What is Wi-Fi?

Wi-Fi technology, standardised through the IEEE 802.11 series of standards, has become widespread, low cost and easily accesible. Equipment certification and interoperability have been ensured by the Wi-Fi Alliance, a trade alliance which promotes the technology and interworking. The Wireless Broadband Alliance have developed operating procedures and processes to enable roaming between public Wi-Fi networks, including security based on cellular network SIM cards.

The technology operates on unlicenced frequencies, at 2.4GHz and 5GHz. This is shared with many other users and devices, from baby alarms to security cameras, but the low RF power tends to limit the range. This makes it ideal in many residential settings, but can cause interference problems in dense urban areas, such as tower blocks and shopping malls. Battery power drain when using Wi-Fi has also been a concern.

Later versions of the Wi-Fi standard promise ever faster speeds, better tolerance of interference conditions and security. 802.11ad (also known as Wi-Gig) offers multi-Gigabit traffic rates over short distance in the 60GHz band. 802.11ac promises 500Mbit/s or more in the 5GHz band.

Wi-Fi now seen as an extra resource, not a threat

Wi-Fi was first seen by mobile operators as a threat, but it was quickly realised that the technology could be used to relieve capacity demands by offloading traffic when at home, in the office or even some public locations. Smartphones were mandated to include the technology, and few (if any) are available today without it. Not all smartphones have the latest standards though, and there is a large installed base with older versions.

Some operators have deployed huge numbers - hundreds of thousands - of public access Wi-Fi hotspots in order to relieve capacity on their cellular networks. Users actively seek out these hotspots, partly because they can find faster data rates than on 3G and partly because they may be cheaper (not counting towards their cellular data cap). US operators such as Verizon and AT&T have reported that as much as 50% of user traffic is carried via their public Wi-Fi network. In some cases, much more additional data traffic may be handled outside the operators network on residential or office Wi-Fi. China Mobile already has more than 1 million and promises to deploy as many as 6 million across the country by 2015.

However, there can be problems if too many Wi-Fi hotspots are co-located. Popular exhibition venues are a common example, but Japanese and Korean operators have found capacity saturated in urban areas and now seek to invest in LTE in licenced spectrum to increase system throughput and improve quality of service. Qualcomm published a report in 2010 on this topic, comparing Wi-Fi with LTE small cells, which we reviewed here.

Implications for small cells

Wi-Fi has now become an optional feature for many metrocells, and can be deployed at the same time. Developments by the Wi-Fi Broadband Alliance should make it easier to integrate Wi-Fi as part of the cellular operator's service, sharing the same SIM card authentication and billing/roaming arrangements.We explain how Wi-Fi and Cellular networks will become more integrated, with some help from senior Cisco architects. We also reviewed a white paper published by the Small Cell Forum, which clearly segments the different types of wireless traffic that are suitable for each case.

Some believe that in the long term small cells will select which of 3G, LTE and/or Wi-Fi radio technologies to use in real time, deciding based on device capability, traffic demand, traffic type and tariff plan. This would make best use of all available spectrum and deliver the best performance. Others believe that service using controlled spectrum will usually be better, and that Wi-Fi is a useful, best effort service for lower priority or lower cost applications.

ThinkSmallCell Interview with Arthur Giftakis, Towerstream

Written by David Chambers.

Published on25 September 2013

Arthur Giftakis Towerstream We've heard a lot about Small Cell hosting services in Europe but not that much in other countries. Towerstream has been quietly building up a portfolio of suitable sites for urban outdoor metrocells across the US, and we spoke to Arthur Giftakis, VP Engineering and Operations, to learn how that came about.

His view contrasts with the street level/lightpole only deployments promoted in other countries, serves outdoor rather than indoors, and suggests wholesale Wi-Fi expanding to multi-operator cellular small cells may be the long term solution.

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Five different small cell value propositions for indoor venues

Written by David Chambers.

Published on22 August 2013

Commercial Wi-Fi business models Network planning departments in cellular operators are primarily focussed on lowering the cost of production. If small cells are cheaper than macrocells, they'll consider using them. The primary beneficiary is their end customer, the smartphone user. Some operators look at Carrier Wi-Fi purely from this perspective.

Meanwhile Wi-Fi operators have had to be much more creative and develop a variety of business models to justify deployment. There's a greater focus on the benefits to the venue owner than just the end user (who may be getting the service for free), and on indoor rather than outdoor use.

Andy Baker, who runs BT Wi-Fi, lists five tenets of the Service Provider Wi-Fi business case. More than one often applies in any given scenario, and individually they may not be viable on their own. We've compared these to the current mentality of a mobile operator and considered if they could equally apply for cellular service.

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Wireless Broadband Alliance enable seamless cellular and Wi-Fi using Small Cells

Written by David Chambers.

Published on21 May 2013

Tiago Rodrigues Wi-Fi is being mandated for many public access small cells, with an product specification of a tri-mode 3G/LTE/Wi-Fi small cell commonly thought of as an ideal long term goal. Relatively low takeup of Service Provider Wi-Fi to date isn't helped by clunky, unintuitive and potentially insecure login screens.

Tiago Rodrigues, Program Director at the Wireless Broadband Alliance explains how the WBA has developed a solution which makes Wi-Fi access as easy as cellular roaming, where and how this could be rolled out, and what the WBA/Small Cell Forum partnership could deliver next.

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Small Cell perspective of Wi-Fi Global Congress, London

Written by David Chambers.

Published on18 June 2013

This conference focused on Carrier Wi-Fi, and specifically roaming and interoperation between network operators. It's overseen by the Wi-Fi Broadband Alliance (WBA), with Avren/Clarion running the event. Don't confuse the WBA (with 100+ members) who focus on Wi-Fi roaming with the Wi-Fi Alliance (with 500+ members) who concentrate on Wi-Fi equipment standards and certification.

Attendance has almost doubled to 460 this year, showing rapid growth in this sector. As Richard Webb of Infonetics commented during his introduction, Wi-Fi used to be discounted by mobile operators (or worse) but is now very much a part of mobile network operator strategy. A variety of service providers attended including both mobile networks, fixed networks, cable and wireless.

What's this got to do with Small Cells? The previous week's Small Cell conference reinforced the intent of many (most) mobile network operators to incorporate Carrier Wi-Fi capability into 3G and/or LTE small cells. This week's conference was a good checkpoint to compare how far Carrier Wi-Fi has developed and how close we are to the seamless integrated quality cellular/Wi-Fi experience that operators are striving to achieve for a sensible cost.

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Will small cells increase public Wi-Fi usage beyond 2%

Written by David Chambers.

Published on28 March 2013

Service Provider Wi-Fi A recent research report from Informa came up with a startling conclusion about just how little public Wi-Fi is used by smartphones today - they reckon something less than 2% in most countries. With many operators requesting (or mandating) that their small cells incorporate Wi-Fi, usage levels will need to change to justify the extra complexity and expense.