When you look at wireless communications for the enterprise, whether its for the office, home-office, or production floor, the first thing that comes up is the multiplicity of options, often associated with complicated names, standards, protocols, and spectrums.
So, 4G, 5G, 6G, Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac), Wi-Fi 6e (802.11ax), Wi-Fi 7(802.11be), Bluetooth, Bluetooth Low Energy, and a veritable horde of others all come up along with the impassioned marketing behind them all as ‘the’ solution to enterprise wireless communications.
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It immediately becomes daunting to even begin to know where to start, and if there is anything to the claim that one wireless technology can serve all use cases. While not impossible, it’s unlikely that a single wireless technology is all that’s needed.
Bias with wireless
Every vendor, service provider, and value-added reseller (VAR) have experts who can help with the technological specifics around a given enterprise use case. However, enterprise buyers have to control for bias – vendors, service providers, and VARs each have their own preferences and self-interest to take into account. A little bit of basic knowledge and a clear understanding of what the business and IT goals are, in that order. Its also necessary to understand existing use cases as well as planning for new ones. Excessive concentration on a single use case, unless the purchase is only about that use case is an easy way to get lost.
Requirements need to be around speed, latency (i.e., how long it takes the network to complete a request), range, security integration, and of course, costs. Costs need to encompass acquisition and implementation pricing as well as long term operational costs.
For instance, in a warehouse environment, it’s important that the signal reaches everywhere for automated materials handling and has low latency for safety and efficiency. This is a good use case for private 5G.
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By GlobalDataHowever, the employee cafeteria needs good connectivity, but is a much less daunting environment, but needs compatibility with a very broad variety of equipment. This is a good use case for Wi-Fi.
One step at a time
The easiest way to drink a lake dry is one cup at a time. The two most popular and available wireless technologies are 5G and Wi-Fi. For cellular technology, the latest iteration is 5G. This technology uses licensed and unlicensed radio spectrum to operate, and is used in public and private wireless networks.
For Wi-Fi the latest iteration is Wi-Fi 6e, which operates on unlicensed radio spectrum. The “e” designation is for devices with the ability to run at 6Ghz, which gives much greater data rates, but isn’t suitable for every installation, as it can’t penetrate barriers such as walls.
There is some discussion of 6G and Wi-Fi 7 in the media today. Both of these technologies are not due for quite some time. Wi-Fi 7 likely won’t hit general availability until H1 2025, and it will take even longer for devices such as laptops, tablets, and smartphones to be introduced to the market.
For 6G, the best current estimate for release is around 2030. Cut off any discussion of these two technologies as irrelevant if the implementation plan occurs before the planned releases, which also can change. Keep the needs of the use case(s) firmly in mind when discussing wireless. The ‘how’ is not nearly as important as the results. In the case of our two examples here, 5G and Wi-Fi 6e, each have their place and many times overlap. Take it slow and don’t get caught up in the technical details, it’s the outcome that matters.
