Choosing the right WiFi setup can be tricky, so before we dive in, lets go over some basics to make…
November 23, 2020 · 3 min read
Compliance to local regulations, such as FDA 510k certification and IEEE/ANSI Wi-Fi C63.27 standard in the US, require medical device manufacturers to ensure the functionality and safety of their devices through rigorous testing. In addition, healthcare facilities must test their Wi-Fi network regularly to:
A joint cybersecurity advisory, coauthored by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) was issued on Oct 28, 2020, and shared the following findings:
Similar concerns were echoed by the INTERPOL Secretary General Jürgen Stock in early 2020:
“As hospitals and medical organizations around the world are working non-stop to preserve the well-being of individuals stricken with coronavirus, they have become targets for ruthless cybercriminals looking to make a profit at the expense of sick patients.”
Unfortunately, there has been an increased number of cases, which resulted in various forms of services interruptions at hospitals and clinics, even to an extent that critically ill patients had to be re-routed to other facilities, globally. With this backdrop, it is more vital than ever that healthcare providers assess their network’s vulnerability, perform network penetration testing, including compliance testing of Wi-Fi security protocols (e.g. WPA3, WPA2) and web authentication like secured use of Captive Portals.
As Wi-Fi coverage becomes mission critical for patient care and workflows, it is important to ensure healthcare provider Wi-Fi networks are up to the tasks. Yet improving and optimizing Wi-Fi network and device performance for unique healthcare provider deployment scenarios can be complex.
Learn about the latest test solutions for Wi-Fi turn up services and solutions specifically designed with healthcare providers in mind, including emulating hospital environments in a lab.
Have you ever wondered how your laptop, cellphone, or other mobile devices connect to the internet? “Through Wi-Fi”- that’s the most obvious answer. It is, but then how does Wi-Fi communicate with our devices? Well, the quick response is via radio frequencies, and we’ll jump into more detail in just a bit, along with insights on the much anticipated 6 GHz spectrum and what it means for your Wi-Fi experience.
Restricted to the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands in recent years, we have reached the point where there are now more Wi-Fi networks in a building than radio stations available to listen to in a city. In April of 2020, the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) announced its approval to allocate an uncharted fresh spectrum, the 6 GHz band, to reduce pressure from current frequency bands while delivering high speeds.
Well, what makes the 6 GHz band different?
The number of devices connected to Wi-Fi in homes and public areas has significantly increased over the last decade, especially in this era of home automation and IoT. Current frequency bands are not sufficient to cater to growing bandwidth requirements. With the new 6 GHz band, more throughput is available for reasons including an increased number of non-overlapping channels and greater bandwidth.
There is a limit to the number of channels each band has, which are limited further by the number of non-overlapping channels. These non-overlapping channels are essential in reducing signal interference between devices, ultimately resulting in slower wireless speeds.
The 2.4 GHz band has 11 channels with only three non-overlapping channels (1, 6, 11); therefore, in crowded areas where many devices are connected, signal interference will result in slower internet speeds.
The 5 GHz band overcomes the weaknesses of 2.4 GHz and is ten times wider than the 2.4 GHz band with 24 non-overlapping channels, making it even better. However, some channels of 5 GHz have been in use for the government and the military, so in reality, there are only eight non-overlapping channels available to the public.
The introduction of 6 GHz includes 14 non-overlapping 80 MHz channels, all for public use, reducing the opportunity for co-channel signal interference and ultimately give you better wireless speeds.
The new 6 GHz band will be adding 1,200 MHz of extra bandwidth, meaning users can utilize the 40 MHz and 80 MHz channels plus the newly available 160 MHz channel widths. It is recommended to use smaller channel widths despite reduced throughput to reduce co-channel interference; however, the 6 MHz band overcomes this with extra space on the wireless spectrum. To put this into perspective, 5 GHz band can only support two non-overlapping 80 MHz channels or a single 160 MHz channel, while the 6 GHz band can support fifteen 80 MHz channels and seven 160 MHz channels. This means much less channel overlap and much more bandwidth!
Similar to how the 5 GHz band has a shorter ranger than 2.4 GHz, higher throughput, a more significant number of channels, and higher bandwidth come at the cost of more considerable signal attenuation in the new 6 GHz band; this is where Mesh Wi-Fi comes in. In a mesh Wi-Fi system, the central router and multiple mesh points may be installed throughout a large space to increase wireless 6 GHz coverage. However, unlike the signal extenders, the units form one seamless and unified blanket network that broadens reach and connectivity strength. When roaming, your device maintains a connection to a single SSID without hiccups in connection, giving you the full potential of 6 GHz Wi-Fi around any space.
6 GHz Wi-Fi delivers 1.2 Gbps at even 7 meters away from an access point with obstructions.
Use Cases:
The development of 6 GHz and Wi-Fi 6 alone are grand achievements in this new age of Wi-Fi, and combining the two to become Wi-Fi 6E is game-changing for the tech world and the economy. Wi-Fi Alliance* statistics show that the value of Global Wi-Fi will increase by up to $3.47 trillion by 2023, and unlocking 6 GHz Wi-Fi will lead to even more significant economic contributions and a better-connected world.
Wi-Fi 6E delivers a considerable increase in network efficiency and capacity for dense population centers. Wi-Fi 6E will immediately impact network performance in crowded places such as stadiums or apartment buildings. With the global increase in fibre internet coverage, the necessity of Wi-Fi 6E will increase to leverage the full capacity of gigabit broadband connections.
Much like how there is not much 8K video content available, it’s not as beneficial yet to purchase an 8K television when you can’t use it to its full potential. Similarly, the biggest issue with purchasing Wi-Fi 6E routers is that there are only a few devices on the market capable of using its Wi-Fi 6 features or utilize the 6 GHz band. The few devices available on the market now are using a prototype version of the new standard. In 2021, markets will see an influx of 6E chips for commercial use. With that being said, devices compatible with Wi-Fi 6E will be hitting the mainstream markets within the next few years.
With a completely new spectrum unlocked, we are sure to see many innovative products being released in the future.
November 17, 2020 · 4 min read
A recently published Spirent eBook on the impact of COVID-19 on the Wi-Fi ecosystem discussed the effect of underlying factors such as the economy, business, government and consumer-behavior on Wi-Fi deployments and testing. While certain Wi-Fi market segments such as large public venues (LPV) and hospitality are still struggling to recover, the healthcare industry is facing altogether different challenges.
According to a recent report from Frost and Sullivan (April 2020), “Telehealth market in the US is estimated to display a staggering seven-fold growth by 2025, resulting in a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 38.2%. In 2020, the telehealth market is likely to experience a tsunami of growth, resulting in a year-over-year increase of 64.3%.”
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines Telehealth as the “delivery of health care services, where patients and providers are separated by distance. Telehealth uses ICT for the exchange of information for the diagnosis and treatment of diseases and injuries, research and evaluation, and for the continuing education of health professionals.”
“Wi-Fi 6 helps solve the different challenges the healthcare industry is facing.”
Wi-Fi has been the preferred wireless technology of choice for decades in hospitals and clinics, globally. This is primarily because Wi-Fi offers technical advantages in indoor environments, and often, it’s the most cost-effective option for healthcare providers. As a result, an increasing number of medical devices enabled with Wi-Fi technology are entering the healthcare industry each year, ranging from simple applications to mission critical real-time applications (e.g. ubiquitous access to patient medical records).
With stringent regulatory requirements such as FDA 510k certification for product introduction in the U.S., patient safety and privacy concerns (e.g. HIPAA in the U.S., GDPR in Europe), and the need to provide patient care around the clock (24/7/365), it is understandable that new technology adoption takes longer for the healthcare industry. However, the various new features and promises offered by Wi-Fi 6, are providing a great motivation for healthcare providers to think seriously about upgrading their devices and networks.
Wi-Fi 6 offers several benefits over legacy standards such as Wi-Fi 5/4. Key features include Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) for Downlink and Uplink (DL/UL), Multi-user Multiple Input and Multiple Output (MU-MIMO) for DL/UL, Target Wake Time (TWT) among others.
Coupled with the latest security standard by the Wi-Fi Alliance (WFA) Wi-Fi Protected Access 3 (WPA3) for Enterprise, Wi-Fi 6 enables healthcare providers to benefit from a reliable, efficient, and secured Wi-Fi connection for patient care and clinical workflows.
Key Wi-Fi 6 features
In addition, Wi-Fi 6 is backward compatible, enabling legacy clients to co-exist with the latest Wi-Fi 6 devices. This is particularly important in healthcare facilities, where thousands of devices from various Wi-Fi generations are served by the same network at any given time.
In the sequel to this blog, we will take a closer look at Wi-Fi device and network testing considerations for healthcare providers.
MIMO system enables 2.4GHz, 5GHz and 6GHz with UWB, BLE and IoT options
Eindhoven, The Netherlands – November 12th, 2020
The Antenna Company, a specialist in the design of high-performance embedded antennas, today announced a new Wi-Fi 6E MIMO antenna system designed to increase network capacity, extend range and reduce latency in enterprise and industrial IoT networks. The antenna system enables simultaneous operation in the 2.4, 5 and 6 GHz frequency bands, resulting in an additional 1.2 GHz of spectrum and greater than 2x increase in available channels.
“The adoption of high performance WiFi 6E antenna systems is a key enabling technology to fully realize the benefits of the unlicensed spectrum between 5.925 and 7.125 GHz”, said Mark Hung, VP Technology and Engineering at the Wi-Fi Alliance.
Optimized for seamless integration into access points, The Antenna Company’s design supports a total of 15 antennas, including dedicated 4×4 5 GHz + 4×4 6 GHz + 4×4 2.4/5 GHz Wi-Fi antennas. Cross-pair Wi-Fi antenna isolation of greater than 45 dB is achieved for concurrent operation in the 5 GHz band.
An additional 0.9/2.4 GHz IoT antenna is included to enable IoT use cases, along with tri-band 2.4/5/6 GHz antennas for radio spectrum management. The entire antenna system is mounted on a metal backplate to enable mechanical, thermal and RF integration with the access point.
The design also comes with an Ultra-Wide Band (UWB) option to enable Real-Time Location System (RTLS) services such as access control, indoor navigation, asset tracking and contact tracing. The UWB antennas support channels 5 and 9 for worldwide spectrum coverage. To avoid coupling and detuning between antennas, greater than 30 dB of isolation is achieved between the UWB and Wi-Fi antennas.
The Antenna Company’s Wi-Fi 6E + UWB antenna system also features:
“Wi-Fi 6E enables the capacity, speed and latency needed to support the shift in network usage for Enterprise and Industrial IoT markets. The addition of UWB gives our customers a scalable platform to offer new RTLS services”, said company CEO David Favreau.
To request more information and to discuss your specific system requirements, please contact The Antenna Company at information@antennacompany.com
About The Antenna Company
The Antenna Company is an antenna systems provider that delivers high-performance solutions based on proprietary design principles, advanced materials and RF system expertise. Our patented technology results in clearly differentiated performance over conventional antenna solutions in the market. The company’s mission is to enable its Enterprise, Consumer and IoT customers to offer the best end-user experience, by providing innovative and novel antenna system solutions. The Antenna Company provides standard and customized solutions to OEM and ODM customers worldwide for Wi-Fi, GNSS, LTE, UWB, CBRS and 5G technologies. Antenna Company is headquartered in the Netherlands with sales offices in the US and Asia.
For more information, please visit https://www.antennacompany.com
By Eve Danel
November 11, 2020
LitePoint’s Eve Danel has developed this three-part blog series on Wi-Fi 6E and testing challenges. Throughout this series of blog posts, you’ll learn the basics of operating rules for Wi-Fi 6E in the 6 GHz band, the challenges when validating Wi-Fi 6E designs and what testing solutions LitePoint has available for Wi-Fi 6E.
Wi-Fi 6E Standard and Channels – 802.11ax Operation in the 6 GHz Band
In my previous blog post, I explored the FCC’s decision to open the 6 GHz band for Wi-Fi 6E standard operation, as well as the rules the FCC put in place to protect incumbent users in that space. Today I want to explore the IEEE 802.11ax rules of operation in the 6 GHz band and how they differ from operation in the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands.
Background on Wi-Fi Standards
Two main groups are responsible for shaping Wi-Fi’s evolution. The IEEE 802.11defines the technical specifications of the wireless LAN standard. The IEEE 802.11ax standard for high efficiency (or HE) covers MAC and PHY layer operation in the 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz and 6 GHz bands. It is scheduled to be finalized by the end of 2020.
The Wi-Fi Alliance focuses on certification of Wi-Fi devices for compliance and interoperability, as well as the marketing of Wi-Fi technology. To improve consumer understanding of the various IEEE 802.11 standard generations, the Wi-Fi Alliance decided to create consumer friendly names. The IEEE 802.11ax standard is now referred to as Wi-Fi 6 or the 6th generation of Wi-Fi and operates the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands. Wi-Fi 6E operates in the 6 GHz frequency band. Thousands of devices have received Wi-Fi 6 certification since the program started and the Wi-Fi 6E certification is planned to start sometime in early 2021.
IEEE Rules of Operation
Decisions made by the IEEE 802.11ax group and added to the standard will make Wi-Fi 6E even more efficient.
Arguably one of the most important decisions made by the IEEE 802.11ax group is that it disallows older generation Wi-Fi devices in the 6 GHz band, which is important because it means that only high efficiency 802.11ax devices will be able to operate in this band.
Historically, newer Wi-Fi standards have always provided backward compatibility with older generations. This proved to be a great strength to win over consumers, since network equipment doesn’t need to be completely overhauled at each new generation. This has also been a source of congestion, since older slower legacy equipment is sharing available resources (i.e. spectrum) with newer devices. In the 6 GHz however, only new high efficiency devices will be allowed to operate.
When using the analogy of a freeway to describe Wi-Fi, the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz band can be compared to congested freeways allowing both fast and slow vehicles, while the 6 GHz band is the equivalent of a new, large freeway that only allows the fastest cars.
With 1200 MHz of spectrum and 59 new 20 MHz channels, a station with a dwell time of 100 ms per channel would require almost 6 seconds to complete a passive scan of the entire band. The standard implements a new efficient process for clients to discover nearby access points (APs). In Wi-Fi 6E, a process called fast passive scanning is being used to focus on a reduced set of channels called preferred scanning channels (PSC). PSCs are a set of 15 20-MHz channels that are spaced every 80 MHz. The APs will set their primary channel to coincide with the PSC so that it can be easily discovered by a client, and clients will use passive scanning in order to just scan PSCs to look for an AP.
To further improve the efficiency of the 6 GHz operation, the standard is also segregating most of the management traffic to other bands. So, a multi-band AP that has 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz will be discoverable by scanning the lower bands. The client will first go into the lower bands, discover the AP there and then move to the 6 GHz band. This way, no probe request frames will need to be sent in the 6 GHz band. This will reduce the probe requests that are sent by stations just trying to find APs because it will not be allowed unless it is a PSC channel.
Wi-Fi 6E Channelization
The 802.11ax standard also defines channel allocations for the 6 GHz band. This allocation determines the center frequencies for 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz and 160 MHz channels.
Channels begin at the start frequency of 5950 MHz, leaving just 25 MHz of guard band between the first 6 GHz channels and the upper range of the U-NII 4 band.
If a U-NII band is not allowed in a specific regulatory domain or operates under different rules, then the regulatory specs take precedence over IEEE and channels that are falling on frequencies or overlapping on frequencies that are not supported, are not allowed.
The FCC is providing this pristine new highway of spectrum and the Wi-Fi 6E standard’s rules of operation are ensuring that we can remove the slowest vehicles on the highway. The question now is how do you build the next generation, high performance device that can really take advantage of this new spectrum? There are many challenges to overcome.
In the next post, we’ll explore what testing solutions LitePoint has available for Wi-Fi 6E. In the meantime, please visit the replay of my webinar on this topic.
New modular architecture brings high-performance, cost-effective Wi-Fi 6E mesh deployment designed to deliver wireless Gigabit speeds throughout the connected home
OCT 27, 2020SAN DIEGO
Qualcomm products mentioned within this press release are offered by Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries.
Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. today unveiled the Qualcomm® Immersive Home Platforms, a successor to the company’s groundbreaking mesh networking platforms. Designed to deploy Gigabit-speed wireless performance to every room in the home in form factors as small as the palm of the hand, these devices are cost-effective enough to target low consumer price points. This engineering feat is achieved through a novel modular architecture approach, significant advancements in network packet processing technology and an integration of next-generation Wi-Fi 6 and 6E.
In the face of skyrocketing home data demand, Immersive Home Platforms offer four distinct product tiers. These tiers grant unprecedented design flexibility to manufacturers and broadband carriers motivated to embrace Wi-Fi 6 and 6E mesh architectures comprehensively across their entire product portfolio. As home network performance has become mission critical, Qualcomm Technologies is meeting the challenge to provide corner-to-corner Gigabit wireless performance, in an effort to ensure every meeting is productive, every classroom is engaged, and every device is connected.
“We have launched the Qualcomm Immersive Home platforms, a fresh approach to home networking leveraging high powered Wi-Fi 6 and 6E, a fresh architectural design customized for home deployments, and advanced features designed to deliver Gigabit performance to every corner of the home,” said Nick Kucharewski, vice president and general manager, Wireless Infrastructure & Networking, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “Today, as offices, classrooms, movie theatres, and everything in between move into the home, high performance Wi-Fi has transitioned from luxury to mission critical utility.”
“Before COVID-19, the proliferation of Wi-Fi-enabled products in the home and increasingly HD, 4k, and soon 8k video meant an increasing focus on more capable Wi-Fi access points by consumers and service providers,” said Phil Solis, research director at IDC. “During the COVID-19 pandemic, network needs became even more pronounced with many Wi-Fi networks stressed by the shift to more work, education, and entertainment from home. Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E mesh network solutions such as the Qualcomm Immersive Home Platforms are critical to enabling Wi-Fi access point vendors to be provide the range, data rates, and capacity now required in many homes.”
“Wi-Fi’s popularity has created increasingly diverse and densely populated Wi-Fi environments, including home networks which must now support many demanding applications simultaneously,” said Kevin Robinson, senior vice president of Marketing, Wi-Fi Alliance. “The capabilities of Wi-Fi 6E, such as gigabit speeds, low latency, and high capacity, will benefit users where they now need it most and allow Wi-Fi devices to operate efficiently in the most dynamic home connectivity settings.”
“While everyone now understands the incredible importance of Wi-Fi networks in work-from-home and learn-from-home environments, not everyone knows about the benefits that modern Wi-Fi mesh networks can provide,” said Bob O’Donnell, president and Chief Analyst, TECHnalysis Research, LLC. “In addition, not every household has the same requirements. The beauty of a modular platform is that it lets OEMs and consumers tackle everything from forward-looking massive bandwidth applications using 6GHz Wi-Fi 6E to tiny mesh extenders that can inconspicuously bring stronger traditional Wi-Fi signals to every room in a home.”
Qualcomm Immersive Home 310 Series
Representing the Qualcomm® Tri-Band Wi-Fi 6 platforms within the portfolio, the 310 Series offerings are designed to simultaneously leverage all three bands of spectrum to support IoT-class devices (2.4GHz), today’s legacy media devices (5GHz), and enable congestion-relieving migration of node-to-node backhaul traffic from 5GHz to the 6GHz band, while ensuring the network is prepared to support devices supporting emerging 6GHz applications (VR/XR, live video sharing/streaming, real-time gaming).
Qualcomm Immersive Home 210 Series
Representing the Dual-Band Wi-Fi 6 platforms within the portfolio, these offerings are designed to offer immediate and significant performance and cost benefits to existing mesh providers.
In both dual and tri-band series, Qualcomm Immersive Home Platforms bring significant differentiation derived from decades of R&D and proven infrastructure engineering expertise across multiple proprietary connectivity portfolios, including:
Askey
“Askey customers demand high-performance home networks that make working and schooling from home as seamless as streaming their favorite movies. This means ultra-fast, reliable Wi-Fi performance and robust security components. We look forward to continued collaboration with Qualcomm Technologies and the Qualcomm Immersive Home Platforms to continuously evolve the seamless, connected experiences our customers demand,” said Robert Lin, CEO, Askey Computer Corp.
AVM
“Last-mile technologies such as fiber, coax or even DSL are now reaching the Gigabit mark. These superfast speeds are increasingly becoming a matter of course in the home. We welcome the Qualcomm Immersive Home Platforms, which will give Mesh Wi-Fi a tremendous boost and ensures future-proof performance for wireless communication,” says Peter Faxel, CTO at AVM.
Belkin
“At Linksys, our mission is to build innovative, future-ready wireless technologies that will someday connect every person and everything in the world, effortlessly, reliably, and securely,” said L.C. Wu, chief operating officer, Connected Home Division (Linksys Wemo, Phyn), Belkin International. “Linksys consumers demand high-performance networks that make working and schooling from home a seamless experience. We look forward to continued collaboration with Qualcomm Technologies to endlessly evolve our portfolios bringing more Wi-Fi 6 and new Wi-Fi 6E products to consumers. Wi-Fi 6E will take our Intelligent Mesh technology to the next level.”
Cognitive Systems
“The launch of the Qualcomm Immersive Home Platform is an advancement for Wi-Fi beyond just better performance,” said Taj Manku, CEO and Co-Founder of Cognitive Systems. “The new platform also enables WiFi Motion™ sensingapplications like home monitoring that bring meaningful value to Wi-Fi users and provide peace of mind beyond just connectivity. We are proud to be a partner with Qualcomm Technologies and appreciate its collaboration to bolster advanced Wi-Fi technologies like WiFi Motion.”
EnGenius
“As the demand for faster connectivity continues to grow, we are excited to expand our Wi-Fi 6 solutions to support consumers growing demands within their homes,” said Eric Chen, director of sales and marketing at EnGenius. “With the Immersive Home Platform from Qualcomm supporting our devices, we are bringing the power of Wi-Fi 6 to consumers to meet the ever-growing demands for building future-proof wireless networks within their homes.”
eero
“Increasingly our customers are working from home, helping kids with online learning, video-chatting with friends and family, and streaming and gaming in 4K,” said Nick Weaver, Co-Founder and CEO of eero. “They need fast, reliable and secure wifi to deliver these experiences and we look forward to continued collaboration with Qualcomm Technologies to provide the performance our customers expect.”
Netgear
“NETGEAR customers demand high-performance home networks that make working and schooling from home as seamless as streaming their favorite movies. This means ultra-fast, reliable Wi-Fi performance for every connected device in the home. We look forward to continued collaboration with Qualcomm Technologies to continuously evolve the seamless, connected experiences our customers demand with Wi-Fi 6E,” said David Henry, senior vice president, Connected Home at NETGEAR.
Plume
“The foundation of Plume’s Consumer Experience Management Platform is based on intelligent cloud controlled OpenSync™-enabled devices,” says Sri Nathan, vice president of Plume Business Development. “Qualcomm Technologies’ Immersive Home Platform products ensure the capacity and controls for flawless connectivity in the home, allowing ISPs to deliver new services, over the top with confidence.”
TP-Link
“We’re excited about Qualcomm Technologies’ announcement of the Qualcomm Immersive Home Platforms and recognize how it will further promote the adoption of Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E,” said Pingji Li, general manager of TP-Link Consumer and Enterprise BU. “TP-Link customers will experience more diversified mesh networking devices, offering ultra-fast, reliable Wi-Fi and robust security. Thanks to our collaboration with Qualcomm Technologies, everyone can embrace the trend of connecting everything.”
WNC
“With our Wi-Fi 6E tri-band mesh router, WNC offers a product line that pushes the boundaries of the ordinary. By integrating Qualcomm Technologies’ Immersive Home Platform, we enable our customers to benefit from the latest improvements in mesh networking, including high speeds and Wi-Fi 6 management, creating a most powerful and robust home network,” said Chun Lee, president of WNC’s Global Business Development Division.
Xiaomi
“With our Xiaomi AIoT Wi-Fi 6 Router products, Xiaomi has designed a line that pushes the boundaries of ordinary. By integrating the Qualcomm Immersive Home Platforms, we will allow our customers to benefit from the latest improvements in mesh networking, including high speeds and Wi-Fi 6 management, creating a more powerful and robust home network,” said Xinyu Liu, general manager of Intelligent Hardware Division, Xiaomi.
Qualcomm Immersive Home Platforms are sampling now to customers. For more information about our Wi-Fi 6 and 6E products for the home, visit Qualcomm WiFi Mesh Network page.
About Qualcomm
Qualcomm is the world’s leading wireless technology innovator and the driving force behind the development, launch, and expansion of 5G. When we connected the phone to the internet, the mobile revolution was born. Today, our foundational technologies enable the mobile ecosystem and are found in every 3G, 4G and 5G smartphone. We bring the benefits of mobile to new industries, including automotive, the internet of things, and computing, and are leading the way to a world where everything and everyone can communicate and interact seamlessly.
Qualcomm Incorporated includes our licensing business, QTL, and the vast majority of our patent portfolio. Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, operates, along with its subsidiaries, substantially all of our engineering, research and development functions, and substantially all of our products and services businesses, including our QCT semiconductor business.
STOCKHOLM – October 19, 2020 – The Istanbul city Wi-Fi service, enabled by a solution from Aptilo Networks, has won the Telecoms World Smart Cities Award. The network has around 8,000 access points. Every year, 16 million citizens and 10 million visitors get access to a high-capacity Wi-Fi service.
The administration of Istanbul needed a Wi-Fi service that could scale and provide various stakeholders with advanced functionality. The Aptilo Service Management Platform™ with its Venue Wi-Fi Manager™ multitenancy functionality fulfilled all the requirements.
“With a Wi-Fi network that looks and behaves like a large operator network, we needed a carrier-class solution,” said Erol Özgüner, CIO Istanbul City. “With Aptilo’s advanced functionality for cellular- and Wi-Fi-based IoT connectivity, we already have today the foundation to enter the Internet-of-everything era.”
Users of the Istanbul Wi-Fi service get high bandwidth and short response times wherever they are. There are up to five different quota buckets that control the data consumption and that can be used at different types of locations. The solution from Aptilo keeps track of where the users access the Wi-Fi service and applies the right bucket depending on the location.
The multitenancy functionality in Aptilo’s platform makes it possible for Istanbul city to tailor the look and feel for the different venues. Through banner areas at the login portal, users can get the latest information for that location and view advertisements.
Furthermore, quality-of-service control and quota profiles can be adjusted by location and user group, and for special dates such as national holidays.
“This advanced large-scale Wi-Fi service and the grand vision for the future make Istanbul city a worthy winner of the award,” said Paul Mikkelsen, CEO, Aptilo Networks. “We are very proud to have been part of the project and to have contributed to its success.”
About Aptilo Networks
Aptilo Networks, an Enea company, is a leading provider of carrier-class systems to manage data services with advanced functions for authentication, policy control and charging. Aptilo Service Management Platform™ (SMP) has become synonymous with Wi-Fi service management and Wi-Fi offload in large-scale deployments with 100+ operators in more than 75 countries, and is a critical component of Wi-Fi calling and IoT. For more information, visit www.aptilo.com.
STOCKHOLM – October 5, 2020 – Telkom Indonesia, owner of one of the world’s largest Wi-Fi networks, Indonesia Wi-Fi, celebrates six years in partnership with Aptilo Networks. Telkom has now completed an upgrade to the lastest version of the Aptilo Service Management Platform™ (SMP) with increased capacity and enhanced geographical redundancy.
Telkom’s Indonesia Wi-Fi network is one of the businest in the world serving more than 70 million users with 400,000+ Wi-Fi access points. To be ready for the future, this upgrade further improves capacity and strengthens geographical redundancy to ensure a consistent service.
Indonesia Wi-Fi is available with high-capacity fiber backhaul nationwide in the world’s largest archipelago country with 237 million people spread across 17,000 islands. Users are consuming 15-25 Petabyte (PB) of data per month. To put things in perspective, 25 PB is equivalent to eight million hours of full HD video.
“Managing Wi-Fi services with 400,000+ access points (including homespot) and 70 million users across 17,000 islands puts extreme demands on the Wi-Fi service management core platform,” said Irwan Indriastanto, Senior Manager Wireless Product, Telkom Indonesia. “Our customers deserve the best high-performance Wi-Fi service available. We are very pleased to expand our relationship with Aptilo to enhance the capabilities of our Wi-Fi service.”
Telkom Indonesia also offers a first class business-to-business (B2B) Wi-Fi service which addresses all customer segments including enterprise, SME, wholesale and retail. Through their WICO (Wi-Fi Corner) product, Telkom Indonesia helps governments build smart cities and provide social services.
“We are proud to have enabled one of the world’s largest public Wi-Fi services for the last six years,” said Paul Mikkelsen, CEO, Aptilo Networks. “We are also impressed at how Telkom Indonesia makes the most out of the innovations from Aptilo and Wi-Fi equipment vendors.”
About Aptilo Networks
Aptilo Networks, an Enea company, is a leading provider of carrier-class systems to manage data services with advanced functions for authentication, policy control and charging. Aptilo Service Management Platform™ (SMP) has become synonymous with Wi-Fi service management and Wi-Fi offload in large-scale deployments with 100+ operators in more than 75 countries, and is a critical component of Wi-Fi calling and IoT.
# # #
As more smart home products enter the market each year and consumers continue adopting the Internet of Things into their homes, it’s inevitable that the world would have run out of 4.3 billion unique IPv4 addresses. To combat this, innovators have developed the IPv6 protocol introducing over 340 undecillion (that’s 340,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) addresses!
What makes IPv4 and IPv6 so different? Let’s begin with understanding what IP (or Internet Protocol) is.
Internet Protocol
“Protocol” refers to using a set of rules and guidelines for communicating over the internet. It is the language of the internet that forces users to follow the standard rules for communication. An IP address is like your home address, which you use for communicating with the outside world. It is a string of unique numbers that identify your device over the internet, allowing your device to communicate with others using their unique IP addresses.
IPv4 and IPv6 addresses are both binary numbers that are expressed either in decimal or hexadecimal forms, respectively, and have two parts: the network the host parts. The network portion in the address is the unique identification assigned to the network, and the host part is the unique identification of each device connected to the network. So, for each device’s address connected to the network, the network portion in the address will be the same, however, the host part will differ.
IPv4
IPv4 uses 32-bit addressing, which is 232 addresses, allowing for 4,294,967,296 unique IP addresses worldwide. The IP address consists of four sets separated by dots, with each set ranging between 0 to 255.
At the time IPv4 was engineered in the 1980s, 4 billion IP addresses seemed like more than enough considering this protocol was initially used as an experiment for the US Department of Defense. IPv4 has since become the default protocol for the internet and with a world population of greater than 7.5 billion the IPv4 address space is not sufficient.
Knowing this, how are we still managing to provide unique IP addresses? You guessed it – by reusing IP addresses! Network address translation (NAT) helps reduce the use of public IP addresses by translating private IP addresses to public IP addresses. Inside a local network usually managed by a router, there may be multiple private IP addresses that are translated into public IP addresses when they want to communicate over the internet. Mercku’s M2 Queen router is enabled to perform translations and is capable of supporting 60 devices at once without compromising on communication speeds.
Figure 1: Smart Homes Worldwide
Source: Statista, May 2020, based on Statista Digital Market Outlook – Market Report
Figure 2: Forecast number of mobile devices worldwide from 2019 to 2023
Source: Statista, February 2020, based on Mobile Statistics Report, 2019-2023
By observing Figures 1 and 2, it is evident that the number of devices worldwide has been increasing and is forecasted to further increase for which Ipv4 address space is certainly not enough.
Since IPv4 address space has become insufficient, computer engineers around the world (Internet Engineering Task Force) decided to address this issue by introducing IPv6 with the intent to replace IPv4.
IPv6 uses 128-bit addressing, which overcomes the insufficiency of IP addresses worldwide. The number of unique IP addresses that can be generated with IPv6 is 2128 which is 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456 IP addresses. IPv6 address has eight sets that are separated by a colon and have hexadecimal digits.
The Future of IP Addressing
IPv4 and IPv6 are not compatible and can’t directly communicate with each other, although there are transition mechanisms like NAT64 that allow for communication.
Many routers and servers that are currently in use are not IPv6 compatible quite yet and can only communicate with IPv4 addresses. However, as the world transitions more towards IPv6, internet service providers will need to replace their customer’s existing routers with newer ones that are IPv6-compatible.
There is no confirmed date when a complete transition will happen and it may take place over years, with an increasing number of applications and content accessible by IPv6. It is better to transition beforehand to IPv6 to avoid inconveniences in the future, and consumers with Mercku’s WiFi router won’t require any replacement.
Some of the additional features that IPv6 has includes:
To check if your device is IPv6-ready, you can visit http://test-ipv6.com/ for free online testing.
As the dawn of the smart city rapidly approaches, the need for reliable and cost-effective connectivity solutions within urban settings has steadily grown. Add to this scenario a marked increase in internet usage that now sees more people and devices using greater amounts of data than ever before, and a unique problem presents itself: how can a smart city provide its residents with widespread Wi-Fi coverage while keeping labor and infrastructure costs under control?
In December of 2019, INTECH GM Nando Ateho found himself considering this very question. He’d been tasked with deploying a wireless network for a five-day outdoor event held on-site at an up-and-coming smart city development in Utah known as Desert Color. The wireless solution required for this event needed to offer three things: seamless connectivity across a large geographic area, ease-of-configuration for a limited labor force, and overall cost-effectiveness.
The solution he found was Apogee by Aura Wireless.
Background
With construction on its first phase of homes having commenced at the beginning of 2019, Desert Color is well into its first year of development. Touting itself as a “master-planned community built around connectivity, community, and sustainability,” Desert Color is already proving to be one of Utah’s premier smart communities.
With an expected development timeline of 20-or-so years, sights are set high for this small city. Among its future plans are resorts, residential areas, shopping centers, recreational zones, parks, and other community centers like office buildings, schools, and churches. Its growth goals are largely geared toward attracting forward-thinking, well-to-do professionals who value an active lifestyle, connecting with the outdoors, and living a futuristic quality-of-life supported by all the amenities IoT-based living can offer.
But in order to make this vision a reality, developers had to first begin attracting prospects and selling homes. Slated for early 2020, the community’s first-ever Parade of Homes event was prepared to do just that.
The Problem
In order to showcase the Desert Color community to prospective home buyers, community planners knew it had to live up to some high expectations. The Parade of Homes event was planned with two simultaneous goals in mind: highlighting its allure as a city rich in beauty, style, and community; and showcasing its technical capabilities as a smart city. As such, Brook Cole of Clyde Development knew he needed to find a wireless network solution that would help Desert Color live up to its budding reputation.
Meant to span five days and cover a geographic area of over 15 acres, the event required a well-planned and strategic wireless infrastructure. Visitors would be moving across the area on foot and in vehicles; they’d need to be able to move outdoors and into tents and even inside buildings with ease. While the natural scenery and unique architecture of the city’s homes are a major selling point, the word “connectivity” is plainly stated within the community’s mission statement. Weak coverage and poor performance were simply not an option.
However, deploying a robust, large-scale Wi-Fi network is difficult and expensive. Covering a 15-acre swath of land typically requires dozens of access points, exponentially increasing hardware costs. Additionally, these large networks require a great deal of hands-on configuration by a team of technicians, which drastically increases labor costs. The usual conclusion is that networks such as these are just not worth it.
But what if there were a solution that could change all that?
The Solution
Once his network solutions options were assessed, Ateho eventually turned to Apogee’s software-defined antennae platform as the cornerstone of his deployment. After taking into consideration Desert Color’s specific needs and requirements, Aura’s team assisted with RF planning by bestowing thoughtful and timely planning and cooperation which would help lay the framework for the upcoming event.
During installation and throughout the Parade of Homes, only two Apogee-equipped access points were required to provide thorough coverage to the 15-acre area. What’s more, Apogee Manager Cloud gave INTECH CTO Leonard Jenkins the ability to not only remotely configure the network, but also be able to remotely manage the network. This meant that instead of dispatching multiple technicians to adjust multiple access points as needed over the course of several days, one technician was able to manage only two Apogee access points from one remote location.
Furthermore, Apogee was able to provide reliable infrastructure support for IoT devices within the area. Because IoT devices are low-powered and, oftentimes, battery-powered, properly connecting them to networks can be challenging. A robust signal – particularly on the return link from the IoT device to the AP – reduces power drain and extends the life of the device, in addition to improving connectivity. Apogee’s asymmetrical gain was ideally suited to overcome these challenges.
From installation and throughout deployment, Jenkins became more and more convinced that Apogee was a wireless solution unlike any other, applauding the system’s ease-of-use, as well as the range and strength of its signal. While providing seamless large-area Wi-Fi coverage across a large span of area can be an insurmountable challenge, Apogee and Apogee Manager Cloud helped provide a reliable network solution for the hundreds of attendees for the Parade of Homes event.
In addition to the remote configuration and optimization that Apogee provides, Jenkins was also impressed with the antenna’s ability to propagate the 5GHz band over very large areas. Typically, the 5GHz band was only utilized for point-to-point; with Apogee, Jenkins documented that 5GHz could be used alongside the 2.4GHz band for point-to-multipoint, thus doubling the number of usable channels and truly delivering two non-interfering networks side-by-side.
But ultimately, it was its long-term cost-effectiveness that brought its benefits full-circle. Ateho’s verdict? That a better-quality solution with a more efficient signal and easier-to-manage antenna software equals a greater, long-term value.
He plans to deploy Apogee in future projects.
