Wi-Fi Relevance Depends on More Spectrum, IPv6 Capability, Improved Speeds and Capacity, Execs Say
Despite its near-ubiquity, Wi-Fi has a long way to go, whether it’s increasing speed, reliability, IPv6 capability or capacity for multiple devices, said executives from Cisco, Arris and CableLabs on a Tuesday NCTA convention panel. Providers must work with the FCC to free up spectrum, must enable IPv6 for their consumers, and must look to new software and hardware solutions to improve speed, efficiency and reliability, they said.
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Wi-Fi spectrum is not as available or as clear as it should be, said Rob Alderfer, CableLabs senior strategic analyst. “Wi-Fi should be fast, easy, secure and reliable,” he said. Available spectrum bands are overcrowded, and even the allocation charts are tough to understand, he said. “If you have a device with the latest Wi-Fi tech, you might be disappointed. It might not be the speeds you thought you'd get.” The new 802.11ac standard is cleaner, and much faster, he said. “Vendors and manufacturers need to adopt it, to make sure it gets into consumer’s hands. It will make Wi-Fi smarter and better performing, more like regular networks than ad-hoc hot spots."
Efforts to improve spectrum availability are moving more slowly in the government than the reality on the ground might require, Alderfer said. “Where the government is on making new spectrum available, they've proposed to make potentially three bands available: 5 GHz, 3.5 GHz, 6.5 MHz. Unfortunately none of those bands are at an immediate stage of action. The commission is still thinking about how best to make them available. I think all of us working together can really help to urge action, recognizing that there is a problem today in some areas and it will become more widespread as we go along. The need is really there for the FCC to act very soon.”
Alderfer also lauded a technology called Passpoint, which will be able to automatically find wireless networks and connect users. It will standardize WPA2 connecting, which is “as good as it gets,” he said. “It will be a giant leap forward for Wi-Fi, in short, assuming it’s widely adopted and widely incorporated into devices and networks.” As more of these technologies are adopted and implemented, and as spectrum is freed up through incentive auctions, he said users could experience reliable connections continuous in geography and frequency. “Imagine making a Skype call on the move, over Wi-Fi, because you're confident you're not going to lose your signal."
Lack of IPv6 adoption also stymies the expansion and improvement of Wi-Fi, said Rajiv Asati, distinguished engineer at Cisco. The negative impact on consumers could cost as much as $2 million in productivity per year for every 10,000 customers, he said. Service provider Wi-Fi simply has not made itself IPv6-capable as quickly as broadband and mobile technologies, he said. But when Wi-Fi is IPv6 capable, the numbers are promising, he said. When the Mobile World Congress enabled IPv6-capable Wi-Fi at its show this year, 10 percent of the traffic on the network came via IPv6, he said. “In the last two years, knowing how much IPv6 traffic has existed in the network, 10 percent is a huge number,” he said. “We've got to make use of it to reduce the complexity … and reduce the cost that comes along with sticking with v4. We've got to get out of v4 mindset.” Asati urged service providers to switch on IPv6 on their Wi-Fi networks. “IPv6 is real, it’s out there,” he said.
As the average home uses increasingly more Wi-Fi enabled devices, service providers must also consider ways to increase Wi-Fi reliability and efficiency to address customer demand, said Sandy Howe, Arris senior vice president-strategic market development, at the same event. The average home has 6 Wi-Fi devices, and the number is increasing, she said. And unlike delays in video delivery over cable, video delivery over Wi-Fi can leave customers with a black screen -- prompting far more customer calls than cable operators currently receive, she said. “This is the armageddon of IP video delivery over Wi-Fi."
More devices mean more congestion, reduced speeds and more blackouts, all of which will present problems for ISPs, Howe said. New software and hardware solutions can help reduce the costs to service providers at the same time they maximize customer experiences, she said. “After we've looked at the real world performance issues, we can largely avoid this Armageddon. Because Wi-Fi is nondeterministic, it will not be perfect. But by using hardware solutions such as dual-band concurrent radios, 3 x 3 antennas, having a Wi-Fi helper with in-the-gateway devices themselves, and having the network and cloud tools preemptively monitoring, we can create a good customer experience as these Wi-Fi devices proliferate our networks,” she said.