Wi-Fi 7 and 5G-Advanced are developing synergistically
In the context of the rapid development of the digital economy, communication technology has become the cornerstone of modern society, which not only serves individuals and families, but also penetrates into many industries such as intelligent manufacturing, smart energy, and smart cities. Wi-Fi 7 and 5G-Advanced (5G-A) are accelerating their integration into all fields and links of society, enabling the digital transformation and upgrading of the economy and society.
As the latest evolution of the Wi-Fi technology standard, Wi-Fi 7 focuses on high-performance LAN wireless scenarios, and has made significant progress compared to Wi-Fi 6 in terms of increasing transmission rates, reducing transmission latency, and increasing network capacity. At the same time, 5G-A, as the latest capability evolution of 5G networks, focuses on wide-area wireless scenarios, and has made further progress in network intelligence, industry network integration, deterministic capability enhancement, positioning and perception capability enhancement, etc., providing users with more intelligent, easy-to-use, and stable high-speed data transmission services.
The combination of Wi-Fi 7’s high-quality LAN connectivity and cost-effectiveness, as well as the wide-area coverage and mobility benefits of 5G-A, can significantly improve overall network performance, network capacity, and coverage, resulting in a more efficient communication experience for users. In this article, we will focus on the four core directions of common technologies, wireless coverage, authentication security, and data transmission, and discuss the synergistic development path of Wi-Fi 7 and 5G-A.
Common technologies work together to drive network evolution
Although Wi-Fi 7 and 5G-A are complex communication systems, although there are great differences in operating frequency bands, channel coding, communication protocols, etc., they both adopt common technical means in the future evolution direction, such as ISAC, SDN, NFV, AI, etc., the following is a brief introduction and analysis of each technology.
Integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) technology has been applied in scenarios such as gesture recognition and vehicle recognition. The technology combines communication and perception capabilities to enable devices to conduct environmental monitoring while transmitting data. Wi-Fi uses Channel State Information (CSI) for wireless sensing, and uses advanced sensing models such as Fresnel zone to realize applications such as gesture recognition and human trajectory tracking. IEEE 802.11bf, a Wi-Fi-based wireless sensing standard, will be released in 2024 and is expected to further develop Wi-Fi sensing capabilities. The 5G-A system combines high-frequency beams and multi-antenna technology to enable base stations to achieve “radar” functions, which can identify the position, speed and direction of vehicles and low-altitude flying objects. In the future, Wi-Fi and cellular network systems will optimize sensing capabilities on the basis of prioritizing wireless communication, and carry out integrated design to meet the requirements of communication indicators and sensing indicators in the design stage.
Software-defined Networking (SDN) and Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) technologies are both aimed at realizing network virtualization and improving network management and service orchestration efficiency by pooling resources of physical devices. SDN technology uses a centralized network controller and a standardized network architecture model to achieve more flexible, robust, and fast network deployment and management capabilities. NFV technology encapsulates the network functions of traditional physical devices into independent modular software, and implements diversified network functions on a single hardware device by running different modular software on the hardware device. Both Wi-Fi 7 and cellular network systems use SDN and NFV architectures to intelligently optimize networks and make efficient use of resources, providing users with more reliable and convenient wireless connection services.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology is one of the hottest technologies at present, and the use of AI technology to improve the performance of wireless networks has become a research hotspot in the field of communication. Wi-Fi 7 can leverage AI’s big data processing and intelligent decision-making capabilities to bring predictive maintenance and intelligent optimization to the network, enabling the network to optimize in real time based on load and user needs. In addition to applying AI capabilities to network maintenance and orchestration, 5G-A also applies air interface AI technology to channel information feedback, positioning, and beam management. In the future, Wi-Fi and cellular network systems will be further integrated with AI to improve the operational efficiency and user experience of network systems.
Wireless coverage and collaboration to achieve global connectivity
Mobile cellular networks are designed to provide wide-area coverage and are suitable for a wide range of outdoor environments and mobility scenarios. Wi-Fi has the advantages of low deployment cost and high cost performance in indoor LAN scenarios such as homes and enterprises. Therefore, Wi-Fi 7 networks can be used as supplementary access points to 5G-A to achieve full coverage of “LAN + WAN” or further enhance local area coverage, thereby improving the communication experience of users.
In some indoor scenarios, such as office buildings, where there is severe occlusion, the signal strength of 5G may not be able to meet the communication needs of users due to severe penetration loss, resulting in a “dead end” of indoor communication. As an effective supplement to 5G networks in indoor scenarios, Wi-Fi 7 can achieve low-cost coverage in indoor scenarios without dead ends, providing users with a double guarantee for stable communication.
In urban fringe, rural areas and other areas, the construction of 5G base stations is relatively limited, and insufficient network coverage has become a major difficulty. The deployment solution of “Wi-Fi 7+ traditional IP bearer network” can effectively solve the problem of insufficient 5G coverage in these areas and provide users in these areas with cheap and stable wireless communication services.
Wi-Fi 7, as a wireless LAN, can supplement the frequency band resources and number of connections in dense scenarios such as airports and stadiums, and the network requirements for massive connections and ultra-high throughput may exceed the peak capacity of 5G-A, and Wi-Fi 7, as a wireless LAN, can supplement the frequency band resources and the number of connections in these scenarios, providing high-quality communication services for a large number of users in dense scenarios.
In mobile scenarios such as airplanes and high-speed trains, Wi-Fi cannot be connected to the Internet through wired broadband, but personal terminals without 5G modules, such as laptops, still need to be connected. A wireless LAN is established through network terminal equipment such as CPE (Customer Premise Equipment) to convert 5G signals into Wi-Fi signals to meet the networking requirements of personal terminals without 5G modules in mobile scenarios.
Authentication security works together to improve the reliability of Wi-Fi 7 authentication
Although Wi-Fi 7 has made significant progress in user authentication, there are still some gaps in security and reliability compared with 5G-A. 5G-A provides a higher level of security with a sophisticated authentication process and SIM card information encrypted on the device side. Therefore, the 5G-A system can achieve secure coordination with the Wi-Fi 7 system through dedicated network elements and protocol mechanisms, further optimizing the authentication reliability of Wi-Fi 7 users and ensuring the security of the entire network in public places with high network security risks, such as hotels and airports.
The core technology for 5G-A systems to achieve secure collaboration with Wi-Fi 7 is N3IWF (Non-3GPP Interoperable Function Network Element), which is responsible for handling non-3GPP (non-cellular) networks. In untrusted access scenarios, such as public Wi-Fi 7 hotspots, N3IWF can provide access points and ensure secure data transmission by building secure tunnels and implementing security protocols such as IPSec. N3IWF’s capabilities go beyond simple connection management to encrypt and authenticate transmitted data through strict security policies to protect against potential threats and attacks. In addition, N3IWF supports the authentication and authorization process, allowing only authenticated users to access the network, ensuring the overall security of the network.
Data transmission collaboration improves deterministic assurance
Wi-Fi 7 and 5G-A show strong synergy potential in data transmission, especially in applications with low latency, high stability, and high bandwidth, and they can provide a deterministic communication experience through multi-channel collaboration technology. Among them, application software transformation, hardware equipment deployment, and 5G-A endogenous deterministic collaboration are the three key technical directions of deterministic multi-channel collaboration.
Software application upgrade refers to replacing traditional communication middleware with transmission channels built by new technologies such as MP-TCP and QUIC, and implementing collaborative data transmission between Wi-Fi 7 and 5G-A through device-side software upgrades. The MP-TCP and QUIC technologies proposed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) can enhance the redundancy and coordination of links by establishing multiple transmission channels between different communication systems, providing users with higher uplink and downlink rates, reducing network transmission delays, reducing jitter and packet loss rates, and improving the network’s ability to support services with large bandwidth, low latency and high reliability.
Hardware upgrade refers to replacing traditional wireless gateways and CPEs with new multi-functional access gateways that support multi-network standard access. As a practical hardware solution, the multi-function access gateway can realize the cooperation of multiple networks. It coordinates the transmission of user data between mobile cellular networks and Wi-Fi through internal multi-transmit selective reception and traffic distribution aggregation functions, and enables effective cooperation between Wi-Fi 7 networks and 5G-A networks without modifying application software. In short, the introduction of multi-function access gateways enables operators to more flexibly integrate different networks and provide more reliable and bandwidth communications connections to meet the stringent network requirements of industry-critical services.
5G-A endogenous deterministic collaboration is one of the endogenous capabilities of the 5G-A system. Different from the closed architecture of traditional wireless networks, 5G-A is designed with the ATSSS (Access Traffic Steering, Switching and Splitting) function, which stipulates the mechanism for collaborative access and forwarding of external data. In the solution, the 5G-A system can effectively manage and integrate traffic accessed through Wi-Fi 7 based on the endogenous ATSSS function, including traffic control, traffic switching, and traffic segmentation, and can seamlessly switch and distribute traffic between cellular networks and Wi-Fi, providing users with smoother and more efficient data transmission services.
In the near future, the coordinated development of Wi-Fi 7 and 5G-A networks will bring more convenience to production and life. For example, in the core industrial production control link, the collaborative transmission between Wi-Fi and cellular networks can significantly improve the transmission performance and ensure the stable operation of wireless industrial control services. In the “blind spots” of 5G network coverage, Wi-Fi 7 can be deployed to provide efficient and economical wireless communication services. In hotels, restaurants, airports and other regions, enterprises can use the management architecture and SIM card information of cellular networks to achieve efficient authentication of users by regional Wi-Fi, which not only reduces the complexity of the user authentication process, but also significantly improves the security of authentication. At the same time, with the continuous evolution of common technologies, Wi-Fi 7 and 5G-A technical solutions will complement each other. In the future, all parties in the industry should strengthen technical exchanges, promote the integration and development of technologies, expand rich application scenarios, and improve users’ network experience.
