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WiFi has become inextricable from daily life. But it hasn’t always been like that. Standards and adoption in the WiFi space today took years of research, iteration, and certification. While some key work has already been accomplished, there is still more that must be done for WiFi Sensing to continue along the road to standardization. But what exactly is it going to take for WiFi Sensing to become fully standardized and adopted in the mass-market? As ubiquitous as WiFi is for communications, so too will WiFi Sensing be for the modern home and beyond. But to pave the road for such a future, core standards must be developed to innovate and unify.

Standardized WiFi Sensing by 2024
The story of WiFi Sensing began about a decade ago with the publication of key academic research. Back then, utilizing WiFi signals for more than device communications was just a concept. This work was largely enabled by specialized research systems. With hardware too expensive to sell as a consumer WiFi product, WiFi Sensing remained largely in the academic space. Some work also began to utilize either unofficial third-party firmware patches or vendor-released research tools, which were specific to a small subset of consumer WiFi chipsets. During this time, it was difficult to get access to all the information necessary to develop a successful WiFi Sensing product.

To Each Vendor Their Own
To facilitate mass adoption of WiFi Sensing, there needs to be an effective transition from academic research to industry integration and application. Not only did it require proven commercial potential, key industry growth and scalability, it also needed to be a part of mainstream WiFi chipsets. But this big step from conceptualization to execution requires proven commercial potential and key industry partnerships for growth and scalability.

Cognitive was founded out of the desire to build a powerful but low-cost and easily scalable device that could leverage insights about changes in radiofrequency signals. That, however, would require us to design our own chip: the R10. The core advantage of the R10 was that it was mostly software-based in its interface with RF signals and so could be used for many different applications, simply by writing new software. By accessing channel state information not typically exposed in commercial chipsets, we were able to develop and refine our motion detection algorithms and build our consumer proof-of-concept product, Aura Home, the first solution of its kind in market which launched December 2017 and sold through Amazon. However, for the technology to be successful alongside pre-existing WiFi chips, we knew we would have to partner with key chipset companies like QualcommBroadcomOnsemi, and MaxLinear. But through this experience, it became apparent that without a standard, each vendor would implement things in a slightly different way, presenting a core challenge and requiring significant time and resources to design a technology capable of operating with all the different possible implementations. Standardization is important to enable vendor compliance and ensure compatibility among different vendors. Service and technology providers rely on utilizing a fixed set of features to efficiently and reliably provide their solutions. This is where WiFi Sensing standardization comes in, bringing all industry experts together to discuss and establish a baseline of key processes.

These efforts towards standardization will also have a noticeable positive impact on customers. With the development of new features and capabilities for WiFi Sensing, ISPs can deliver innovative consumer products to increase customer satisfaction through motion insights and analytics. Standardization is also extremely important to consumers because they want confidence that all the different products they purchase will simply work together and behave as expected. The 802.11bf standard is especially important for consumers as it opens up the possibility of endless potential applications in the home by using common devices instead of expensive, dedicated motion sensing hardware. WiFi is what it is today because there has been a standard or blueprint that describes exactly how anybody can build the components necessary to interact and function with the rest of the network. For WiFi Sensing to achieve its true market penetration potential, this blueprint needs to first be developed. Additionally, each product that receives the Wi-Fi logo and stamp must go through the certification program run by the Wi-Fi Alliance. Consumers look for that logo and stamp as a sign that the product not only has been designed with the IEEE 802.11 standard in mind, but has also gone through compliance testing.

How WiFi Motion is Leading the Journey
Innovation requires continuous, dedicated effort with the investment of key industry partners to see mass adoption and scalability — Cognitive’s WiFi Motion entered the market February 2020 as a camera-free home monitoring solution and is now available from 79 ISPs in over 65 countries. As WiFi Sensing continues along its journey, standardization will be the catalyst for endless new advanced features and services that redefine how the world uses WiFi. But the road doesn’t end there. WiFi Sensing needs companies like Cognitive with the technological, artificial intelligence, and algorithms expertise to create a robust network to provide faster adoption and greater accessibility. ISPs around the globe are already leveraging WiFi Motion to introduce their customers to the unlimited possibilities of WiFi Sensing. By joining WiFi Motion’s journey early, these companies are uniquely positioned to take advantage of new features as standards are developed. Only through collaboration will WiFi Sensing become a robust option for every wireless network and allow WiFi Motion to grow into a foundational ecosystem for WiFi Sensing.

The Road Ahead Is Clear: A Bright Future for WiFi Sensing
While the road to standardization can often seem nebulous, there are some key steps that aid the process in setting up a timeframe. The first step is to get interested people together to develop a standard. This was officially achieved when IEEE 802.11’s TGbf formed in October 2020. The next step is to develop the standard, which TGbf is currently working on, where the first draft is targeted to be released in March 2022. As per the IEEE process, the entire standard work being performed by TGbf is expected to be fully completed by September 2024. Once there is a written standard, a certification program is required to ensure all different vendor implementations are compliant with the standard. This will be completed by the Wi-Fi Alliance (WFA) as a parallel branch. Finally, it will take time for certified products to make their way into the hands of consumers, – but once they do, Cognitive’s technology will be ready to leverage the latest capabilities.

Through our involvement with these associations, we have gained a vast amount of knowledge as to what is necessary to build a successful sensing system. We also have a deeper understanding of some of the technological limitations that the current state of sensing presents. We want to continue to contribute to this field, encourage collaboration, and ultimately ensure there are tools available to help push the limits of WiFi even further in the future. Standardization is a naturally slow process but crucial for building a strong foundation for WiFi Sensing and future WiFi-based services. Cognitive wants to make sure that the standards being created not only have a complete feature set for modern challenges but are also positioned to gain widespread adoption in the future.

The Major Players in WiFi Sensing Standardization
The work towards standardization is ultimately a collaborative process only possible through the combined expertise of various organizations, companies, and individuals invested in the future of WiFi. There are three key players in this space: IEEE 802.11 Task Group bf (TGbf), the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA), and the Wi-Fi Alliance (WFA).

At the IEEE level, 802.11 is a group that owns, maintains, and develops the medium access control (MAC) and physical layer (PHY) specifications for WiFi. The MAC and PHY layer specs describe features, capabilities, and mechanisms that govern the operation of the lowest layers. Further, TGbf will produce an amendment to existing 802.11 standards that will ultimately build upon what already exists to enhance WiFi Sensing. It is important to understand that TGbF is an amendment, not a complete redesign of what already exists. In fact, within the scope of the TGbf project, there will not be any PHY layer changes or modifications for sub-7 GHz operation or descriptions. By utilizing IoT devices already connected to a home’s native network, a larger motion sensing coverage area can be created without requiring additional traditional security devices that might be more intrusive.

The WFA, on the other hand, works with specifications developed by the IEEE to create and test a certification program to ensure each implementation conforms to the standard. Components that pass all the defined tests and conform to the required standards receive the trademark WiFi logo and can be marketed and sold as such. The process of certification is extremely important as it quickly establishes trust with vendors, providing confidence that all due diligence has been performed. Specifically, for consumers, that means that they can feel confident in taking home a certain product that has passed specific levels of testing.

Finally, the WBA consists of a group of network operators and technology innovators who want to offer their customers seamless connectivity (i.e., allowing roaming between partner networks, billing exchanges, etc.). Utilizing their collective industry and research expertise, this group is focused on enhancing services, applications, connectivity, and customer experiences. Cognitive first got involved with the WBA when we were looking for the right platform to develop our technology that would benefit its members through various working groups. At the time, the WBA was the perfect fit, as they had a large network operator base and a number of technology providers. Together, we established the Wi-Fi Sensing Group, where we have been working to help not only introduce the technology, but also raise awareness of its current and future capabilities, and ultimately help with getting people ready for adoption. Part of the group’s work has also been helping publish Wi-Fi Sensing focused whitepapers, which highlights technological gaps that with standard support could further improve the technology. To date, the WBA has published three whitepapers in order to advance the field and stimulate critical thought around the technology. Topics include recommendations for early adoption of WiFi Sensinghow to evaluate a WiFi Sensing system, and factors that can impact the performance of a WiFi Sensing system (will be publicly available in spring 2020).

STOCKHOLM, Sweden, January 20, 2022 – Bumbee Labs, the Scandinavian-based global leader in providing footfall data and analytics via anonymized Wi-Fi signals, has partnered with DOTS Tech Systems, a globally renowned Internet of Things solutions provider from UAE.

 

This collaboration enhances DOTS ability to deliver Wi-Fi based and privacy secure footfall data to their smart buildings, smart retail, airport and other transport hub verticals. In particular, the retail industry will benefit greatly from their new offerings with added data features such as the ability for shopping center management to understand and respond to peaks and flows in customer footfall more effectively and understanding important consumer behaviour. Features such as consumer dwell time, movement patterns and conversion rates in stores will help businesses to more accurately tailor their offering to encourage more visits, longer visits and ultimately more sales.

The partnership will bring Bumbee Labs into Middle Eastern territory for the first time, expanding their leadership from the European markets into further areas of the world. Already providing footfall data to some of the largest names in their home base of Sweden, such as Telia, Bluecom, IMAS, Springboard and CK Delta has inspired Bumbee Labs to explore and offer services to more diverse markets.

The physical retail industry is in dire need of additional data in order to be able to compete with online shopping. Bumbee Labs’ GDPR secure method can provide a number of important KPI’s using existing Wi-Fi installations, which reduces the need for additional hardware investments. 

“We are excited to work with DOTS as our partnership in the UAE. Their innovation in delivering working solutions within smart city services (and the Internet of Things domain) will be merged with our expertise in providing anonymized data from smart phones to create an enhanced service that will accelerate the growth of the retail industry sector,” says Karl Samuelsson, the CEO of Bumbee Labs.

The CEO of DOTS Dheeraj Singh adds, “We are continually committed to delivering innovative and cutting-edge solutions for Smart Cities. As a pioneer in the space of Internet of Things (IoT) enabled Smart City applications, DOTS have a proven track record of delivering solutions that meet and exceed client’s expectations of digitization on the ground. We are very excited by this collaboration with Bumbee Labs as their data expertise will complement our IoT know-how providing an unparalleled service to our clients across several verticals, industries and markets in the Middle East.”

The partnership between Bumbee Labs and DOTS will enhance the retail industry of the Middle East by improving the accuracy of data collected from physical spaces. With this innovative collaboration, both companies expect to see a rise in ownership of sales from retailers again following a pause in growth during the last two years of the pandemic. The idea of monetizing Wi-Fi is now expanding to all markets around the world that want to stimulate the retail industry.

About Bumbee Labs 

 

Bumbee Labs measures visitor flows by capturing anonymized Wi-Fi signals in smart phones and can do measurements in both outdoor and indoor environments. Visitor flows are measured anonymously, and the method is unique in being approved by a European Court of Law. Today, Bumbee Labs’ solutions also work outdoors in, for example, town centers. This is only the beginning of the digital alteration that we are working on to make towns and physical shopping even more effective and profitable. Discover more at www.bumbeelabs.com. Follow us on LinkedIn.

 

About DOTS

DOTS Tech Systems is a prestigious, Dubai-based smart solutions company whose mission is to develop cutting edge smart city technologies that deliver unbeatable, tailored IoT offerings for their customers. DOTS have solutions across numerous industries and verticals and within the context of the retail sector they are currently serving some of the best retail brands of the Middle East. Learn more at www.dotstechsystems.com. Follow us on LinkedIn. 

 

Contact persons for further questions relating to the partnership: 

DOTS:
Mohammad Foudeh, Sales Director, +97 155 2940707, mohammad@dotstechsystems.com

Bumbee Labs:
Karl Samuelsson, CEO, +46 707 588971, karl.samuelsson@bumbeelabs.se

 

For PR enquiries please contact: 

DOTS:
Rebecca Lightbody, B2B Engagement & Digital Marketing, DOTS, rebecca@dotstechsystems.com

Bumbee Labs:
Amanda Herzog, Marketing Coordinator, Bumbee Labs, amanda.herzog@bumbeelabs.se

New Field-proven Sales Team to Fuel Expansion in Asia-Pacific (APAC)

SYDNEY and IRVINE, Calif., Feb, 16, 2022 – Morse Micro, a fabless semiconductor company reinventing Wi-Fi® for the Internet of Things (IoT), today announced it has expanded its presence In Asia and added three executive sales team members. Morse Micro Asia will support our local teams and customers across Asia’s growing economies including Taiwan, greater China, Korea and Japan.

The new executive team will focus on growing the company’s Wi-Fi CERTIFIED HaLow customer base in their respective markets, engaging and developing strategic Wi-Fi module and reference design partners, and expanding distribution channels, among other key activities.

“This is an important milestone in Morse Micro’s international growth and reflects the rate at which customers across the Asia-Pacific region are adopting Wi-Fi HaLow for a host of low-power, long-reach IoT applications,” said Michael De Nil, co-founder and chief executive officer at Morse Micro. “The collective breadth of experience of these new members to the Morse Micro team will help increase our customer base and market penetration in the strategic APAC region as we look to continue to grow our global presence as a market leader in innovative Wi-Fi CERTIFIED HaLow solutions.”

Key local team leaders:

  • Derek Park, Vice President of Business Development and Country Manager, Korea: Park has 25-years of experience in the semiconductor and telecommunications industries, and has served in product marketing and sales positions at NXP Semiconductors, Broadcom and InvenSense (TDK).
  • Eddie Chang, Country Manager, Taiwan and Greater China: Jui-Yang (Eddie) Chang has over 15 years of experience in Wi-Fi chip sales in Taiwan and greater China for Broadcom and later Cypress, and Infineon. 
  • Kenji Tanaka, Country Manager, Japan: Tanaka has 25 years of experience in semiconductor sales in both Japan and the United States, most recently with Microchip Technology and Wolfspeed.

Morse Micro’s comprehensive Wi-Fi HaLow portfolio includes the industry’s smallest, fastest and lowest power IEEE 802.11ah compliant SoCs. The MM6104 SoC supports 1, 2 and 4 MHz channel bandwidth. The higher performance MM6108 SoC supports 1, 2, 4 and 8 MHz bandwidth and is capable of delivering tens of Mbps throughput to support streaming HD video. These Wi-Fi HaLow SoCs provide 10x the range, 100x the area and 1000x the volume of traditional Wi-Fi solutions.

Using narrow frequency bands in the unlicensed sub-1 GHz spectrum outside the highly congested 2.4 GHz traditional Wi-Fi band, the IEEE 802.11ah based Wi-Fi HaLow signals penetrate obstacles more easily and can extend beyond 1 km, connecting far-flung IoT devices across residential, retail, office park, campus, warehouse and factory environments. Developed specifically for the IoT and supporting the latest enterprise grade WPA3 security, a single Wi-Fi HaLow access point (AP) can connect up to 8,191 devices, simplifying network deployment and reducing costs.

Morse Micro is sampling the smallest, fastest and lowest power Wi-Fi HaLow SoCs and modules for customer evaluation. Contact us today.

About Morse Micro
Morse Micro is a fast-growing fabless semiconductor company developing Wi-Fi HaLow solutions for the Internet of Things (IoT) market that can reach 10x the range of conventional Wi-Fi technology and last many years on a single battery. The company was founded by Wi-Fi pioneers and innovators, Michael De Nil and Andrew Terry, joined by the original Wi-Fi inventor Prof. Neil Weste and wireless industry veterans, whose teams designed Wi-Fi chips into billions of smartphones. Headquartered in Australia with offices in China, India and the U.S., Morse Micro’s strong and diverse system team, portfolio of IP and patents, enables Wi-Fi HaLow connectivity across the complete IoT ecosystem, from surveillance systems and access control to industrial automation and mobile devices, allowing connected devices to reach farther. www.morsemicro.com

Public Wi-Fi deployments are on the rise. Governments across the Worlds has realized the need for connectivity at every corner of the country that will provide opportunities to create new jobs, improve agricultural productivity, remote education and enhance local public services. In US, FCC’s have setup Emergency Connectivity Fund (ECF) and Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) for $7.17 and $20.4 billion respectively that will guarantee higher internet speeds and will help schools and libraries to provide tools and services to their communities. Similarly, India announced PM-WANI scheme, aims to increase internet connectivity across the country by implementing a decentralized system of public access points to bridge the digital divide. 

The challenges of deploying digital connectivity in rural and remote areas are not limited to just longer distances and rough terrain – the challenge is post deployment to operate and sustain the models to provide a reliable connectivity which decides the success or failure of these projects. 

 Aprecomm & HFCL joint Whitepaper explores these challenges faced and innovative measures to provide reliable connectivity in a rural-Wi-Fi deployments. In it we analyze: 

  • What Wi-Fi service delivery challenges do Service Providers face in Public Wi-Fi Deployments 
  • What are the complexities and expenses incurred by Service Provides to operate a Rural WiFi Network.
  • How QoE (Quality of Experience) measurement can act as Automated Feedback System leading to Proactive Maintenance 
  • How Aprecomm’s VWE (Virtual Wireless Expert) can aid and its uniqueness
  • Opex Saving obtained by using products like Aprecomm VWE

    Download the White Paper for more technical information & insights: “Reduced OpEx and Assured SLAs in public Wi-Fi Deployment through intelligent QoE measurement”

HFCL inks distribution pact with Ingram Micro

HFCL’s product portfolio includes WiFi 5 and WiFi 6 access points, point-to-point and point-to-multi point unlicensed band radios, L2 and L3 switches and specialised antennas which are designed, developed and manufactured in India keeping in view the global specifications

HCFL is among the largest suppliers of telecom equipment to telecom service providers, internet service providers and public sector units. (File Photo: Reuters)

NEW DELHI: HCFL on Tuesday signed a distribution agreement with Ingram Micro India Pvt. Ltd.  for its ‘IO’ line of products.

HFCL’s product portfolio includes WiFi 5 and WiFi 6 access points, point-to-point and point-to-multi point unlicensed band radios, L2 and L3 switches and specialised antennas which are designed, developed and manufactured in India keeping in view the global specifications.

Ingram Micro is known for supporting and enhancing the reach of technology solutions for maximising adoption and consumption. It has an established network of more than 20,000 partners, 30 offices and 2,000 associates across the country.

“We are delighted to embark on the journey of our distribution network expansion with Ingram Micro India Private Limited, which has a stronghold in channel distribution in India and SAARC countries. The strategic goals of Ingram also align with ours, hence building the potential for greater synergies,” said Mahendra Nahata, managing director, HFCL.

HCFL is among the largest suppliers of telecom equipment to telecom service providers, internet service providers and public sector units.

“We are pleased to associate with HFCL as it is one of the fastest-growing Indian telecom companies. HFCL offers flexible, customised and reliable Make in India access solutions,” said Navneet Singh Bindra, vice president and chief country executive, Ingram Micro.

As the demand for 5G and Wi-Fi 6 continues to grow at a rapid pace and their standards become increasingly entwined, there has never been a better time to look at the possibility of convergence between the two technologies.

In this executive briefing, STL Partners interviewed parties from both the supply and demand side of 5G and Wi-Fi 6 for their feedback on the outlook of convergence in the wireless markets. They discuss the ongoing debate between convergence, coexistence, and competition, the view from key industry bodies, and more:

  • Clarity on the definitions of convergence and coexistence
  • Market context for convergence and types of customers requesting convergence solutions
  • Two models for convergence: resilience and switchover and associated use cases
  • The barriers carriers face for convergence to be widely accepted

Wi-Fi Alliance® 2022 Wi-Fi® trends

More than 18 billion devices in use, 4.4 billion shipping in 2022

Austin, TX – January 20, 2022 – Wi-Fi® users demand more efficient, reliable, and secure connectivity in 2022. 6 GHz regulatory approvals, remote-hybrid work scenarios, and complex connectivity systems in home, enterprise, and Internet of Things (IoT) environments will only continue to drive demand for high capacity, low latency Wi-Fi. In 2022, nearly 18 billion Wi-Fi devices will be in use, and more than 4.4 billion devices will ship this year.1 As Wi-Fi momentum mounts, Wi-Fi Alliance® looks ahead at four Wi-Fi trends expected in 2022.

Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E further adoption in homes and enterprises
Wi-Fi 6 reached 50 percent market adoption more quickly than previous Wi-Fi generations, fueled by demand for high quality Wi-Fi and more efficient, reliable connectivity in phones, tablets, and access points (AP). Additionally, enhanced performance, low latency, and greater power efficiencies allow Wi-Fi 6 to satisfy diverse needs of IoT in unrivaled ways. Increasing availability of 6 GHz worldwide coupled with Wi-Fi 6E interoperability certification created the foundation for a diverse Wi-Fi 6E ecosystem, as more than 350 million Wi-Fi 6E devices will enter the market in 2022.2 In 2022, Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E will become more commonplace in daily life, both in homes and enterprises. Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E solutions for PCs and notebooks and mesh systems have already been introduced, and we expect many more home networking, automotive, IoT, and augmented/virtual reality (AR/VR) solutions supporting Wi-Fi 6 to make their way into users’ hands. Wi-Fi 6E access points will be deployed in home networks to meet the needs of bandwidth intensive, latency sensitive applications, and more service providers will recognize the tremendous speed and capacity benefits Wi-Fi 6E delivers to customers by making Wi-Fi 6E home gateways and access points part of their subscription plans.

Wi-Fi Alliance advances AFC framework
Global momentum for Wi-Fi 6E increases daily, and there is a sustained impetus to make the full 1200 MHz of spectrum in 6 GHz available for Wi-Fi in more countries. In 2022, Wi-Fi Alliance will continue to lead development of the Automated Frequency Coordination (AFC) framework to ensure a diverse ecosystem of AFC service providers necessary to maximize adoption of outdoor and standard power Wi-Fi 6E in regions requiring AFC. The AFC system, already adopted into the 6 GHz regulatory framework in Canada and U.S., is also being considered by regulators in other countries. Wi-Fi Alliance has already announced the release of specifications and test plans for AFC system implementation, and more than a dozen potential AFC service providers have expressed interest to the Federal Communications Commission. This year, expect Wi-Fi Alliance to continue to maximize the adoption of standard power and outdoor Wi-Fi 6E and accelerate delivery of Wi-Fi 6E benefits.

Wi-Fi meets diverse IoT requirements
The global smart home market will reach more than $53 billion in 20223, fueled by consumer desire for connected appliances, security systems, and smart speakers that help save energy, time, and money. As companies invest trillions of dollars in IoT and consumers add more connected devices to their homes, Wi-Fi will further transform the smart home market in 2022. Wi-Fi has long been the technology of choice for IoT, and an expanded Wi-Fi IoT portfolio can now better meet diverse smart home connectivity needs. Wi-Fi 6 reinforces Wi-Fi is a premier option for IoT; Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E include features such as orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) that can improve performance in dense environments while target wake time (TWT) reduces battery consumption and makes Wi-Fi an ideal solution for sensor-based devices. Recently introduced Wi-Fi CERTIFIED HaLow™ delivers long range, low power Wi-Fi and enables a variety of new, power-efficient use cases for residential IoT and IIoT environments, as well as retail, agriculture, healthcare, smart home, and smart city markets. All Wi-Fi CERTIFIED devices require strong WPA3™ security, with the highest protections for IoT environments.

Wi-Fi networks reach new optimization levels
The growing number of devices and users relying on video conferencing, voice-over-IP services, X Reality (XR) applications, and high definition (UHD) streaming at home and in enterprise networks have placed additional strain on both network managers and service providers. The additional data traffic and advanced applications used on today’s Wi-Fi networks require a new level of network optimization. The Wi-Fi CERTIFIED portfolio of network optimization technologies has seen numerous advancements, resulting in Wi-Fi with greater mobility, enhanced network efficiency, and improved network visibility and management in home and enterprise networks in 2022. Optimizations including Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Easy Connect and Wi-Fi CERTIFIED EasyMesh now deliver more secure, smart, and efficient Wi-Fi home networks. Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Optimized Connectivity improves mobility when roaming within and across Wi-Fi networks and between Wi-Fi and cellular networks. Wi-Fi CERTIFIED QoS Management™ brings robust service delivery and high quality Wi-Fi experiences, while Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Data Elements helps service providers and network managers better manage complex Wi-Fi networks. In 2022 we will also see more Wi-Fi deployments by service providers in dense, city and public areas that support Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Passpoint®, a foundation of OpenRoaming framework, which raise the bar for speed, security, and reliability.

For more insight into 2022 Wi-Fi trends from Wi-Fi Alliance members, and to watch 2022 Wi-Fi trends videos from AirTiesArubaASSIABoingoBroadcom Inc.CommScopeExtreme NetworksHFCL Limited, Intel CorporationNetExperienceonsemiQualcomm Technologies, Inc., please visit: https://bit.ly/2022WiFiTrends

1 IDC Research, 2022
2 IDC Research, 2022

Statista, 2021

About Wi-Fi Alliance® |  www.wi-fi.org
Wi-Fi Alliance® is the worldwide network of companies that brings you Wi-Fi®. Members of our collaboration forum come together from across the Wi-Fi ecosystem with the shared vision to connect everyone and everything, everywhere, while providing the best possible user experience. Since 2000, Wi-Fi Alliance has completed more than 70,000 Wi-Fi certifications. The Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ seal of approval designates products with proven interoperability, backward compatibility, and the highest industry-standard security protections in place. Today, Wi-Fi carries more than half of the internet’s traffic in an ever-expanding variety of applications. Wi-Fi Alliance continues to drive the adoption and evolution of Wi-Fi, which billions of people rely on every day.

Follow Wi-Fi Alliance:
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facebook.com/wificertified
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New Delhi, January 5, 2022 – HFCL Limited (HFCL), leading telecom equipment manufacturer and technology provider, has announced powering its network offerings with Artificial Intelligence (AI) based Analytics, partnering with Aprecomm, the leading AI-powered Wi-Fi analytics technology provider. Having successfully deployed and tested the AI based solution in its PM-WANI deployments, the Company now plans to integrate these analytics capabilities for a wider range of its products and solutions. Henceforth, HFCL’s entire IO product portfolio will have seamlessly integrated AI-powered network analytics, enhancing the experience for network service providers as well as the end users.

With enhanced AI powered analytics, HFCL’s wireless solutions ensure a consistent and optimal wireless network performance by monitoring customer experience on a real time basis and automatically calibrate the Wi-Fi network parameters through its cloud management platform cNMS. The automatic network optimization in real time is achieved using Aprecomm’s VWE AI engine duly integrated in all HFCL IO Wi-Fi products.

The network operators and administrators get a well-equipped dashboard covering a range of network parameter analytics including event analysis, deployment assist, measure user index, measure user experience through correlation, insights, etc.  The newly added feature will help HFCL enable all their customers – Carrier, Enterprise, and Service Provider – to offer enhanced connectivity experience to millions of end users.

HFCL has already deployed this solution in all its PM-WANI deployments, monitoring thousands of clients on daily basis and enabling any issue resolution with a click of a button. It has ensured enhanced Quality of experience (QoE) using Aprecomm Evolv engine, which provides AI suggestions to resolve deployment issues that otherwise require human intervention. HFCL plans to offer this AI solution to its existing customer for over 100K existing deployments and plans to make it available for all its new customers by default.

Speaking about the collaboration Mr. Mahendra Nahata, Managing Director, HFCL said, “I am elated with the partnership with Aprecomm. Integration of Aprecomm’s AI-powered solutions to our platform enables HFCL to offer enhanced user experience with added reliability and security to our customers. This partnership will help us to build resilient networks for people worldwide in all kinds of deployments. We are looking forward to expand this integration to even our switching portfolio.”

Mr. Jitendra Chaudhary, Executive President, HFCL commented, “We are glad to empower all our existing and future customers with an added level of network experience, reliability and security with the AI based networking. We strongly believe this will bring a new revolution in quality of experience for end users.”

“Having reliable Internet connectivity has become extremely essential in today’s world. Programs like PM-WANI are driving us closer to this dream. Network Intelligence and Self-Management will play vital roles with this Increased Connectivity. We are very pleased to partner with HFCL and bring this intelligence to their Wi-Fi portfolio and beyond”, added Pramod Gummaraj, Co-Founder and CEO, Aprecomm.

“Wi-Fi deployments are quite agile and are constantly changing, managing them has always posed the greatest challenge among enterprise networks. HFCL APs by integrating Aprecomm VWE is now able to correlate and curate terabytes of data on these networks, providing real-time insights and recommendations, making the customers Wi-Fi network more fluid.” says Guharajan Sivakumar, Co-Founder & CTO, Aprecomm.

About HFCL
HFCL Limited is a leading technology enterprise engaged in manufacturing of high-end Transmission and Access Equipment, Optical Fiber, Optical Fiber Cables (OFC) and is specialized in setting up modern communication network for Telecom Service Providers, Railways and Defence.

The Company has state-of-the-art Optical Fiber and Optical Fiber Cable manufacturing plants at Hyderabad, Optical Fiber Cable manufacturing plant in Goa and in its subsidiary i.e. HTL Limited at Chennai along with FRP and ARP Rod manufacturing plant in its subsidiary at Hosur.

The Company’s in-house Centre for Excellence in Research located at Gurgaon & Bengaluru along with invested R&D Houses and other collaborators at different locations in India and abroad, innovate futuristic range of technology products and solutions. Some of the newly developed products through R&D are Wi-Fi Systems, Unlicensed Band Radios, Switches, Electronic Fuses, Electro optic devices, and Video Management Systems. There is a suite of products under development, which include Software Defined Radios, Routers, PON, 5G Transport and Radio products, Wi-Fi 6 access points, Point-to-multipoint Radios and Ground Surveillance Radars among others.

Visit www.hfcl.com for more information.

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 enhance Wi-Fi performance.

 

For further details please contact:

HFCL Limited

Manoj Baid/Amit Agarwal

Email:

manoj.baid@hfcl.com

amit.agarwal@hfcl.com

Contact: 011 3520 9400

Adfactors PR

Poonam Saney Makhija/ Shivangi Sinha

Email:

poonam.saney@adfactorspr.com

shivangi.sinha@adfactorspr.com

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Support for uplink capacity and greater power management benefit dense enterprise and IoT deployments

Austin, Texas – January 5, 2022 – With adoption of Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 growing steadily, Wi-Fi Alliance® is evolving Wi-Fi 6 certification to meet increasing demands from today’s Wi-Fi® use cases. Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 Release 2 is now available, bringing new features that support increasing device and traffic density to deliver greater performance and power management with Wi-Fi devices and applications. Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 Release 2 adds support for uplink multi-user multiple input, multiple output (multi-user MIMO) to deliver smoother streaming services and video conferencing, faster uploads, and more reliable gaming. Additionally, three power management features improve Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 power efficiency, benefitting enterprise, industrial, and Internet of Things (IoT) applications. New features apply across all bands supported by Wi-Fi 6 – 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz and 6 GHz – bringing capacity, efficiency, coverage and performance benefits to residential, enterprise, and large public networks. Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 delivers the best experience with advanced applications, while providing strong WPA3 security and promoting interoperability between Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ devices.

“Wi-Fi delivers advanced capabilities that have driven tremendous global innovation, paving the way for massive growth in Wi-Fi applications that users rely on every day,” said Edgar Figueroa, president and CEO, Wi-Fi Alliance. “Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 Release 2 furthers Wi-Fi’s evolution to address today’s market needs, and supports more high-performance Wi-Fi scenarios with greater capacity, efficiency, and reliability.”

Wi-Fi uplink performance

Nearly two billion Wi-Fi 6 devices will enter the market in 20221, and today’s Wi-Fi supports increased device density, more bandwidth-hungry applications, and surges in uplink data demand in residential and enterprise environments. Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 Release 2 adds support for uplink multi-user MIMO, enabling devices to upload content concurrently to an access point (AP). Wi-Fi networks are supporting more upstream activity, with users frequently uploading work documents and videos to social media sites, and the trend toward greater uplink data consumption will further increase as more IoT devices send data via Wi-Fi to the cloud.

Uplink multi-user MIMO improves network performance and reduces latency while video conferencing, uploading documents, and any other mission-critical applications that require greater uplink capacity. Wi-Fi 6 deployments are increasing worldwide in large office buildings, public arenas, education campuses, high rise dwellings, and mass transportation hubs, and advanced Wi-Fi 6 capabilities drive innovation in the countless applications that rely on Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 Release 2 delivers comprehensive multi-user MIMO implementation to deliver strong Wi-Fi performance even in challenging environments with many Wi-Fi devices.

Wi-Fi power management

Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 Release 2 includes new features that bring power management improvements for devices in enterprise and IoT deployments. New low power and sleep mode enhancements – including broadcast target wake time (TWT), extended sleep time, and dynamic multi-user spatial multiplexing power save (SMPS)– enable power optimization of multiple battery powered devices. This trio of features allow multiple devices to receive extended sleep periods, allow for specific “wake up” times for transmitting data, and enable dynamic shut off of redundant receive chains to optimize power consumption in Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 Release 2 networks. Power management features benefit smart home, smart city, and Industrial IoT (IIoT) environments, and enable Wi-Fi to further its role in delivering IoT applications.

“Wi-Fi 6 adoption has outpaced previous Wi-Fi generations, driven by demand for better Wi-Fi connectivity in phones, tablets, PCs and access points to support high-performance, low latency uses in both residential and enterprise environments. Technological advancements continue to bring speed and efficiency benefits to a wide number of users and use cases, most importantly, in areas with high densities of users or client devices connecting and transferring large amounts of data,” said Phil Solis, Research Director at IDC. “Reduction in chipset costs and advancements in Wi-Fi 6 power management will also help shift the IoT space to more broadly adopt Wi-Fi 6 in the coming years.”

Industry support for Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 Release 2

“Today’s service providers want Wi-Fi 6 as part of a managed Wi-Fi solution to deliver the best possible connected home experience for consumers. It’s clear that the number of connected devices is increasing at an accelerated rate, and trends such as the ‘enterprization’ of the home, UHD video, telemedicine, and online gaming are all placing more demands on home networks. Wi-Fi 6 can address these demands, and Airties offers an extensive Wi-Fi 6 portfolio, powered by Airties Edge software for Wi-Fi 6 gateways and extenders.” – Metin Taskin, CTO, Airties

“Broadcom is pleased to have its Wi-Fi 6E access point and client device reference designs included in the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 Release 2 test bed. The wide proliferation of Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E devices is already creating new experiences for the consumer. The Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 Release 2 certification program, which we are happy to be a part of, is designed to carry this momentum forward.” – Vijay Nagarajan, Vice President of Marketing for the Wireless Communications and Connectivity Division, Broadcom

“The breadth of new features that Wi-Fi offers consumers requires constant updates and sometimes staged releases to get products to the market. We applaud Wi-Fi Alliance for continuing to drive this phased process and the latest introduction of Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 Release 2, bringing powerful new features like uplink multi-user MIMO to Wi-Fi 6.” – Charles Cheevers, CTO, Home Networks, CommScope

“Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 was a game changer for IoT applications and Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 Release 2 extends these innovations even further. Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 Release 2 enhancements for TWT, uplink multi-user MIMO, and Extended Sleep Time allow for long-life battery-operated devices that also provide the added range for not only whole home coverage but whole property coverage including outdoor cameras, lighting, energy management systems, and sensors. Infineon’s AIROC™ Wi-Fi family of products support Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 Release 2 features, which coupled with advanced range and robustness improvement capabilities, improved power management, and a comprehensive security framework, delivers cutting edge solutions for IoT applications.” – Sivaram Trikutam, Senior Director, IoT Compute and Wireless, Infineon

“We would like to thank Wi-Fi Alliance for enabling the industry to ramp new Wi-Fi technologies through certification programs which help ensure device interoperability, and we are delighted to have the Intel® Wi-Fi 6E AX210 product be part of their latest test bed. New Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 Release 2 features like uplink MU-MIMO, coupled with new high-speed channels in the 6 GHz spectrum for Wi-Fi 6E, will help networks scale in their ability to deliver faster, more responsive Wi-Fi experiences as the number of devices continues to exponentially grow.” – Eric A. McLaughlin, VP of Client Computing Group, and GM of the Wireless Solutions Group, Intel Corporation

“With the demand for greater responsiveness and performance required by new disruptive, untethered real-time immersive experiences, Wi-Fi Alliance certification is crucial to ensure robust interoperability and rapid adoption of Wi-Fi 6 Release 2 devices. We’re honored that our WAV600-2 product family was selected as an access point test bed device for Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 Release 2 and that MaxLinear chipsets will empower the next generation of broadband platforms for multi-gigabit video, gaming, and other demanding low-latency services launching this year.” – Doron Tal, Vice President, Broadband Access, MaxLinear

“The Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 Release 2 program brings a number of improvements to high density wireless networks. We will see tangible advancements in uplink performance, power and enhanced range, unlocking new applications and use cases for residential, industrial and enterprise users. As part of the test bed of chipsets for Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 Release 2, MediaTek’s Filogic family provides fast, reliable and an always connected solution to help drive the Wi-Fi industry forward as we all rely on connected devices more than ever before.” – Alan Hsu, Corporate Vice President & General Manager of MediaTek’s Intelligent Connectivity business

“As one of the first companies to be certified for Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 Release 2 and to be included in Wi-Fi Alliance’s interoperability test bed, NXP continues to play a leading role in helping Wi-Fi Alliance innovate and drive the adoption of Wi-Fi 6. With Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 Release 2, Wi-Fi Alliance is proactively meeting the growing performance demands of advanced IoT applications that require significantly greater capacity and increased power efficiency both today and tomorrow.” – Larry Olivas, VP and GM of Wireless Connectivity Solutions, NXP Semiconductors

“There is a fundamental shift in how we work and play, with effective connectivity becoming critical for seamless transitions between our physical and virtual worlds. onsemi congratulates Wi-Fi Alliance’s timely introduction of Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 Release 2. This further helps improve the end user experience via uplink MU-MIMO and power efficiency optimizations, expanding opportunities for smoother and more reliable video, gaming and IoT applications.” – Irvind Ghai, vice president of product marketing, Wireless Connectivity and Signal Processing Division, onsemi

“To ensure productive and reliable connectivity while working, playing, and learning remotely, the demand for a better approach to uplink data has never been greater. Uplink MU-MIMO, a key feature of Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 Release 2, is designed to deliver in every environment. Qualcomm’s end-to-end solutions enable customers to deliver networking, IoT and mobile products that meet the moment, while deploying leading technology.” – Rahul Patel, SVP & GM, Connectivity & Networking, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc

1 IDC Research, 2021

Munich, Germany, and Tel Aviv, Israel – 5 January, 2022 – Infineon Technologies AG (FSE: IFX / OTCQX: IFNNY) and Deeyook today announced their collaboration on location solutions. The location-as-a-service (LaaS) company has invented and patented an award-winning tracking solution to determine indoor and outdoor locations of items, assets, and employees. Both companies fuse Deeyook’s ultra-precise, innovative algorithms into Infineon’s best-in-class, low power AIROC™ Wi-Fi® portfolio to enable an accurate, passive, ubiquitous, and efficient location solution.

Deeyook redefines indoor/outdoor location technology through innovation in wireless signal processing, applicable to incumbent Wi-Fi/4G/5G MODEM firmware versions. The firmware extracts angles of wireless transmissions (“Direction Finding, DF”), a first of its kind in the world of commercial wireless tracking. Deeyook’s tracking capabilities are ultra-precise, providing location information within 10cm/4in, passively exploiting the install base of 1.7 billion wireless access points worldwide.

“There are many challenges when companies implement real-time location systems, primarily because tracking solutions, such as RFID, are not really ubiquitous. This is particularly acute with GPS, which has many shortcomings,” said Gideon Rottem, CEO and Co-Founder of Deeyook. “We created Deeyook to address these challenges – technology that is ubiquitous and can track things with the utmost precision indoors, outdoors and in bad weather. We are excited to work with Infineon because its AIROC Wi-Fi portfolio is reliable, power efficient, and they are the IoT market leader.”

“Infineon’s mission is to make the world an easier, safer and greener place with our technologies through smart, connected devices,” said Sivaram Trikutam, Senior Director, IoT Compute and Wireless, Infineon Technologies. “These new IoT solutions support multiple location tracking technologies. Previously, Wi-Fi was not considered a viable option due to its power demands, while additionally real-time locating systems (RTLS) deployments required businesses to utilize custom solutions with costly infrastructure, engineering, and labor-intensive installation.”

Deeyook’s solution paved the way to solve all these problems. Embedded in the next-generation chip firmware, it has the potential to be a market leader in RTLS. With this collaboration, Infineon continues to expand its role as a key Industry 4.0 solution vendor to the world’s largest corporations.

About Deeyook
Deeyook is a patented, wireless-based firmware solution that offers precise location as a service. The firmware is self-learning, ubiquitous, ultra-precise (~10 cm), passive and low power, allowing absolute indoor and outdoor position determination. Deeyook’s solution, based on a proprietary, patented angle-measurement technology, won first place at the HiStart Innovation Forum. It also won first place at the Ruhr Summit Corporate Challenge pitch. Based in Tel Aviv, Israel, Deeyook is a privately-held, venture-backed company.

Media Contact Deeyook

Scott Rosenblum, LEVEL PR

scott@levelpr.co, +1 646-776-1222