WiFi7 - The Next Generation of Wireless with Bruno Tomas: The Tech Between Us, Season 3, Episode 13, Part 2

THE TECH BETWEEN US
WiFi 7 Part 2                  

Mark Patrick, Mouser
Welcome back to The Tech Between Us. We are continuing our conversation about WiFi 7 with Bruno Tomas, CTO for the Wireless Broadband Alliance or WBA to catch upon part one of our conversation, visit our Empowering Innovation Together website.
So, we've talked about bandwidth and the increase in spectrum and the addition of the 6 GHz band. Let's just think a little bit about the impact of that because when you think about wireless and RF and IT traveling through buildings, for example, what do you think the impact will be of the 6 GHz band on how access points are deployed in a building to ensure reliable performance? So I guess we have to think about where people are working, what's the operational environment, but be mindful of that buildings will soak up the RF and it won't travel particularly well through certain areas. So, what do they need to think about? What does the user need to think about?

Bruno Tomas, WBA
Yes, I am glad you bring that question because when we talk with partners, especially vertical industries, on the top of their mind is always coverage optimization within their buildings because that means CapEx, means money they will have to invest on new generations. Maybe we approach it in two ways. So, one is of course all these great things about Wi-Fi 7. Our experience is that the way you design and plan the network becomes even more important because you have a new band that will come into play, and you still have the legacy and then the backhaul as well. So most of the times we organize these big events and we have to serve large crowds. And whenever there are issues with the recent Wi-Fi generations is because the backhaul was not well planned. So maybe not answering directly to your coverage point, but we see that it's not about the number of APs, how many density you put inside the venue. We really need to plan well just the backhaul to the demand. And that's off of the way. But maybe your question just reminds me of one very key topic on all these Wi-Fi 7 study that is increasing the power levels of these same APs. So there is something on the 6 GHz that we call the standard power, and there will be systems coordinating this new ecosystem that we call AFC, automated frequency coordination. And whenever there is not an impact on a legacy or let's say an incumbent, the venue owners, those building networks will be able to increase the power and just cover potentially a higher geographical area inside or even outside if the AFC system allows them to do so.

Mark Patrick, Mouser
And we've seen this in other areas of RF spectrum with things like terrestrial digital television as that's rolled out, the same kind of approach was taken. But listening to you, it sounds as if you can't just consider the access point. You have to consider the system really and take a systems view and make sure, as you said, the backhaul is capable, otherwise you're going to come to the weakest link each time. The other thing to consider in an enterprise environment, of course, is security. And what about security enhancements in Wi-Fi 7, will it make data breaches a thing of the past or I suspect of course there'll always be people trying to get one step ahead, but again, give us a sense of security in Wi-Fi 7.

Bruno Tomas, WBA
So thank you for bringing the security question. You are aligned with all the regulators and policymakers all over the world. It's top of mind for them. So we talk about, oh, this new nice Wi-Fi generation is coming and they say what you bring is coupled in terms of security. So one advantage of deploying a new generation is that you have to deploy the full package and they have your clients evolve.

So I must combine it with some developments on the WPA security types for Wi-Fi. Now there is WPA3 that addresses some data breaches that happened in the past and it's mandatory that use WPA3 on 6 GHz and Wi-Fi 7 will just go with that. So this means that at least from the client, the AP, we have that new layer of security. However, Mark, what I'm really even more excited about is when we think about the Netwin system that you mentioned, we have new trends coming to market such as open roaming where all the users in the world are uniquely identified. Those owners of identities are provisioning the phones. And whenever there is a connection to any given Wi-Fi network, the objective is to abolish open public networks. That's a huge security breach. And I believe that with this identity management endpoint security with WPA3 using PKI ecosystem and RadSec, we kind of create a really stable set of deployments capturing to your request.

Mark Patrick, Mouser
Sounds good. I bring it up because of course it's a topic that we write about and look into frequently and our customers ask about and we feature that quite often in the variety of content that we put out. So it's a hot topic as you said.

Bruno Tomas, WBA
Absolutely.

Mark Patrick, Mouser
Let's move on and talk about design then Bruno, because a couple of different aspects here. So one is that of course a Wi-Fi 7 access point, for example, designing that is not going to be trivial and most likely as we see today, that will sit with a small number of big players and typically they will be the household names that we know. But when you look at our industry, so the semiconductor industry, the electronics design industry or sector, let's say. It's become adept at simplifying the design of complex RF technology through providing development tools, pre-certified modules if somebody wants to put, do a module design rather than chip down. So, we're still talking about Wi-Fi 7, we're not yet quite seeing the deployments and tools, but when do you think that's going to come through? When will the typical design OEM customers that Mouser has start to get their hands on this technology and be able to implement it?

Bruno Tomas, WBA
Yeah, well I believe personally given the traction on our own Wi-Fi 7 program, the chip set vendors that we work with to mention a few Broadcom, Intel, Qualcomm, MediaTek, so they're all very focused in trying to fast track their time to market. So, I believe pre-certified models and simplifying is key, especially in a Wi-Fi world. So we may talk about dates later, but we are seeing products coming to market and that means that the reference designs have been including more of the features from the get-go. So if we think about the applicational layer, I see the ODMs more and more wanting to have their engineering field force focusing on the application layer and innovating there, and they want a baseline that they can bootstrap without much effort. At the same time, there have been a few demos already provided on the over-the-air connection between the client and the AP from different companies, and that was then already over this time. So I think we are close to achieve really what you just stated, but it might take still a few more quarters to get there.

Mark Patrick, Mouser
And I suppose it's not only about development tools, it's all about the testing and certification of whatever products come to market. So, do we have to get to a point where that kind of infrastructure is in place, testing houses are set up and you know that you can take a product and have it certified as Wi-Fi 7 compatible?

Bruno Tomas, WBA
Well, I must say that probably Wi-Fi brings one of the most successful certification studies globally. So when you buy a device that has the logo from Wi-Fi alliance, theoretically the air link at the protocol level, it will work, but it's a very fast innovating industry. So everyone tries to put the products out as soon as they believe they're ready for prime time. So certification in fact is due to the beginning of next year. But I mentioned that one of those trials, the chips have shown in real time over the air more than 5 Gbps throughput.

In fact, we have a real world success story where client chips showed in real time over the air not in the lab, plus 5 Gbps interoperability and they did not develop the product within the same R&D division. So that's really a good sentiment that even the companies have been learning and they are faster going to markets. I think you asked about deployments, so probably we could also bring that angle, Mark.

Mark Patrick, Mouser
Yeah, actually my next question really was based on enabling the development sector, the engineering sector, when do we think we'll see deployments? And we've got both, I guess device deployments to think about from the semiconductor vendors, but also support for those devices and product, consumer and enterprise product coming out.

Bruno Tomas, WBA
Yeah, so we always see a trend in the Wi-Fi market where residential moves fast. So that's where some of the demand here is. Products have been announced, in fact, Korea Telecom and Intel announced the first partnership to deliver Wi-Fi 7 to the entire carrier market. So that is now, in fact, being rolled out. But then if you think about other devices and use cases, we need to help, we need to do some set of partnerships and help them go to market. So I must share that here in the WBA, one of our main objectives for the next quarter, going into 2024, is to collaborate with the members to conduct field trials across verticals. These trials are open to any industry players and our history with these trials is that they're crucial. Eventually for the mobile device guys, the AP vendors, operators and service enablers to test the capabilities on key deployment scenarios and bring back the feedback to the standards folks, because that's the way we trade, we make the standard better and the end there are reports that are made available to the public and that builds up the confidence for the industry to deploy and move forward.

Mark Patrick, Mouser
So is that a situation where if an organization wants to be involved in that, they need to approach the WBA and become members of the WBA and part of the community?

Bruno Tomas, WBA
We really want Wi-Fi to succeed. So direct membership will not be required at this stage. So if you have a partner that is a member, we are open to work with all the ecosystems. So for instance, I mentioned one factory that is Mettis Aerospace in the UK is one of our flagship trials we did last year. And they were struggling. They could not get any age generation to work. And we were very happy that by organizing the trial and they testing some of the features, they really managed to cater to their use cases and some members working with them and us just delivered that puck successfully and eventually they adopted the technology.

Mark Patrick, Mouser
So that is I guess leading onto my next question, which was about business cases, and I'm aware of Mettis Aerospace, but tell us a little bit more about that without I guess revealing anything that they do they wouldn't like us to reveal, shall we say, but what has it done for them and what it's enabled them to, I guess have a competitive advantage in some way?

Bruno Tomas, WBA
Well, yeah, you are right. So they are really into the business of building missiles and components to airplanes. So there was all this process to get access to the facility, but it's very interesting when it comes to the business case. So in factory like this, every downtime matters. And I will always remember that when we were being explained about the critical components of that factory, there was one machine, one big press that could just blend tons of metal, that if that machine would stop, they would have hundreds of thousands of loss per hour. So really the objective for them was business continuity tracking and making sure they had the way in real time to operate, to monitor and just get the intelligence they needed from that factory. So I believe that will be a new business coming that will be a kind of consulting to make the deployments right to cover the critical infrastructure within the factory and then deliver a plan if these enterprises want to evolve to some type of mission critical type use cases. Of course, AMR is also a big one to automate the factory plant and floor. And if you think about Wi-Fi 7, again, the millisecond latency it can represent a few foots in terms of the actuation, but that matters because that's the difference between just saving the value chain or the supply chain or breaking some components.

Mark Patrick, Mouser
Time-sensitive networking - I think in that industrial environment and what you've described, for me, I think is that a real, what people might refer to as industrial IoT or Industry 4 use case, good to see that that real world example pull. Let's talk about something slightly different because of course people will be aware of 5G coming forward and we're talking about a new Wi-Fi generation. So how do you see the relationship between Wi-Fi and 5G? Is it for example, one of convergence or is it complimentary such as I know in my home office for example, I get very poor mobile phone signal, cell phone signal, so I use a Wi-Fi calling feature on my phone. So there's a great and very simple convergence between mobile and Wi-Fi technology there. What about things like that 5G services over Wi-Fi or 5G as a backhaul for Wi-Fi 7 developments, what do you see happening there?

Bruno Tomas, WBA
You just did what I typically ask folks to do when we are having this conversation, let's take our organization's hats and think about our daily life. So it's virtually impossible that we can live with only one wireless technology. So we want all, right? So we need Wi-Fi, we need 5G, we need IoT 6G comes even better. But I believe that it's more about conversions and there are a few ways of achieving that conversions, at least from the standard standpoint that are ways if you are deploying these technologies, that you can have mechanisms to do the interworking. So there is a policy mechanism to decide whether the user would have the always best connected experience in one or the other, or even sometimes aggregate those links. There are technologies like multipath where application developers can decide to blend both radios and deliver an enhanced experience. So I think all that is a conversion story.

Now I believe that one item that maybe the industry doesn’t often really take as a whole is the Wi-Fi calling success story. So maybe that's the most successful conversions story in the world, again for the wireless industry. So we did some maths and then counting with our members and there were more than 50 successful deployments of Wi-Fi calling integrated with the mobile operator core. So that means that you can go, you just use your regular Wi-Fi, and you access the backhaul of, by the time LT, now moving into 5G. So definitely. So all these latest and greatest tech, especially in crowded environments, and when you ask about the business, if we have a great Wi-Fi server and open roaming deployment in Manhattan, it makes perfect sense for an M and O to offload some of the users into that footprint and save some CapEx on their end. So we believe these trends will only continue to grow. There are a few success stories already coming in terms of delivering these combined 5G and Wi-Fi deployments. And we'll keep working on over the top approaches like open roaming ready today and more future looking 3GPP release 18 and 19 where you integrate at the core level.

Mark Patrick, Mouser
Excellent. Thanks Bruno.

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Mark Patrick, Mouser
So, when we think about applications that Wi-Fi 7 will enable, we often talk about gaming and how the increased bandwidth and reduced latency will enhance the overall experience. And of course that’s amazing. And while gaming is of course a huge industry, tens of billions of dollars, some might think of it as, I dunno, frivolous should we say as an application. And I can hear all the gamers now reacting to that. But what do you think are the new applications and sectors Wi-Fi 7 will enable things that will really make a difference in life generally aside from gaming?

Bruno Tomas, WBA
Well, I am glad you bring that because most of the times we are not able to innovate on the services side, but that has changed for the Wi-Fi. So there are a few trends. If I go into the more deployed ones right now there is something coming that is Wi-Fi sensing. So it's the ability for you with a deployed infrastructure to do some metrics - to compute movements within a certain area. So this allows a new swath of use cases from home monitoring to elderly care, even security based metrics and computation. So that's when that with more deployments, more pervasive, we believe will grow. I think healthcare over the years, we have tried to do some with apply some of the use cases like remote surgery, but the confidence was not there yet. So ultra-low latency will allow us to go into the hospitals and provide a more realistic solution for those guys.

And then the big trend I would say, if I were to nominate the words of trends for Wi-Fi during this year is location. So everywhere we see location programs being built, one of the reasons is because of what I mentioned on the AFC, every AP needs to locate itself. And the other one is that with more devices coming, so it's not only the smartphones, laptops, but also the security cameras, the smart plugs, we talked about a few connected devices. All those will allow us to have more location data being provided and do analytics on top of it. So I think that will be a big trend and maybe finally it's something we don't often mention, but emergency services. If you just think about some of the unfortunate event with the climate change, we have been seeing some fire, some flooding, and the authorities, they're looking into more solutions to compliment the first responder systems. And Wi-Fi with some of the new capabilities introduced is being positioned also as one of the technologies that will address and cater to the emergency services use cases. Mainly because if you have a fixed backhaul that is covered and not affected by a catastrophe, you can still operate some endpoints of Wi-Fi and allow the communication to flow. So that's when I would say our colleagues to monitor because that might be truly transformative if everyone has to deploy Wi-Fi and open it for emergency services can bring a new layer of usability.

Mark Patrick, Mouser
Yeah, very topical I think at the moment. Also within that then we're talking about emergency services - or you think about an access point generally – is there a way of prioritizing who gets the bandwidth?

Bruno Tomas, WBA
Yeah, so Mark, it's really to the point. So it's about prioritization, but more how can I have the cellular experience. I don't have a SIM card on my phone, but I can always call 911 or I can always use it for emergency purposes. So the Wi-Fi evolved to support something that is being called open rooming for emergency services, where there is a unique identifier that is part of the access point broadcasted network, so the SSID, but also the phones that are going to be shipped to the market, eventually they will have that code. So whenever there is an association that user will be able to connect and eventually get prioritized in terms of the activation it needs to do. So it's on the standard right now. We are going to bring it also to the FCC and we hope to have some trials early next year.

Mark Patrick, Mouser
Thank you for listening to this episode of The Tech Between Us to dive deeper into WiFi 7 and explore Mouser’s rich content on this subject, visit our Empowering Innovation Together page for videos, technical articles, and more at mouser.com/empowering-innovation.

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