Role conversion in the 4G era: transforming Wi-Fi into the leading role

At present, 4G networks have become a new favorite of global mainstream operators. According to the latest GSA data, 251 4G networks have been deployed in 93 countries around the world. In China, with the issuance of 4G licenses in December 4, 2013, China officially entered the commercial period, and the mobile cellular network speed reached 100 Mbps. Correspondingly, the Wi-Fi technology is constantly improving, from 802.11a/g to 802.11n and the latest 802.11ac standard, the speed is also increased from 54Mbps to 300 Mbps, Mbps, or even 1 Gbps of 802.11ac, and Wi-Fi hotspots are already full of almost all hotspot areas, including hotels, office buildings, hot commercial areas, and even major blocks.

With the development of Internet, mobile Internet applications, and services, networks and terminals are also increasingly requiring higher network speeds. At the same time, the data volume of applications used by users is growing, which also requires a more cost-effective network access method. Wi-Fi solves this problem. At the same time, many people in the industry are optimistic about this technology, including manufacturers, telecom operators, analysis institutions and other experts.

"Wi-Fi is the most successful wireless technology invented by humans ." Huang Xiaoqing, president of the China Mobile Research Institute, said that the frequency of user use of Wi-Fi is 10 times that of mobile communication, and this proportion continues to expand.

Li tingwei, president and vice president of global sales of Broadcom Greater China, said in an interview that in the LTE era, I believe that Wi-Fi will become a leading role.

The Wi-Fi network supported by 802.11ac brings bandwidth comparable to that supported by wired access switches to WLAN technology, which also makes Wi-Fi a default option for network infrastructure. Jim Berenbaum, Gartner Research Director of mobility, wireless and network technology, said: "This new technology with enhanced performance allows WLAN to better position itself as a substitute for wired networks ."

As WLAN evolved from a "good function" to a critical enterprise network, enterprises will need tools to simplify management of Wired/wireless networks and improve the overall performance of their entire environment. As users bring more and more new devices without Ethernet ports (such as laptops and tablets), IT is facing a lot of pressure to ensure that its Wi-Fi network can meet the needs of these devices.

Berenbaum said: "Everyone's interest in all wireless enterprises is constantly increasing, but this year it will not increase rapidly. More likely, there will be wired and wireless hybrid networks, because Wired is still used in most environments."

In 2013, the 802.11ac standard attracted the attention of almost all WLAN vendors. Aruba, Motorola, Cisco, and Xirrus all launched New Wave 1 Gigabit Wi-Fi modularization and special access points.

At the 2013 Global Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) Global Conference, Huang Xiaoqing revealed that by 2015, the number of China Mobile AP hot spots will reach 6 million, at that time, the number of China Mobile LTE base stations will reach 0.6 million, and China Mobile will build a four-network collaboration strategy for WLAN, 2G, 3G, and LTE.

"When users get better, they will remember China Mobile ." Huang Xiaoqing said, "This is the business model of Wi-Fi: the more Wi-Fi coverage, the better, and the more money it will earn, not how Wi-Fi is profitable ." At present, China Mobile covers almost 100% of China's universities. The "15 yuan/month WLAN package is very popular among students ."

In addition, the HotSpot 2.0 standard set by the Wi-Fi Alliance and the wireless broadband Association for Public Wi-Fi access will become a "innovator" in the WLAN market ", it allows users to roam between Wi-Fi networks and between Wi-Fi and cellular networks without re-authentication. Some enterprises have begun to invest in HotSpot 2.0 to address the needs of mobile users, but how this standard will be applied in the enterprise environment remains to be observed. Berenbaum said: "Currently, HotSpot 2.0 is more suitable for carrier-based Wi-Fi environments than enterprise environments, but this standard may also be truly deployed within the enterprise ."

Huang Xiaoqing revealed that China Mobile will actively promote the commercialization of NGH (Next Generation Hotspot) Wi-Fi. NGH uses the Wi-Fi Alliance's Hotspot 2.0 specification as its technical basis for authentication and roaming, you can automatically discover users within the specified range and enable automatic connection without authentication. Compared with Wi-Fi, which has been criticized as "complicated authentication" and "difficult to find hot spots" At present, NGH can bring about revolutionary experience changes and has been recognized by more and more operators. CEO of WBA said the market size of NGH Wi-Fi was about $150 billion. In addition, NGH Wi-Fi was initially designed to achieve global roaming. According to Huang Xiaoqing, China Mobile's Wi-Fi users can automatically use AT&T's Wi-Fi network in the United States, without authentication, and the price is 20 yuan/day. At this conference, WBA organized 15 global operators to demonstrate global NGH Wi-Fi Roaming Based on the Hotspot2.0 standard for the first time: the Wi-Fi users of these 15 operators can roam across their networks. "WBA is committed to expanding the Organization scale, recently, China Mobile's Wi-Fi users can roam in Asia Pacific, Europe, America, and Australia."