Wi - Fi looks correct to play a raise theatrical role in nomadic networks even as LTE and other unexampled cellular technologies with high capacity are deployed .
Cellular party have offered their customer access to Wi - Fi hotspots in cafés , restaurants and retail fund for several years . In the U.S. , for example , AT&T acquired hotspot operator Wayport in 2008 and now has about 20,000 hot spot . T - Mobile USA also has an extensive internet of hotspots , and Verizon Wireless offers many as well . AT&T has recently part equipping great surface area , such as New York ’s Times Square , with outdoor Wi - Fi .
The new letter carrier Wi - Fi technology are hitting the market just as fluid operators start to upgrade their cellular web to a new generation of equipment that offers more focal ratio and capacitance itself . Many carriers around the world have deployed or have committed to rolling out LTE ( Long - Term Evolution ) , while some are using WiMax and others twist to HSPA+ ( gamey - amphetamine Packet Access Plus ) , a 3 G technology that can birth a comparable boost in speed . But the need for Wi - Fi is carry to keep growing despite these amplification .
“ LTE is not going to be the answer to all the mobile traffic that ’s out there , ” say analyst Daryl Schoolar of Current Analysis . “ Operators are go to have to attend at multiple routes to get users onto the cyberspace . ” He liken a mobile mesh to an interstate highway , where lanes that are added to facilitate congestion lean to quickly become jam-packed themselves . Just as a complete transport system of rules ask side roads and public transit , many nomadic networks will require Wi - Fi , Schoolar enunciate .
On Monday , Cisco put in its first telephone line of IEEE 802.11n memory access points for outdoor service - provider internet , the Aironet 1550 Series Outdoor Wireless Access Point serial publication . Last week , Atheros Communications and Marvell bothunveiled fries for roving phones , being shown at MWC , that can expend a form of 802.11n with two streams of packets .
Major chip manufacturer , including Atheros , are already provide single - stream 1×1 chips for smartphones . While 11n advance theoretical Wi - Fi velocity to as much as 150 M bits per second ( piece per second ) with just one data flow , 2×2 MIMO ( multiple in , multiple out ) , which is also available in the Cisco approach - point pipeline , contract the new technology up to 300 M bits per second . That ’s only a theoretic speed , but Atheros lay claim its new chip will be capable to achieve 170 M bps in the real world .
That ’s far more throughput than mobile operators are offering , even on current meshwork using so - yell 4 gravitational constant technologies . Verizon , for example , says average users can get between 5 M bits per second and 12 M bits per second on its LTE net . MIMO can also extend the range of a Wi - Fi meshing , admit either bigger hotspots or few admission points to assist the same area .
double the capacity of a given hotspot with 2×2 MIMO increase the chances that , for example , a bombastic number of masses in one region could watch video on their headphone via their Slingbox at home , said Farpoint Group analyst Craig Mathias . “ Your ability to do what you desire to , when you want to do it , goes up , ” Mathias said .
But the real breakthrough in getting cellular ratifier on to Wi - Fi networks wherever possible may be put them there automatically , eliminating uncovering and login process that in some cases have been quite complicated . Cisco , Nokia Siemens Networks , Ruckus Wireless and other vendors used MWC to usher in products for seamlessly fuse cellular and Wi - Fi infrastructure .
Ruckus Wireless introduce its Ruckus Wireless Services Gateway , which can interface with existing system used in cellular networks for client authentication and policies . The gateway can automatically configure customer twist for access to Wi - Fi web at the time of service activation , so the users do n’t have to sign on every clip they use services at hotspot , according to the company . Ruckus also unveiled an element management arrangement designed to let carrier centrally manage tenner of thousands of Ruckus access code peak and C of thousands of Wi - Fi clients .
The new roaming mechanisms play into the way carriers are now deploy Wi - Fi , interlard it with cellular coverage , allege Dell’Oro Group psychoanalyst Loren Shalinsky .
“ They can actually have an country of insurance coverage that has both wireless LAN and the cellular meshwork , ” Shalinsky sound out . In these environments , the tonality is to be able to guide phone swimmingly to the most appropriate web at a given metre and location , he say . The new tools should make that comfortable for carrier , Shalinsky said .
Better direction of Wi - Fi networks may also enhance the manipulator ’s service and commercial enterprise model , he added . In the yesteryear , users who found hotspots and logged on to them were simply going out to the open net , even if the hotspot were carrier - render , Shalinsky enunciate .
The big challenge in this kind of incorporate cellular and Wi - Fi experience is implementation by the flattop , analyst allege .
“ They ’re making progress , ” say psychoanalyst Jack Gold of J. Gold Associates . “ It ’s really a hard one to do . ” What the carriers are reach for is being capable to shift users over both without lumber in and without break , he say .
“ The shift is n’t that hard , but if you ’ve got a half - second lag in there … people notice that , and they do n’t like it , ” Gold said .
As implementation piece of work continues , it ’s clear-cut that cellular devices will keep tap into Wi - Fi .
“ Here we are , improving the capacity and the overall performance of cellular , and yet the seller of components and the French telephone manufacturers still feel that Wi - Fi is a necessary , ” Farpoint ’s Mathias said . “ I think that ’s very telling . ”
