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Latest in Wi-Fi Innovation
The recent Wi-Fi World Congress USA held in Washington D.C. celebrated 20 years of Wi-Fi innovation, highlighted by a special keynote from FCC chairman, Ajit Pai. The three-day event was well-represented across all the verticals of the industry, starting from major chipset companies to Tier-1 service providers in the US, providing in-depth look at all the latest developments in Wi-Fi technologies.
Spirent team had meaningful dialogs while showcasing the latest 802.11ax WLAN test solutions to accelerate the development and deployment of Wi-Fi 6 technology.
Take-Aways from Wi-Fi World Congress USA
Keynote by FCC Chairman: Ajit Pai’s speech focused on FCC efforts for making the future of Wi-Fi brighter, acknowledging that “So much of how this technology (Wi-Fi) has developed has reflected the best of America.” He highlighted the importance of having a fresh and comprehensive review of the future of 5.9 GHz band, and the tremendous opportunity of 6 GHz unlicensed spectrum to the Wi-Fi industry, while urging the industry’s help on 6 GHz. “We’re working through some complex technical issues both internally and with outside stakeholders, and that includes many in this room. I appreciate your input. But questions remain and the clock is always ticking, so I urge you to help us find creative solutions.”
Wi-Fi Innovation: With so topics covered, the Smart Farms Use Cases (by Charter), Insights from Mother’s Day 2019 on various KPIs (by Plume), and the new value-added services made possible by Wi-Fi Motion (by Cognitive) really stood out for me. ”
Route 66: While talking about Wi-Fi 6 and 6 GHz, and the opportunities they make possible, several presenters compared it to the iconic U.S. Route 66, for its popularity and wide reach. ”
I had a chance to participate in the Q&A panel discussion centered around “Getting Wi-Fi Reliability and Performance Right”, moderated by Claus Hetting. This animated exchange brought attention to the systematic challenges of reliability and performance since the technology’s first entry on the world stage 20 years ago. Several approaches were discussed in improving Wi-Fi performance and quality with the introduction of Wi-Fi 6 technology.
Key highlights included:
Wi-Fi 6 can offer deterministic Wi-Fi, or guaranteed SLA. However, it requires proper testing of Wi-Fi devices during design and development as chipset and equipment manufacturers have taken various approaches in terms of product attributes based on their primary target markets (for e.g. 4x4 vs. 8x8 MU-MIMO, DL/UL vs DL only OFDMA).
How Spirent is contributing to accelerating next gen Wi-Fi developments by offering a variety of cost-effective
, including the world’s first combined 802.11ax and BASE-T 100mbps/1/2.5/5/10Gbps Ethernet interface support, as well as providing innovative test methodologies for next-generation devices and networks worldwide.
What tests can be done outside of Wi-Fi 6? Since Wi-Fi 6 technology is backward compatible, many test cases such as Client Roaming, AP stability, Mesh testing, etc. are not directly associated with Wi-Fi 6 but also need to be performed based on specific use cases.
Wi-Fi Now is an overall great industry event and we at Spirent walked-away feeling excited about the prospects of next generation technologies – Wi-Fi 6 and beyond.
