-Fi APs are cheaper than cellular base-stations and makes network densification viable), as well as a vital tool of capacity offload of the mobile network (especially for mobile devices that connect from indoors or at dense public venues). In fact, as indicated by Cisco’s VNI, the dependency of each cellular generation on Wi-Fi offload grows constantly and this remains the case with the 5G network.
Source: Cisco Annual Internet Report (2018–2023) White Paper
The relevant target KPIs that were defined by the 3GPP for the 5th cellular generation are met (or exceeded on some of them) quite nicely by the Wi-Fi 6th generation technology as indicated by the spider web diagram:
Source: 5G Networks: The Role of Wi-Fi and Unlicensed Technologies
Furthermore, Wi-Fi 6E is the right tool to enable 5G mmWave access to the home; millimeter wave 5G will not penetrate the home reliably because of the physical propagation characteristics of these frequencies through obstructions such as walls, tree leaves and the human body. Also, frequencies such as 28GHz and 39GHz suffer from higher sensitivity to weather conditions and decay faster when propagating through air, not to mention solid buildings. Thus, the deployment model would likely mandate an outdoor cellular 5G unit, and some technology to distribute the service to the indoors, considering the targeted ~2Gbps service Wi-Fi 6E makes a perfect match for the target service and solution costs.
Even in the lower frequency 10 GHz spectrum, 5G coverage can only exist inside of untreated glass windows, but not really inside of a building. As a result, most buildings will need in-building cellular aids for reliable in-building coverage. Enter Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E.
Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E alleviate high traffic by reducing congestion in 5G that creates delays and/or slows signal reception. 5G may actually offload nearly ¾ of its traffic to Wi-Fi by 2022. There will be huge growth in connections and devices, especially in Machine-to-Machine (M2M) connections. 5G and Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E will extend the world’s Internet community to areas never connected before.
Many feel that 5G will replace wireless Wide Area Networks (WANs) that span a large geographic area across cities, states, or countries. They can be private to connect parts of a business or they can be more public to connect smaller networks together. Wi-Fi 6E complements this as a proper offload and densification tool, as 5G mmWave ODU to IDU distribution tool, as well as a strong backhaul solution to inter-connect the 5G base units.
Some may think that using 5G technology to interconnect the external 5G-mmWave ODU to the indoor unit. However, the costs of such a 5G link are far higher than those of a Wi-Fi solution.
Simply put, cellular technologies relied on the affordability and capacity of Wi-Fi technology to enable their business-case at a growing dependency with each generation. Wi-Fi 6, and specifically Wi-Fi 6E, are the right tool to enable the performance expectations and business case of 5G networks.
