WiFi 802.11ax and 5G convergence - an inevitable stride of NSA mode 5G.

Despite of continuous improvement in data services with high data rates and more spectrum utilization the networks are not free from the congestion. The tremendous growth of video traffic and smart devices has resulted in heavy pressure on data networks resources. As a result of this continuous thrust for data capacity, 3GPP has come up in its recent releases with idea of incorporating more spectrum bands including unlicensed and shared spectrum.

WiFi has been of interest since the early days and being there in the radar of 3GPP since release 8 but has been incorporated in the propensity of RAN in release 13 and onward. LTE-U, LAA and LWA are some of the 3GPP networking features focusing on unlicensed spectrum.

WiFi is a mature technology in itself has been in continuous growth and pace with the next generation networks. IEEE 802.11 standards has been evolving and have improved much from the days of 802.11n to 802.11ac & 802.11ad (in 60GHz) and recent one, taken to be efficient for highly dense environment, 802.11ax.

802.11ax, also called High-Efficiency Wireless (HEW), looking beyond the raw link speeds of 802.11ac. It implements several mechanisms to serve more users consistent and reliable data throughput in highly dense wireless environments. High-Efficiency Wireless includes the following key features:

·         Backwards compatible with 802.11a/b/g/n/ac.

·         Increase 4X the average throughput per user in high-density scenarios, such as train stations, airports and stadiums. -Data rates and channel widths similar to 802.11ac, with the exception of new Modulation and Coding Sets (MCS 10 and 11) with 1024-QAM.

·         Specified for downlink and uplink multi-user operation by means of MU-MIMO and Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) technology.

·         Larger OFDM FFT sizes (4x larger), narrower subcarrier spacing (4X closer), and longer symbol time (4X) for improved robustness and performance in multipath fading environments and outdoors.

·         Improved traffic flow and channel access.

·         Better power management for longer battery life.

In fact 802.11ax going to be a distributed data rates for fare distribution of overall capacity to each user's, making an efficient system with larger spectrum band.

In next generation telecom networks era, LTE was the first technology to step in, being the complete data centric networks and has started an era of data dependent information and communication systems. DATA has become now days a utility for the end users to run its day to day business. LTE started with 10X faster than its early days technologies, to now a days 100X faster in form of Gigabit LTE.

WiFi With its new avatar 802.11ax becomes a good partner with LTE for a better convergence and provide a combination of licensed and unlicensed for a larger capacity to end users.

This also opens the gate for Wifi entry to 5G system as an associative data network with LTE as a control plane. So it's not going to be only NR with LTE but WiFi too, much in NSA mode of 5G.

NSA mode 5G will move towards 5G convergence with incorporation of WiFi.

In next generation telecom networks era, LTE is the first technology to step in, and in its advance form recognized with 4G tag. 4G, being the complete data centric networks and has started an era of data dependent information and communication systems. DATA has become now days a utility for the end users to run its day to day business. LTE started with 10X faster than its early days technologies, to now a days 100X faster in form of Gigabit LTE.

Despite of continuous improvement in data services with high data rates and more spectrum utilization the networks are not escapable from the congestion. The tremendous growth of video traffic and smart devices has resulted in heavy pressure on data networks resources. As a result of this continuous thrust for data capacity 3GPP has come up in its recent releases with idea of incorporating more spectrum bands including unlicensed and shared spectrum.

WiFi has been of interest since the early days and being there in the radar of 3GPP since release 8 but has been incorporated in the propensity of RAN in release 13 onwards. LTE-U, LAA and LWA are some of the 3GPP networking features focusing on unlicensed spectrum.

WiFi is a mature technology in itself has been in continuous growth and pace with the next generation networks. IEEE 802.11 standards has been evolving and have improved much from the days of 802.11n to 802.11ac & 802.11ad (in 60GHz) and recent one, taken to be efficient for highly dense environment, 802.11ax.

802.11ax, also called High-Efficiency Wireless (HEW), looking beyond the raw link speeds of 802.11ac. It implements several mechanisms to serve more users consistent and reliable data throughput in highly dense wireless environments. High-Efficiency Wireless includes the following key features:

·         Backwards compatible with 802.11a/b/g/n/ac.

·         Increase 4X the average throughput per user in high-density scenarios, such as train stations, airports and stadiums. -Data rates and channel widths similar to 802.11ac, with the exception of new Modulation and Coding Sets (MCS 10 and 11) with 1024-QAM.

·         Specified for downlink and uplink multi-user operation by means of MU-MIMO and Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) technology.

·         Larger OFDM FFT sizes (4x larger), narrower subcarrier spacing (4X closer), and longer symbol time (4X) for improved robustness and performance in multipath fading environments and outdoors.

·         Improved traffic flow and channel access.

·         Better power management for longer battery life.

In fact 802.11ax going to be a distributed data rates for fare distribution of overall capacity to each user's, making an efficient system with larger spectrum band.

With above facts, 802.11ax becomes a good partner with LTE for a better convergence and provide a combination of licensed and unlicensed for a larger capacity to end users.

This also opens the gate for Wifi entry to 5G system as an associative data network with LTE as a control plane. So it's not going to be only NR with LTE but WiFi too, much in NSA mode of 5G.

3GPP completed SA mode 5G specifications for release 15. How the industry will incorporate SA and NSA?

As 3GPP announced a new milestone on 5G release 15 standardization, that is completion of Stand Alone mode specification of 5G operation. The big question arises, would there be a split in 5G deployments in near future (i.e. with the availability of equipment's and mobile terminals)? because there is no obstruction possible on NSA mode rather NSA is going to have a major coverage, in fact for large coverage areas NSA would be there and probably SA would cover smaller coverage areas through small cells.

SA mode is about no LTE for control plane but both plane would be on NR only. So SA will put LTE on spare, really? That is feasible only for smallcell deployment cases as the operators are not going to make LTE spare due to heavy investment. Rather that is the upbring of 5G in real sense. We have already witnessed gigabit LTE deployments and vested interest of operator on it through LAA and LWA due to LTE based carrier aggregation CA or multi RAT convergence.

That trends is leading towards the solid root for NSA mode, SA mode would be filling the gap and caveats but not overshadowing it anywhere. The Fixed broadband uses case of 5G NR so far has been for millimeter waves but sub 6 Ghz NR has yet to come for mobile use cases ( as we all are waiting for mobile terminals use cases). 

LTE is far established and well coordinated for network spread and coverage enhancements, 5G NR has yet to come for that level of maturity and that's gonna take long time. Still LTE and 5G both seems to be moving parallel as there seems to be no obstruction for LTE as well. Technology has matured and taken its much advance form in LTE adv pro. In fact LTE adv pro is well taken to accomplish much of 5G use cases, whether it be massiv IOT, V2X or URLLC use cases like for robotics or healthcare.

Therefore 5G is not about 5G NR only,  There is much more wider outlook for 5G, like Network Slicing, Application defined etc, etc. 5G is a big hash, technology under which create a comprehensive system, not a isolated sliver.

XCOM - A 5G start up from Qualcomm EX.

Former Qualcomm Chairman, Paul Jacobs recently launched a wireless startup called XCOM. The company plans on focusing on advancing wireless technology, specifically in the 5G sector. Along with Jacobs, two former Qualcomm executives, Derek Aberle and Matthew Grob have also joined the company.

While a solid business model still hasn’t been laid out, Aberle confirmed in an interview with CNBC that the company will try to tackle important 5G problems, especially around latency and reliability. The company is also expected to license its proprietary 5G technology or provide software solutions to other companies that can be used in their semi-conductors. The three executives also plan on expanding the company’s workforce in coming months.

catch news here 

Gigabit LTE- A stepping stone for 5G readiness.

As we said earlier that Gigabit LTE is going to be a stepping stone for 5G readiness of the networks. What could be a better example than the recent news from Russia where MTS upgraded its network with LAA capabilities using Ericsson equipment’s and test the gigabit LTE speed on commercial deployments with commercial UEs.

LAA is an important technology in the LTE network evolution to 5G, providing access to new unlicensed frequencies. With this milestone, MTS has surpassed its previous 700Mbps speed record, enabling the service provider to take the next step in turning its mobile infrastructure into gigabit-capable.

The deployment took place in a large trade center on May 17 following a series of tests conducted on a live MTS network using a commercial smartphone. The gigabit-per-second speeds were achieved using Ericsson Radio System software, including 256-QAM and 4CC Carrier Aggregation of 10 streams with 4x4 MIMO on a 20MHz licensed carrier coupled with 3x20MHz LAA.

In addition, a range of Ericsson Radio System products including the LAA-powered Radio 2205, Baseband 5216, and B3 1800MHz band configured Radio 2212 were used in the rollout.  Mobile devices powered by the Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ Gigabit LTE modems with LAA support, including Snapdragon 835 and 845 Mobile Platforms.

While talking the Gigabit LTE, the first picture emerges about a gigabit speed on each UE terminals, or at least a speed of gigabit per second peek rates.  Although, as in above case, operators are able to achieve it with the technology called ‘Carrier Aggregation’, in specific form called LAA, and MIMO with optimized coding and modulation schemes.

But it also shows the whole scenario to be highly optimized to achieve such data rates, which in practicality not always feasible, so what is the big buzz about gigabit LTE, with this Question in mind we approached our Experts (Mr Oscar Bexell) and discussed at large and some significant take away we gleaned are like this…

Gigabit LTE is again a marketing buzz, with the objective of achieving gigabit per second speed on LTE networks using more spectrum Carrier aggregation and MIMO techniques. So far the speed is tested have reached somewhat near to gigabits in highly optimized conditions like 264QAM etc.

Gigabit LTE is not about the peak data rates but more significantly the capacity enhancement of network, as three aggregated carriers perform better than if you run each carrier by itself.

With commercial availability, there will be UE terminals available in the market and their support will be driven by terminal sales figures and user experience. If Apple and Google believe CA and MIMO will make their users happier and buy more phones they will go for it. Same with LAA and new CBRS radios.

But things to be noted also that none really needs more than a few Mbps on a phone. Upper layers in the application stack aren't even designed for handling those peaks. Buffer sizes, screens etc. don't cope with 1Gbps. So the speed is of not much focus here for an end user (plus, your normal data cap would be used in half a minute).

Future networks will be built from inside buildings. The WAN to such a building is very seldom more than 1Gbps.  It's very often far less. So again, peak rates won't be the driver. Short latency, QoS, ability for a phone to seamlessly move between various radio network layers (for 100% mobility), private networks with access to local content which could require Gbps speeds, higher order antenna systems etc. are all features we will see in those 4G/5G networks.