The capacity in the unlicensed use of the 6GHz band for Wi-Fi will improve Quality of Service (QoS) through Wi-Fi 6 offload as the use of Wi-Fi at home, offices, institutions, airports etc. will help relieve networks of capacity constraints by taking devices of the cellular networks, says Engineer Atiku Lawal, acting head, Spectrum Administration, Nigerian Communications Commission.

Engr. Lawal stated this during the annual Stakeholder’s Consultative Forum on Emerging Technologies, an annual event organized by the Commission to elicit comment and input from the industry stakeholders.

The Annual Stakeholders Forum creates an opportunity for NCC to, not only obtain comments and inputs, but also to share knowledge and ideas on issues that are germane to its areas of focus.

He said:

“With the overcrowded airwaves currently limiting the potential of Wi-Fi in the 2.4GHz and 5GHz, it is not a surprise that more than seventy (70) countries have already acted, or are considering acting, to open the 6GHz band for unlicensed Wi-Fi use.

“Depending upon the country’s implementation plan, this decision will provide two to three times the quantum of Spectrum available today, resulting in the ability to implement 80MHz and 160 MHz channels being available for the new Wi-Fi 6 standard ideal to support digital transformation efforts and use cases like high definition video and X Reality (XR).

“Further to this, additionally, capacity in the unlicensed use of the 6GHz band for Wi-Fi will improve Quality of Service (QoS) through Wi-Fi 6 offload as the use of Wi-Fi at home, offices, institutions, airports etc. will help relieve networks of capacity constraints by taking devices of the cellular networks”.

He recalled that efforts towards opening the 6GHz band has been a subject of discussion in the last International Telecommunications Union (ITU) conferences until it was concluded in the last 2023 World Radiocommunications Conference (WRC-23) held in Dubai.

Following the outcome of the WRC, there were different recommendations which we are going to see later in our presentation on the use of 6GHz (5925 – 7125) MHz for Wi-Fi 6 and International Mobile Telecommunication (IMT) applications.

“We have also made our recommendation for us to deliberate and make a contribution for informed decisions that will stimulate maximum socioeconomic benefit”, Lawal added.

The Stakeholders Forum witnessed presentation such as Recommendation of L6 Sharing between Microwave and Wi-Fi, Progress of IMT Development in 6425-7125 MHz, Wi-Fi for the Digitally Driven Economy, OEM / Vendor Perspective, Wi-Fi Alliance Perspective all of these coming from the Academia, OEMs and Industry Experts in line with the Commission’s consultative process.

“The Commission always loves to engage our stakeholders in our rules making process, such as the one we are going to witness today. Decision on the use of 6GHz Spectrum in Nigeria, after the allocation of the band to the IMT services by the WRC-23”, he reassured the stakeholders.

Furthermore, confidence in investment across the sector is rising with 58% saying they are more confident in investing in Wi-Fi compared to a year ago even though the business model remains the most pressing challenge for new deployments.

6GHz spectrum availability also remains front of mind with two thirds deeming it an important issue for 2024.

Those are two keys finding from the latest cross-industry report by the Wireless Broadband Alliance, the global industry body dedicated to improving Wi-Fi standards and services.

Based on input from 200 enterprises, governments, fixed and mobile operators, vendors and other organizations worldwide, the WBA Annual Industry Report 2024 showcases how Wi-Fi technology continues to evolve in ways that anticipate the needs of consumers, businesses, enterprise verticals, smart cities and service providers.

Highlights from the report’s other key findings include:

• Over 41 percent of respondents plan to deploy Wi-Fi 7 by the end of 2024. That amount is in addition to the 7.5% that already have and shows that the marketplace already sees a strong business case for Wi-Fi 7.
• By the end of 2024, over 47 percent of respondents plan to add WBA OpenRoaming or Passpoint to a new or existing Wi-Fi network. Another 33 percent already have, which is why WBA OpenRoaming is currently available at over 3.5 million hotspots worldwide. All of these figures highlight the strong perceived value of a framework that enables users to connect automatically and securely instead of constantly remembering and re-entering credentials.
• Enabling seamless interoperability between Wi-Fi and LTE/5G is the top reason for deploying WBA OpenRoaming. This feedback shows that the marketplace perceives the relationship between Wi-Fi and mobile as symbiotic rather than adversarial.
• WBA OpenRoaming’s unique combination of convenience and security is ideal for use cases beyond just broadband access.“OpenRoaming also offers possibilities for electric vehicle charging stations as well as seamless onboarding,” the report’s authors say. One example is semi- and fully autonomous EVs using charging stations to download the HD maps they need to navigate safely and successfully while uploading diagnostic data for preventative maintenance.
• Nearly 70 percent of respondents are either involved with a city-wide public Wi-Fi deployment or plan to be in 2024 or 2025.This activity highlights the ubiquity of Wi-Fi devices (including for IoT), the perceived value of using Wi-Fi to bridge the digital divide and the role that WBA OpenRoaming plays in making it convenient for residents, tourists and business travellers to connect to public Wi-Fi hotspots.

The 63 page report also explores how Wi-Fi benefits 14 vertical markets, including rural communities, connected transportation, health care, aviation and manufacturing.

Another section provides an update on Wi-Fi’s technology evolution, such as IEEE 802.11bf WLAN Sensing, 802.11bh Randomized MAC Addresses and 802.11bi Enhanced Data Privacy.

Tiago Rodrigues, CEO of the Wireless Broadband Alliance, said:

“The WBA Annual Industry Report 2024 is a must-read for anyone wanting to know exactly where Wi-Fi is and where it’s headed. Market momentum is a theme in many of the key findings.

For example, 58% are more confident in investing in Wi-Fi now than a year ago – up from 46% last year. Specifically, survey respondents are stepping up investment in WBA OpenRoaming, Wi-Fi 7 and city-wide public Wi-Fi. As WBA celebrates its 20^th anniversary, we look forward to the next 20 years of pioneering even more Wi-Fi technologies and use cases and developing a robust trails programme for W-Fi 7 to take innovation into 2024 and beyond.”

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Sophos, a global leader in innovating and delivering cybersecurity as a service, has announced the Sophos AP6 Series to support the shift to hybrid environments with a new generation of remotely managed Wi-Fi 6 access points.

The new offering adds another component to Sophos’ secure access portfolio, which includes Sophos Firewall and Sophos Switch.

“With cloud-managed Wi-Fi, Sophos is addressing the need for more scalable, remote-managed Wi-Fi solutions that support the increasing number of connected devices and the proliferation of IoT systems,”

said Daniel Cole, vice president of product management at Sophos.

“This combination of our Sophos AP6 Series and Sophos Switches provides channel partners with a consolidated single vendor access solution strategy, easing the burden and overhead cost of managing multiple disparate systems from different vendors. Many access layer networks are still operating at 1 Gigabit speeds. With the significant performance enhancements in Wi-Fi 6, the industry has a great opportunity to review and modernize the network ecosystem that wireless is deployed into. Sophos’ solution dissolves a common bottleneck at the physical layer and can boost the total network performance of a company’s Wi-Fi infrastructure.”

Sophos AP6 models – including 420E, AP6 840, AP6 840E and the outdoor AP6 420X – have at least one built-in 2.5 Gigabit interface for faster LAN connectivity. 

When combined with the Sophos multi-Gigabit switches, which also support 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet, companies can unlock faster speeds across the entire network. With the AP6 420E and 840E devices, which support Wi-Fi 6E, companies can additionally use the 6 GHz band, which is a newer, less congested space, offering high performance for the latest devices. 

Sophos access points can be remotely managed in the cloud-based Sophos Central platform alongside a broader range of solutions than any other vendor.

This enables partners to oversee all customer installations, respond to alerts, and track licenses and upcoming renewal dates via a single, intuitive interface. Additionally, there is an on-premises interface administrators can take advantage of for on-AP settings.

Availability

The Sophos AP6 Series is available for immediate purchase exclusively through Sophos’ global channel of partners and managed service providers (MSPs). 

These are amongst the major trends Enea has highlighted in a new report entitled: 7 Trends That Will Shape the Mobile Industry In 2022.

Each year, Enea surveys a cross-section of mobile industry thought leaders and experts to identify the key trends for the next 12 months.

For 2022, those thought leaders included ABI Research, Analysys Mason and Strategy Analytics.

The trends in 2022 include:

1. State-sponsored cyber-attacks accelerate and evolve: 

2022 will undoubtedly bring an increase in the number and sophistication of nation state cyber-attacks on mobile telecom infrastructure.

As tensions between global power brokers intensifies in hotspots such as Taiwan, Ukraine and Kazakhstan, mobile networks’ value as a target for espionage and disruption will soar.

Furthermore, IT/OT/telco convergence and 5G’s expanded attack surface including 2G, 3G and 4G weaknesses will all provide ripe terrain for achieving geopolitical ends via cyber warfare.

2. Hyperscaler protocols dictate terms to operators: 

Complex encryption protocols, such as Google’s QUIC, based on UDP, were meant to keep subscribers safe and improve web and video performance. And they have.

But they’ve left operators scrambling to maintain the traffic visibility they need to stay in the game.

Expect more trouble ahead as UDP dominates traffic, and newer encryption protocols like eSNI and DoH/DoT become the norm.

3. Video delivery shifts to new edge clouds:

According to analysts, the edge cloud market for mobile operators is set to grow significantly in 2022. Ultra-low latency applications like live multi-angle sports streaming and cloud gaming will be at the forefront of this growth.

While Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) have been bringing content and users closer together for many years, the nature of the edge cloud tilts the game in favor of mobile operators, who have ready-to-go locations across thousands of towns and cities.

4. Sustain the environment AND the bottom line: 

Driven by the disruptive impact of climate change, consumer pressure, and a need to cut costs, “greenwashing” is out.

Impactful earth-friendly strategies are in – but operators need to go beyond the straightforward savings of virtualization. For example, Subscriber Data Management systems with flexible capacity expansion and smart synchronization between servers can deliver TCO reductions of up to 50 percent.

What’s more, RAN congestion management can increase cell site capacity by 15 percent also reducing hardware footprint.

5. Wi-Fi ties the knot with 5G: 

As mobile operators deploy 5G, they’re struggling with in-building penetration that is up to 100x worse than 3G/4G.

This undermines their ability to displace the residential broadband market and support indoor enterprise IoT use cases.

With Wi-Fi 6 tripling the available spectrum of earlier WiFi specifications, 2022 will see operators building their own Wi-Fi 6 capacity in public locations combining Wi-Fi 6 and 5G.

Jan Häglund, CEO of Enea said: “For mobile operators, 2022 will usher in both opportunities and threats that deeply impact their bottom line. In the past, network providers had to grapple with encroaching hyperscalers, now a plethora of attack vectors make security in particular a critical consideration. We trust that the trends highlighted in this year’s report provide a roadmap for mobile operators to navigate our post-pandemic world.”

The Full Report Can be Found HERE.