Following the release of the WBA Annual Industry Report 2024, Tiago Rodrigues, CEO of the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA), has revealed five predictions relevant to reinventing networks in the era of big tech and hyperscalers in 2024 and beyond. He believes these will change the way wireless technology is used by communities and businesses across the world, including improved connectivity, efficiencies and new consumer experiences.
#1: In the future 10 Gbps speeds will be commonplace
Internet service providers (ISPs) deliver faster internet speeds than ever. AT&T Fiber is already providing 5 Gbps, and Comcast is testing DOCSIS 4.0, leading to a future where 10 Gbps speeds will be commonplace. To experience the actual benefits of these advancements, Wi-Fi must follow suit. The massive increase in video-heavy traffic also puts new burdens on the capabilities required of a Wi-Fi network which drives investment in new technologies. Fiber broadband deployments will continue to expand in most developed and developing markets, creating a need for an upgrade of home Wi-Fi networks to pass on the increased bandwidth to the device. The rapid adoption of Wi-Fi 6/6E will also be driven by its ability to access additional spectrum in the 6GHz band via the 6E extension as more countries open the band. The 2023 World Radiocommunication Conferences (WRC) should bring new developments in the 6GHz allocation. The WRC-23 agenda includes an item about potential 5G operations in the mid-band spectrum, though developing a spectrum pipeline has been a contentious issue in recent years.
#2: OpenRoaming growth will continue and extend to integrate with private 5G and IoT networks in 2024, reaching a critical point of exponential growth by 2026 when tens of millions of hotspots will be enabled
Deployments of Passpoint and OpenRoaming continue to rise as more brands and identity providers recognize the value of the federation to enable seamless connectivity access across different networks. OpenRoaming will reach a critical point of exponential growth by 2026 when tens of millions of hotspots will be enabled Beyond Wi-Fi, OpenRoaming will extend to integrate with private 5G and IoT in 2024. OpenRoaming has the potential to remove the friction to connect billions of IoT devices securely.
#3: NaaS (Network as a Service) will rise beyond early adopters (e.g. managed Wi-Fi in multi-apartment units) spreading quickly to traditional enterprises where networks provide cloud-first, software-defined, application-centric environments
Network as a Service (NaaS) is defined as network infrastructure hardware, software, services, management, and licensing components consumed in a subscription-based or flexible consumption model. NaaS is on the rise, and early adopters include managed Wi-Fi in multi-apartment units, soon to spread among traditional enterprises where networks provide cloud-first, software-defined, application-centric environments. The NaaS model is driven by enterprises’ inability to keep up with the pace of innovations in the context of skilled labor shortages and a shortened equipment replacement cycle, which means financial pressure exists to move away from the traditional CAPEX model. The prevalence of security attacks is another reason more enterprises will move to NaaS. In a NaaS model, the NaaS provider delivers continuous security updates that prevent and reduce breaches and outages, resulting in higher productivity and customer satisfaction.
#4: The role of AI (artificial intelligence) and ML (machine learning) cannot be overstated, with Adaptive AI set to explode on networks, from enabling Automated Frequency Coordination (AFC) to predicting network resourcing needs
The role of AI (artificial intelligence) and ML (machine learning) cannot be overstated. Adaptive AI usage will explode from enabling AFC coordination to predicting network resources. WLAN vendors are developing their secret sauce versions of AI to differentiate themselves in an environment where the hardware is fully standardized. AI will help enterprises and ISPs speed up troubleshooting; streamline monitoring; and proactively anticipate outages, equipment failures, and performance degradation. In the AFC context, AI will manage radio resource, manage power from the devices and the infrastructure, and perform cross-network coordination to maximize frequency re-use and, thus, capacity.
#5: Convergence will progress enabling access to private and/or public 5G services over Wi-Fi
Convergence is progressing toward enabling access to private or public 5G services over Wi-Fi. The WBA details the possible deployment models for bringing 5G into enterprise networks in its paper “Private 5G And Wi-Fi Convergence – Key Use Cases and Requirements” Full convergence requires standardization and a common core network which will only develop in incremental steps. Building a common core simplifies the network architecture and reduces the operational cost with function re-use. In the meantime, interworking between the access systems for realizing IP address preservation across inter-access handovers can be realized in simpler terms by collocating 5G core network elements with WLAN controller and can be the preferred option for most deployments with existing Wi-Fi footprint. Rather than competing with 5G over emerging high-performance use cases, the Wi-Fi community continues to work on coexistence with 5G, especially around identity management, authentication, and policy management. This suggests that large enterprises are already deploying private 5G because they want synergy with Wi-Fi. We expect network executives will continue deploying Wi-Fi and cellular in the coming years, with Wi-Fi 6/6E for indoor, on-campus, and fixed network situations and 5G/cellular for outdoor, off-campus, and mobile environments. Wi-Fi 7 may not sufficiently close the gap with 5G enough to persuade some enterprises to select it for more demanding use cases. 5G is not standing still; enhancements are coming with 3GPP Release 17 under the banner of 5G Advanced.
