Working together: Two ways Wi-Fi and 5G can coexist

WBA: Wi-Fi and 5G coexist at the physical layer of the network to provide a " better connection" experience

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Bruno Tomas, director of the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA), told RCR Wireless News that currently the only way for Wi-Fi and 5G to work together is to coexist.

“Today, you don’t have convergence,” he said. “Technically, you can’t say you’re deploying a converged Wi-Fi and 5G network, or even Wi-Fi and LTE. You only have coexistence.”

He went on to explain that from a WBA perspective, there are two ways to think about how Wi-Fi and 5G can coexist: coexistence at the network physical layer and what Tomas calls “excellent connectivity” coexistence. Each scenario presents its own challenges.

Physical layer coexistence:

The first way to think about Wi-Fi and 5G coexistence on a network is to physically use the technologies in both bands. The key here is that each technology must "play well together" and effectively avoid interfering with each other.

“For example, when you use 5G NR-U,” Tomas explained, “you’re using the exact same frequency band that Wi-Fi has been using for years. First, they’re going to be in the 6 GHz band, so the 3GPP specifications already include ways for 5G to operate completely independently in this unlicensed band, and there have to be coexistence metrics so that there’s no harmful interference between the two technologies.”

To aid this type of coexistence, the WBA is working to develop automated frequency systems and threshold levels for each technology.

“At an industry level, we need to reach consensus on these systems and thresholds,” Tomas said.

After all, this isn’t all that different from how Wi-Fi and 4G currently coexist, each supporting different use cases. The difference is that Wi-Fi 6 might not be used for cellular offload in large venues or stadiums, as is common today, but could be used for other parts of the venue network, as well as other applications.

Excellent connection coexistence:

The second approach to achieving coexistence is to focus on developing a method to ensure that when Wi-Fi and cellular connections exist simultaneously, users are always connected to the technology that provides the best , most reliable coverage.

We've all been there before: sitting in a coffee shop, or even at home, toggling the Wi-Fi button on and off, trying to figure out which is faster, cellular or Wi-Fi.

Tomas sidestepped the conundrum by asking, “If I have overlapping Wi-Fi and 5G coverage or overlapping Wi-Fi and private LTE coverage, where do I connect? If I’m connected to cellular and I go into a venue, what are the good metrics for me to switch and still maintain quality of service and stay consistent with my subscription plan?”

In a 5G world, this coexistence and the resulting barriers for users will continue to exist, especially in large venues. The WBA hopes its Wi-Fi Open Roaming service can ease this challenge by automatically letting user devices decide which network to connect to for the best coverage.

Tomas explained that the OpenRoaming system allows connectivity providers to go from allowing users’ devices to automatically connect to Wi-Fi networks with downlinks below 5 Mbps to keeping them on cellular networks.