CommScope seems to have a clear idea where WiFi is going during its sixth generation, and also where it is not. The company that has become a force in both WiFi and cellular on the back of its $7.4bn 2019 acquisition of Arris is targeting hospitality and “smart spaces” with a new range of access points (APs) and operating system software under the Ruckus brand.
Ruckus Wireless has been in the consumer and enterprise WiFi field since 2008 and came into CommScope via Arris through intermediate acquisitions.
CommScope is targeting single buildings and smaller campuses with its indoor Ruckus H550 and outdoor Ruckus T350, along with enterprise and service provider features in the Ruckus SmartZoneOS. These environments may also have devices connected via either the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) or Zigbee wireless protocols, so both these are supported in the APs, enabling building or site owners to deploy a converged network infrastructure supporting both end user and operational needs. These include building and energy management, asset tracking, physical security and telemetry.
However, they do not include typical LPWAN use cases such as smart energy and environmental monitoring, which require more specialized devices and longer range at very low power consumption. None of the four primary LPWAN protocols are supported in the package – those are LoRAWAN and Sigfox in unlicensed spectrum, or the two cellular options, NB-IoT and LTE-M.
But the two APs do span a range of indoor and outdoor use cases. The indoor H550 AP is pitched at hotels, apartment, dormitories and multi-dwelling units (MDUs) generally. Applications cited that harness the higher capacities and speeds of WiFi 6 include delivery of 4K video streams, IPTV, virtual reality, VoIP and ultra-fast downloads. But given the integration of BLE and Zigbee, support for IoT end points and associated applications such as connected entry and staff alerts, enabled by the Ruckus IoT Suite, are also highlighted.
Then the T350 AP supports outdoor connectivity in a compact form factor, with CommScope underlining conformance with the aesthetic requirements of smart spaces, community WiFi installations, airports and other public venues. Then in addition to built-in IoT capabilities, the T350 does include a USB port through which additional wireless protocols could be supported, although not out of the box.
CommScope also emphasizes the ability of all Ruckus APs, as well as switches, to serve as data sources for the AI and machine learning based network analytics capabilities available in Ruckus Analytics. These can be executed in networks managed by network controllers through either Ruckus Cloud or the SmartZoneOS.
“SmartZoneOS powers a family of high-scale physical and virtual network controllers for use by service providers and large enterprises to manage wired and wireless networks. New enhancements to SmartZoneOS include interoperability with Google’s Orion WiFi, which enables network operators to participate in the global cellular offload market,” said a CommScope spokesperson.
That last point is significant because there have been signs of a revival in WiFi offload, which has ebbed and flowed over the last decade since it first became popular with some MNOs for sparing the growing impact of cellular Internet traffic on their infrastructures. As we reported back in September 2020, Google in particular was tapping into this trend, firstly with the roll out of its Fi MVNO service using T-Mobile’s network in the USA and then testing WiFi offload onto hotspots provided by Boingo Networks.
Now CommScope is in on that game, which can be seen as a battlefront between WiFi 6 and 5G. Mobile operators are no longer in most cases seeking to offload traffic from their networks and indeed are keen to usurp WiFi with 5G as that becomes more capable of addressing the needs of indoor environments. As we discuss in a separate piece this week, there is a constituency for the idea that WiFi will only close the gap fully on 5G in terms of performance, coverage, availability and low latency when the next generation WiFi 7 becomes available in around three years’ time.
CommScope, which also offers 5G macro and small cell equipment such as base station antennas, RF transmission systems and fiber to poles, does not share this lack of confidence in the current WiFi 6/6E technology. Instead, it sees WiFi defending its established positions while offering a viable alternative to 5G in scenarios such as venues where both are contenders.
Certainly WiFi 6 has narrowed the gap with 5G considerably, enabling headline data rates above 1Gbps for the first time with the help of 1024 QAM modulation aided by uplink resource scheduling. WiFi 6 also supports lower latency, although there is further to go on that front to match 5G. Then the Target Wake Time feature of WiFi 6 and 6E helps orchestrate network traffic much more effectively, while minimizing unnecessary chatter to improve smartphone battery life.
It is true it is chiefly only premium smartphones that yet support WiFi 6 but that will change quite quickly now that Qualcomm supports the technology in its Snapdragon 865, 888, and 690 chipsets, bringing it within reach of mid and low end models. By the time WiFi 7 starts rolling, well over half of smartphones in circulation will be WiFi 6 capable.
While WiFi looks like losing out to cellular V2X in the automotive market, it will be more successful in other consumer facing spheres, such as gaming where the Sony Playstation 5 is among devices now supporting WiFi 6. In this area the lower latency support is critical and where 5G will mount a serious challenge.
Sports venues as they return to fuller capacity in many countries in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic will provide an interesting front between the two technologies, which in some cases may run in parallel. We have already seen the contention playing out in the US National Football League (NFL), where many teams and stadia had deployed WiFi first because cellular was not then seen as an option for providing access to content and services for fans in and around the grounds.
Indeed, the majority of NFL teams and their venues have offered guest WiFi networks to their fans for some years now and consumption has grown quickly. The NFL has reported that WiFi adoption rate by fans increased from 18% in 2013 to 45% in 2019/2020 in the last full season before the pandemic. WiFi also became more mission critical with the introduction of digital ticketing for that 2019/2020 season, requiring reliable and higher capacity connectivity at the gate, as well as avoidance of bottlenecks.
Point-of-sale systems were introduced, with WiFi-enabled portables around the stadiums. Not surprisingly therefore NFL stadiums have been early adopters of WiFi 6, accessed by over 250,000 fans during the 2019 season, leading to a surge in traffic at events. Meanwhile though 5G was starting to invade this turf, with Verizon announcing a 5G technology partnerships with the NFL at CES 2021. Under this agreement, 5G will be available in 28 NFL stadiums by the end of 2021, allowing fans to view games from up to seven camera angles, enhanced by augmented reality to add graphics and relevant information to the video.
Verizon has been using 28 GHz mmWave technology there, having been buoyed by early findings from the Signals Research Group that 5G could deliver almost ubiquitous coverage to the seats within large stadiums, which is where most of the online activity occurs, rather than from fans wandering around the aisles.
Verizon had also discovered that the poor propagation of millimeter wave signals through walls is actually an advantage in the stadium context because it means spectrum can be reused inside without much coordination with the external network deployment. It is almost like a closed network.
But while 5G shows promise for in-stadium access, WiFi will continue to predominate for a while, or at least coexist, because many stadiums have invested significantly in the infrastructure, including APs, and combinations of fiber and copper backhauling. WiFi 6/6E will help shore up this base.