2021 marks the beginning of a new kind of relationship between private enterprises who manage open or guest network access and Mobile Network Operators (MNOs). What were once considered competing technologies have now become complimentary, and both are crucial to creating a secure and pleasant user experience virtually anywhere - indoors or outdoors.
Given the challenges associated with cellular signal propagation inside modern buildings, 5G presents significant security, cost and logistics issues as organizations seek to manage indoor cellular coverage gaps on behalf of employees, visitors and customers who expect seamless wireless connectivity between Wi-Fi and cellular networks. For this reason, industry standards such as Passpoint have gained prominence as a solution to enable secure and seamless roaming between cellular and Wi-Fi networks while making that access as secure as ever.
More specifically, the Passpoint certification program, from the Wi-Fi Alliance, is designed to help carriers offload data and users to local wireless networks and allow uninterrupted mobile device user services like Wi-Fi calling or texting wherever they are.
Larry Lunetta,
VP, Portfolio
Solutions
Marketing, Aruba
Furthermore, bringing unmanaged devices onto the network, securely, presents opportunities to harness the data produced at the edge by also processing that data where it is gathered in real-time, potentially unlocking insights for carriers to offer new or expanded services, which can result in improved business outcomes and user experiences.
Seamless Wi-Fi and cellular roaming
Due to evolving building codes, energy efficient construction materials and low-emission glass, cellular signals are challenged when penetrating buildings, resulting in a dramatically diminished user experience. Those issues will become even more pronounced as 5G becomes increasingly more commonplace in 2021, due to the limitations of the technology. To cover this ever-widening coverage gap, Wi-Fi is the logical solution as it’s designed to solve these problems and is ubiquitous in modern organizations.
To help bridge these two worlds of Wi-Fi and cellular, enterprises will be wise to explore options to seamlessly connect its respective Wi-Fi networks with automatic cellular roaming through the Passpoint protocol.
This creates a win-win scenario for these forward-thinking organizations.
With Passpoint, cellular users can automatically authenticate to a corporate network through their SIM card credentials supplied by a network operator, enabling users to make calls and texts just as they would on their respective cellular networks the instant they enter the given Wi-Fi range.
For enterprises, the combination of seamless authentication and pre-negotiated MNO agreements means they can eliminate cumbersome login processes that require users to manually select and authenticate to the appropriate Wi-Fi network without the need to individually contract with each MNO.
Avoid the costs and headaches of additional infrastructure investment
Another significant advantage to leveraging Passpoint: the technology requires comparatively very little in the way of additional infrastructure investment, even in unique or complex spaces.
While there will be use cases for which 5G will be the right choice, to ensure universally available connectivity in large buildings and other critical infrastructure, whether it be a train station or a major hospital, MNOs will have to install distributed antenna systems (DAS), often at great cost. Meanwhile, building or infrastructure operators would need to create separate agreements for each MNO with their own separate DAS to create a truly effective connectivity paradigm for virtually anyone - a potentially cumbersome prospect for all involved.
In addition, for organizations exploring the creation of a private 5G network, or that are considering the idea of relying on DAS only, they require all relevant IoT devices to have cellular radios, from printers to laptops to screen displays. This requires the organization to potentially replace legacy devices outside of planned obsolesce and depreciation schedules, further increasing costs and complexity.
Harnessing the edge via easier access
Organizations that can, one, grant access and a simplified yet secure experience through their respective Wi-Fi networks, and two, avoid the significant infrastructure investments required to stand up a private 5G network or extend existing 5G networks, will create a more cost effective yet pleasant experience for all types of users. This may also provide carriers the ability to yield new insights, products and services they cannot yet begin to imagine.
