Between existing and emerging use cases, the demand for reliable Wi-Fi isn’t going away. Learn why Wi-Fi testing today is critical for tomorrow’s wireless world

There are more than 16 billion wireless devices in the world today, driving $3.3 trillion in global economic value. The industry will ship an additional 4 billion Wi-Fi devices in 2021 alone.

This incredible growth is driven not only by existing use cases, but also emerging ones. From shopping malls and office buildings to factories and hospitals, reliance on Wi-Fi is pervasive and there’s a heightened priority to rigorously test Wi-Fi products before they ship.

Tech thought leader Diana Adams recently joined me to talk about key insights from Spirent’s new eBook, Testing Wi-Fi for High-Performance Use Cases. Watch the video below as we discuss how Wi-Fi testing today is critical for tomorrow’s wireless world.

Wi-Fi Testing Today Is Critical for Tomorrow’s Wireless World – Spirent

To learn more about Wi-Fi testing, download the eBook.

2021 has been a year that many are glad to finally see the tail-end of. No one would have expected what lay in store for the world when I was writing my predictions piece looking ahead at 2019. Almost two years since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and the world is still feeling its effect. The tech industry, like countless others around the globe, is still experiencing the impact. Some good and some bad. However, such times have also brought to light great perseverance, innovation, and bravery. But, with the end finally in sight, both myself and Cognitive Systems are excited for what 2022 has in store. As we look ahead, I am most excited to see WiFi technology and WiFi Sensing enabling a truly smart future for the home and helping set new standards for connected devices.

HOW CAN WE GET THE WIRELESS INDUSTRY BACK ON TRACK?
As I alluded to above, there were few left untouched by the pandemic. With all the challenges associated with fighting back, supply chain issues became one of the defining features of the last few years. The world had very much shifted to be focused on procurement; a challenge we will continue to see being prevalent over the next year and into 2023 as we attempt to get those supply chains back in gear for people to be able to deliver new hardware solutions or products.

Unfortunately, the challenges of delivering hardware to customers and the gradual ramp-up back to pre-COVID production volumes, are having a detrimental effect on technological innovation. WiFi 6 and WiFi 7 are very much the big-ticket items in the hopper for the wireless industry. Companies are already producing demos while chip design is ongoing. But this development process is being curtailed by the silicone and chip shortages needed to innovate within the typical timeline. For example, now you might have to order chips, in some cases, 18 months before you actually need them. Demand is just too great. In fact, right now, many delivery drivers are even struggling to fit all of their packages in one truck at a time. Shipping processes have had to evolve. And so, it’s clear that an emerging theme in tech this past year has been that disruptions to the supply chain are hindering the development and deployment of new technology. The delivery of new technologies is simply going to take longer as access to hardware remains the #1 problem.

I believe companies will have to innovate if they can’t deliver their hardware. They will have to take what they already have and try to improve on it some other way. The only logical way to really do that is through software. If you can’t deliver more products into the market because of procurement then you have to work with your available resources and improve through software upgrades instead. As well, companies will have to scale their timelines and look further ahead to avoid or best prepare for these types of challenges in the future. I predict that an increased focus on software solutions and hardware being built to accommodate software innovation will become necessary. Producers in tech will need to ensure that their product has enough processing power to support all this software innovation that is outpacing them currently. Luckily, these problems will eventually rectify themselves as we settle into a post-COVID reality and industries can finally pivot. But, it will fundamentally change how companies and entire industries approach planning and supply chain management.

WHO IS DRIVING THE FUTURE OF THE SMART HOME?
When the average user thinks about the future of the smart home, they’re probably imagining something from the Jetsons. It’s much more likely that in the future, the smart home will look similar to what we have now, instead of some radical futuristic change. Ultimately though, the future is currently being decided by the industry, not the user. As smart device adoption and ecosystem integration are still scaling up, we as consumers are still following the trends fed to us by connected device manufacturers based on what they think belongs in a smart home. I mean, many of us wouldn’t even consider our own homes smart, even if most of us own something like smart plugs, a voice assistant, a smart TV, etc. Since the industry seems to be driving the smart home, you can expect to see devices and products focused on more gimmicky solutions based on companies creating what they believe the consumer wants versus what they actually want. Right now, the biggest focus as spurred by consumption are entertainment and convenience, but the smart home will eventually peak at a point where users just don’t need anything else.

As the market becomes more saturated with connected devices, I expect brand-driven ecosystems to continue to be in demand, namely a combination of a central network based around one company (such as Apple or Google) combined with devices from third parties which easily work with that central brand. I think we will see this hit the market in one of two ways, either full packages of technology that work together or a variety of separate devices that lead to more organic growth such as how you now need the iPhone to control your Apple watch. Both have the potential to overcome current market challenges. Take for example a common choice to charge wearables at night. Now suddenly you have a gap in coverage during a critical time period. Companies need to think about devices such as a charging station that doubles as a tracker to fill that gap. Layer motion intelligence into the mix and you can add more context without more hardware. These large companies know that while they will be the central piece and likely the biggest benefactors, they need compatible third-party companies so they can offer these new features and services. They can’t and won’t be able to dominate all the different smart home/IoT industries. That’s why we see many of these larger players deeply involved in associations like IEEE and Matter who are pushing for standards and initiatives that will help them safely expose CSI to work with more tech partners.

WILL VOICE ASSISTANTS FINALLY MATCH HUMAN COMMUNICATION?
Voice assistants are easily one of the most common smart devices, whether that be through your phone, smart speakers, TV, or dozens of other systems that can be activated with a few simple words. They are used for a variety of reasons such as setting timers or alarms, playing music, making phone calls, etc. However, the problem with these devices is that they require very specific input to work well. For example, in order to trigger a Google Home, you would have to say the phrase “Hey Google” and then speak a pre-defined selection of options. If you mess up these phrases or typical commands then the voice assistant usually can’t recognize what you want. That’s why there’s still much growth in the future of voice assistants – one that will see greater flexibility and modularity. Eventually, voice recognition will evolve into something closer to talking to an actual human being that is able to recognize nuances in conversation and understand conversations like a human would. And I expect that we could easily see that become a reality within the next 4 years or so.

My main takeaway from the bright future of voice recognition is that it closely mirrors what I see to be the future of WiFi Motion. When voice assistants were still in their infancy, many linguistics experts believed the technology would never take off. Now they’re everywhere. Voice recognition grew as a result of companies being willing to invest in the technology and expand functions that had seemed previously impossible. This is the same type of critical mass needed for motion intelligence to achieve some of these far-out functionalities. As well, WiFi Motion needs time to learn through people using it. This is similar to how voice recognition can listen to changes in audio frequencies and thus develop a much wider and more substantial set of training data to understand, for example, how “dog” can be said with different intonations or accents or even languages. WiFi Motion doesn’t yet have the same extensive data set to know that maybe you’ve stood up from a chair. But that doesn’t mean it won’t be able to in the future. The more the market and general interest grow, the more we will be able to build out further applications.

WHAT’S NEXT IN HEALTHTECH: AGING IN PLACE?
I want to grow old at home. In fact, 9 out of 10 U.S. adults would prefer that to a retirement home or assisted living facility. It’s only natural to want to live where you feel the most comfortable. New technologies are making a future where this is more realistic. This desire is only growing, especially as developing technologies are emerging to make this desire a real possibility. COVID, specifically, has also shown us how vulnerable our long-term care system is. But, the last two years have created a new opportunity for tech in seniors’ homes. Simple changes brought upon by the pandemic, such as Zoom calls or FaceTiming with elderly loved ones, are opening their minds and onboarding them to the benefits of technology. Going forward, technology companies will need to keep this new, growing industry in mind as they create tech that can fit the expectations of seniors. In particular, accessibility, ease of use, and quick setup are going to be key markers for successful tech in this market. As well, preventative care is currently and will continue to be a huge trend, and it’s something that Cognitive has designed our entire caregiving solution around. The opportunity to identify illnesses or injuries before they become critical and need hospital intervention is going to become even more important. As the huge baby boomer generation continues to age, they will eventually overwhelm our hospital systems if the industry doesn’t focus on developing technology and products to support early intervention before something becomes critical.

That’s why I think there is a very palpable appetite for supporting technology and services allowing people to age in place gracefully. You can even see that from the number of startups in this space alone. I believe that aging in place will not only be the norm but also the most affordable option versus a retirement home. After all, the more normalized this concept becomes the more affordable it will be as well.

WHAT’S NEXT FOR COGNITIVE?
While the world around us is changing at often times a blistering speed, the one thing that remains is that people want innovative and helpful technology. WiFi Sensing has the real potential to not only contribute to many of these forecasts, but truly change the WiFi and smart home industries. I’m excited to see WiFi Sensing become accepted on a larger scale through standardization and thus become essential in homes. I believe that WiFi Motion will be standard in 5 years, meaning motion capabilities in nearly every router or gateway.

New Wi-Fi standard will provide breakthrough speed and performance for video streaming, gaming, and virtual reality applications

SAN JOSE, California — Dec.15, 2021 – LitePoint, a leading provider of wireless test solutions, today announced it is collaborating with leading chipset maker MediaTek to deliver turnkey design validation test solutions for MediaTek’s Wi-Fi 6/6E Filogic chips. The collaboration will enable MediaTek customers to simplify and speed test results for this new family of high-performance connectivity chipsets.
Wi-Fi 6/6E provides breakthrough connectivity experiences delivering multigigabit, low latency Wi-Fi and reliable connectivity for applications like streaming, gaming, AR/VR and more.

Through this strategic collaboration, LitePoint worked with MediaTek to create a version of LitePoint IQfact+ test automation software that enables MediaTek customers to test their Wi-Fi 6/6E designs with a complete and easy to use test flow. IQfact+ software works with the LitePoint IQxel family of test systems to provide MediaTek customers with chipset-specific test development software that enables rapid design validation through volume manufacturing with minimal engineering effort.

“LitePoint continues to drive innovation in test solutions for Wi-Fi products and we are pleased to be working with MediaTek to enable their customers to bring Wi-Fi 6/6E devices to market,” said Anna Smith, Vice President Worldwide Sales, LitePoint. “IQfact+ and IQxel offer MediaTek’s customer base a complete and easy-to-use testing platform for rapid design validation.”

“As the market changes and more people are working and studying from home, many applications rely on stable networking service, like video conferencing and 4K streaming. MediaTek’s Filogic family delivers fast, reliable and always-on connected solutions to give consumers a smooth, fast and interactive connected experience with incredible video quality,” said Alan Hsu, Corporate Vice President & General Manager, Intelligent Connectivity at MediaTek. “LitePoint’s testing platform will help our customers quickly and easily validate our Wi-Fi 6/6E solutions to speed up the time to market for the next generation of devices.”

Technical Details
LitePoint’s IQxel fully integrated test RF PHY test platforms include signal generation and analysis for Wi-Fi connectivity, meeting the needs of product development and high-volume manufacturing. The IQxel product family includes support for WLAN IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax/be with a frequency range from 400 to 7300 MHz for validation in the 6 GHz band, as well as a full range of connectivity standards such as Bluetooth 5.x, Zigbee and Z-Wave
To learn more about LitePoint’s IQxel product family, please visit: https://www.litepoint.com/products/iqxel-mw-7g

Welcome to Plume IQ, our monthly reveal of data-driven intelligence and customer-focused insights from more than 1.2 billion connected devices managed in the Plume Cloud.

What’s driving WiFi 6 device deployments?
WiFi 6 arrived to a wave of excitement, promising increased throughput, improved latency, power savings and enhanced security, all maximized when paired with cloud-control. Two-years following the arrival of the first devices, we dipped into data from the Plume Cloud to look at the latest deployment growth rates:

• U.S. leads Europe: Over the 6-month study period, WiFi 6 deployments grew by 63% compared to 45% in Europe. Do U.S. consumers refresh their tech more often?
• Tablets returned the highest growth: The most common WiFi 6 devices in Plume homes were—in order—smartphones, laptops, and tablets. However, in terms of WiFi 6 growth rates, tablets led with 107% growth rate, followed by smartphones (55%), and laptops (50%).
• Apple is the prime mover: Three brands are driving WiFi 6 device growth in Plume homes: Samsung (27%), Google (39%), and Apple, which is setting the pace with a massive 375% growth rate over the study period.

Today, Edgecore and Aprecomm announced a collaboration to provide AI Enabled WiFi services to their WiFi deployments. This partnership is aimed at providing measurable improvement to Wi-Fi network performance and reliability.

The solution combines Aprecomm award-winning Wi-Fi AI Engine, VWE with Edgecore’s wireless access solutions and ecCLOUD Controller to enable service providers and enterprises to optimize the performance of their Wi-Fi networks and maximize reliability. Edgecore’s WiFi Portfolio is integrated with Aprecomm’s Engine going forward to maximize customers benefits.

“Today’s humongous demand on WiFi connectivity and Internet usage poses a greater challenge in terms of managing networks and achieving QoE. Aprecomm is addressing these challenges by bringing Assistive Network Intelligence with products like Virtual Wireless Expert. We are very excited to partner with Edgecore and bring these offerings to all their existing and future customers “ said  Pramod Gummaraj, CEO of Aprecomm.

“We are happy to announce our partnership with Aprecomm to provide a solution to maximize the user experience. Edgecore integrated with Aprecomm’s AI Engine will help our customers to experience a reliable and high-performance WiFi connectivity” said Enco Liew, Vice President of Edgecore Networks.

Aprecomm’s distributed Intelligence approach provides E2E Insights and Inferences on the Network Performance leveraging AI Algorithms to rapidly scope and provide actionable steps which can be automated. Aprecomm also provides Evidential Intelligence with performance trends, SLA degradations with much needed reasoning.

The combined solution will assist service providers and Network Administrators with precise measurement of Customer Experience  both from Wired and Wireless perspectives and provide them with actionable recommendations analyzing the millions of WiFi devices in the network.

Edgecore enterprise and service provider clients will have access to Aprecomm’s solution through the ecCLOUD Controller. The optimization engine scales across the entire network to provide an immediate performance improvement.

About Aprecomm
Aprecomm is an industry game-changer with an AI-enabled Software Stack to understand Customer Wi-Fi Experience. Aprecomm offers cloud-based automated solutions to help enterprises, ISPs, and TSPs improve their business standards through higher reliability, reduced opex, and speedy ROI. For more information, visit www.aprecomm.ai.

About Edgecore
Edgecore Networks Corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of Accton Technology Corporation, the leading networking ODM. Edgecore Networks delivers wired and wireless networking products and solutions through channel partners and system integrators worldwide for Data Center, Service Provider, Enterprise and SMB customers. Edgecore Networks is the leader in open networking, providing a full line of open 1G-400G Ethernet OCP Accepted™ switches, core routers, cell site gateways, virtual PON OLTs, optical packet transponders, and Wi-Fi access points that offer choice of commercial and open source NOS and SDN software. For more information, visit wifi.edge-core.com or contact sales@edge-core.com.

Contacts:
Kamalraja Sugumar
kamalraja.sugumar@aprecomm.ai 
+91-95662-72615

Communications service providers (CSPs) used to rest easy knowing they were equipped to meet their customers’ needs. Want a cable package? They’ve got it. Ready to bundle your phone and internet services? Easy. Eager to record your favorite shows? There’s a device for that.

Today, customer behaviors—and needs—have changed in ways only a few imagined just a decade ago. As people connect more devices to their home networks and rely on those networks more often for remote work and study, customers are demanding higher quality from their digital, in-home experiences. As a result, CSPs are under increased pressure to provide more value and keep up with an ever-changing market. Meaning, they’re facing some sleepless nights with few sheep in sight. The good news is that it doesn’t have to be that way. In a recent interview with Intelligent Briefings about how smart home experiences have evolved, Plume CCO Tyson Marian broke down some of toughest challenges CSPs are facing and the solutions they need to future-proof their businesses—no matter how often customer expectations may shift.

WCI provides comprehensive solutions for senior living staff and residents. Today, there is a new demand for senior living technology systems. Here’s how we’re helping advance technology systems for senior communities.

Encouraging exceptional care experiences
ImpruviX provides high-performance networks for a seamless technology experience. ImpruviX ensures residents and staff are constantly connected through reliable connectivity and smart room technology. Furthermore, we focus not only on resident comfort but staff supplementation as well. Our software features a technology monitoring system so senior living staff can assist residents remotely, reducing the time spent in individual rooms.

Ease of accessibility
Technologies create a safe space for your residents. ImpruviX creates a smart space for seniors, combining ease of access with improved security. ImpruviX Surveillance, powered by Eagle Eye Networks, monitors restricted areas with best-in-class access control integrations and is fully HIPAA compliant. The VMS is a simple, scalable, and cost-effective way to monitor for property patient care, protect valuable assets, and ensure staff is meeting all health and safety standards.

Smart technology is essential for resident safety and security
ImpruviX enables senior living staff to provide superior service with remote monitoring systems. Our monitoring system can alert staff when a resident goes beyond a set boundary or moves about the room during a fall-risk situation. Additionally, the ImpruviX security system can alert staff if an approaching visitor is running a fever and can provide analytics for how many people are in and out of the building.

Furthermore, the increased accessibility also provides superior legal security. Our monitoring system is HIPPA compliant and can save video content for a customizable set of time, ranging from days to years. Our monitoring system ensures your staff is protected.

At WCI, we provide comprehensive care solutions for our customers and clients.
For more information on our senior living capabilities, visit https://wcitv.com/impruvix-networx/.

The following article was authored by our Head of Marketing, Susan Gallotti, about how she used WiFi Motion to help her mother age in place.

My mom has always been set in her ways. She was a woman of routine who would do the groceries every Saturday at 8 A.M like clockwork and vacuum the main floor every afternoon at 3 P.M. just before us kids and our dad would come home. It was hard for me to have that picture of my mom in my head change as she got older. I always knew the day would come when I had to take care of my mom, but I didn’t realize exactly how hard that would be. While being a caretaker can be extremely rewarding, it is also exhausting and draining to manage alongside other conflicting priorities, and for me personally, my own stress and anxieties. Working for Cognitive at the time, I was lucky to have access to WiFi Motion, which helped reduce the stress of becoming a caretaker for my mom.

As a true product of her 1950s upbringing, being the perfect housewife for my mom meant being the caretaker of the family and home. Her top concerns were always organizing the home, her sanctuary, and keeping her family healthy, happy, and well fed. So naturally, everything in our home had its right place. When I was younger, I can remember being constantly trapped in a cycle of grabbing a new water glass, placing it down somewhere, and coming back only to find it missing because my mom put it back in the sink. Rinse and repeat. And dinner was always sacred for her. Never having worked a day in her life, my mom loved being able to have a delicious, warm meal ready when the family came home at the end of the day. If I was lucky, it would be my favorite: spaghetti and meatballs.

As my mom got older, much of this reality changed for her. Her children had grown up and moved away to start families of their own and her husband, my father, unfortunately passed away. Suddenly, my mom, who thrived off of being a homemaker, now faced the reality of aging alone in her home without others to tend to. For someone like my mom, who was a bit of an introvert and a homebody, being left to one’s own devices for the majority of her days left her feeling without purpose. The woman who had always seen herself as the caretaker of the family no longer had family at home to take care of. She was the kind of person that was great at taking care of others, but not so great about caring for herself. So, she never complained or voiced any concerns about her comfort or health to me or my siblings. You see, my mom never wanted to be a burden. Admitting she needed help was the last thing she wanted to do. This would result in her refusing to call a repairman or a family member if the plumping or appliances in her house needed work. Instead, she’d just let the problem sit for months until the next time it happened to conveniently come up on one of our visits from out of town.

Taking Stress Out of the Equation
And for a time, that’s how things were in our family. More and more, my sister and I found ourselves pulled in a million directions, attempting to juggle demanding careers and raising children. I developed the worrying realization that my mom was quickly approaching the age where she would need a more watchful eye and I wasn’t sure how I was going to make add taking care of her to my already overwhelming list of responsibilities. Also knowing my mom, I wasn’t even sure that she would accept the help.

Since my mom was living alone, my sister and I were constantly worried about her. We weren’t sure if she was getting enough exercise, if she was safe, or even if she was eating right. However, since we were managing our own busy jobs, all we could do was regularly check-in with her through phone calls. My mom has always been bad with technology though. Being used to rotary phones and fearful about telemarketing calls, she had the frustrating habit of leaving the phone off the hook, no matter how many times we reminded her not to. My sister and I would spend hours, sometimes days, trying to reach her by phone, trying to juggle our work and family commitments to figure out who had the time to drive to check on her.

One time, we had been unable to reach my mom all night, but my sister and I had busy work days with looming deadlines, so both of us spent the day stressed and anxious, trying to re-organize commitments so that one of us could drive over to check in on her. Imagine how frustrated we were when we showed up only to see our mom absolutely fine at home, with the phone off the hook again. Annoyed that we had to reschedule meetings or fall behind on projects, we’d let out our irritation on our mom, even though she didn’t know better. When all that emotion finally boiled over and our mom was left looking guilty over yet another innocent mistake, we knew we couldn’t keep barging in on her, putting our lives on hold, and having everyone feel so frustrated. The guilt-ridden exchanges lessened once we got WiFi Motion set up in her home. It would be as simple as my sister texting me to say “I can’t reach mom.” I would open up the Live Motion view on the WiFi Motion app and immediately be able to relay back to her that there was movement near the kitchen less than an hour ago. That would prevent the emotional tsunami from even getting underway. It freed us to continue about our days without all the stress of letting our imaginations get the best of us.

Fearful of change, my mother’s worst-case scenario was to move out of the house that she had helped build and lived in for almost five decades. As well, my mom has always been a bit fearful about going out into the normal everyday world. As she aged, she wanted less and less to go grocery shopping or even to the hairdresser. But on the flip side, mom was scared of living alone. She would obsessively check that the garage door was closed or that the windows and doors were locked.

We needed something that would allow her to age in place confidently and comfortably while providing my sister and I with peace of mind. We wanted to take a proactive approach to keeping her safe, happy, and healthy that would ultimately break the vicious cycle of anger, guilt, and frustration. Parents shouldn’t have to be accountable to their kids, after all.

This emotional turmoil I experienced was only made worse by how busy my life was at the time, and how stressed that made me about being a caregiver. I was working a full-time job, commuting over an hour and a half each day, juggling the shifting schedules of my kids’ extracurriculars and my husband’s shift work, keeping my dog happy and healthy, and all while having to remember to check in on my mom regularly for mundane things such as taking out the garbage or buying groceries. A simple phone call from my mom saying “the fridge died again” would be enough to send me into a panic attack in the corner. It forces you to feel angry at the responsibilities thrust upon you, but then guilty for feeling that way.

I never expected to be taking care of a parent while I was still raising my own children. This is the part of being a caregiver that no one wants to talk about. When you’re overwhelmed in your personal or professional life, you don’t want to have to deal with a parent’s demands on your time but then that leaves you feeling guilty about not being a better child or losing your temper at your parent. The anxieties with caring for an aging parent inevitably bleed into other relationships in your life such as your spouse, children, or siblings as you have to keep more and more plates spinning at the same time. Simply put, being a caretaker is an emotional rollercoaster. It’s rarely convenient, often fraught with awkward conversations, frays on your last nerves, and pulls on your deepest heartstrings. Those feelings can take a serious toll on your own health.

Luckily, at the time I was working with Cognitive and was immersed in their WiFi Motion technology. Dealing with all of this in my personal life made me that much more passionate about the possibilities behind our technology. While its eldercare applications were yet to be explored, I could see the potential for a simple system that would allow my sister and I to remotely check on my mom and gain insights into her daily life. No more frantic check ins. No more anxieties about her safety. We wanted to be able to catch problems before they became too serious. Especially since we knew that mom could be obstinate when it came to asking for help or being truthful about her daily life.

Bringing WiFi Sensing into the Home
I would describe my mom as having been technologically inept. Before bringing WiFi Motion into her home, she didn’t even have an internet connection. In a way, setting up the router and pods for the monitoring system was a soft onboarding for her into the world of technology. Sure, she didn’t fully understand everything you could do with a connected device but she knew it was active in her home. After all, there was no device she had to manage or wear. She didn’t even need to understand the technology for it to work. She could go about her day and my sister and I could look into her well-being with Live Motion.

While this setup was great for quick check ins, it also helped us learn things about my mom that we would never have thought to ask about. For example, we noticed that she wasn’t leaving the house very often – even though during our visits she would tell us that she took regular walks. Or, we noticed less movement in the kitchen. Cooking had always been such an important thing for my mother, especially as a mom and wife. Now living alone, she had lost that sense of purpose when it came to cooking. A simple thing like knowing that she was not spending as much time in the kitchen was enough to prompt me to buy my mom some new frozen dinners that she would have never purchased for herself, helping her discover some new meals that were interesting to her and easy to make so she’d be more likely to eat a regular and balanced diet. It was these tiny insights about her behaviour that provided us with information to make small changes that supported her living at home but weren’t confrontational or would threaten her independence.

Giving Mom Space to be Herself
We wanted to make sure our mom was still living the way she wanted without feeling like a burden. After all, she saw herself as the caretaker, not the other way around. With WiFi Motion, we could get back to what mattered to my mom – being the rock of the family and home. Visiting my mom was no longer this big emotional tsunami that would leave people more hurt than before. We could focus on just spending time with our mom and enjoying her company now that we had a bit of visibility into her health and activity. We were finally able to get back to spaghetti and meatballs and leaving glasses where they shouldn’t be; the latter trait being one that I recently discovered is perhaps inheritable. After being chastised by one of my own kids for twice putting his water glass into the dishwasher when he wanted to use it as a hydration reminder, I couldn’t help but think of my mom and smile. It’s those happy moments that I am glad dominate my memory of her in her old age. Miss you, mom.

LitePoint’s Rex Chen is the author of this blog, which is based on his presentation at the RCR Wireless News Editorial Webinar titled Minding the mid-band: C Band and CBRS efforts.

Wireless spectrum has become one of the most important resources to stay connected because spectrum is the utility for all wireless communication. Mid-band spectrum, specifically in the 2 GHz – 4 GHz range, is playing an important role in 5G, both globally and in the U.S which include:

• Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS), 150 MHz of spectrum in the 3550 MHz to 3700 MHz band in the U.S. It previously was used by the U.S. government until the FCC identified it as spectrum that could be used for broadband services.
• C band refers to frequencies between 4000 MHz and 8000 MHz that are now being used for satellite communications, RADAR systems and other unlicensed use case such as some Wi-Fi enabled devices.

In 2020, the U.S. C Band spectrum auction raised more than $81 billion, demonstrating the immense value and potential of mid-band spectrum for wireless communication. Each mobile network operator has a different mid-band strategy based on spectrum holdings – both in terms of how much spectrum they own and whether they need more low or high band frequencies.

Mid-band spectrum has the advantage of known transmission characteristics that is similar to existing 4G frequency bands. Mid-band frequencies are considered “goldilocks spectrum” because they have characteristics of good coverage (similar to low band frequencies), and fast data rates (similar to high-band frequencies). But there are challenges to these RF bands due to how the band has been divided for its incumbent users. MNOs then need to devise spectrum sharing and spectrum usage strategies.

Smartphone design using mid-band spectrum can support world phones that have global cellular coverage capabilities. In many instances, it has a contiguous spectrum, and the short wavelength allows innovations like MIMO between 8 and 16 spatial streams. This enables an ideal degree of spatial multiplexing, where operators can use beam forming techniques to target users spatially – increasing the capacity.

Why Mid-Band is so Valuable
Deployments for 5G mid-band is occurring across multiple countries including the U.S., Europe, Korea and China starting in the past year and a half. This trend will continue as MNOs start to work with higher frequency ranges of the spectrum.

Mid-band spectrum provides the opportunity for a contiguous spectrum with the potential for channels that are 200 to 400 MHz wide. This requirement presents new challenges for filters and other RF components and requirements that must be met by both mobile devices and base stations. LitePoint is seeing instance where in actual deployments, carriers aren’t using an entire capability because they’re still testing to make sure it works for across-the-board deployments.

Increase in remote work, video conferencing and other high bandwidth applications means that uplink capacity is becoming more important than ever. This in turn is leading carriers and chipset makers to re-think how they mix and match spectrum resources. There are inherently many use cases for 5G that may result in making deployment challenging – but the variety of device requirements has made mobile network carriers understand that mid-band is necessary as part of 5G growth moving forward.

To gain more insights on 5G mid-band status and wireless test challenges in this spectrum, as well as hear what other industry leaders have to say, watch this editorial webinar. You can access it on the LitePoint webinar page.