Wi-Fi in the Post-COVID19 Era Summary
Introduction
- Wi-Fi evolution accelerated by the pandemic.
- Focus on changes rather than baseline trends.
Immediate Responses Around Wi-Fi
- Increased home Wi-Fi equipment purchases.
- Decreased small-business Wi-Fi equipment purchases.
- Emergency Wi-Fi deployments for COVID-19 needs.
- Mixed picture for enterprise Wi-Fi deployments.
What Will Happen to Wi-Fi Over the Next Year?
- Accelerated deployments and upgrades of consumer broadband.
- Delayed 5G deployment.
- New applications for the "new normal."
- Continued growth in remote work and education.
- Economic downturn and recovery impacts.
- Return to higher infection levels and potential lockdowns.
- Wi-Fi 6 adoption and service provider strategies.
- Increased demand for Wi-Fi 6 products and features.
- Enterprise Wi-Fi upgrades and VPN capacity.
- Industrial Wi-Fi deployments and 5G integration.
Vision for Wi-Fi Over the Next 3 Years
- Economic scenarios and their impact on Wi-Fi.
- Continued emphasis on high-quality home broadband and Wi-Fi.
- Investments in healthcare, public safety, and logistics.
- Smart cities and transport systems.
- New regulations for pandemic-proofing buildings.
- Climate change and smart energy management.
- 5G deployments and indoor coverage challenges.
- New modes of entertainment and retail.
- Wi-Fi 6 and 6GHz adoption.
- Residential Wi-Fi sophistication and IoT integration.
- New classes of consumer and enterprise broadband services.
- Wireless-connected IoT devices for healthcare and infection control.
- New Wi-Fi functionalities and smart-building models.
- 60GHz and 802.11ay applications.
- Wi-Fi in public venues and transportation.
Implications for Wi-Fi Testing
- Growing requirements for test automation.
- Rapid testing cycles for new Wi-Fi 6 products.
- Specific test-cases for lockdown/remote work applications.
- Wi-Fi service assurance and support tools for enterprises.
- Multi-network testing for converged broadband offers.
- Multi-party testing for managed home broadband and Wi-Fi.
- Testing for new features and coexistence with other technologies.
- 6GHz testing and latency requirements.
- Emergency peak usage scenarios and 5G integration.
Conclusions and Recommendations
- Broadband Service Providers: Focus on whole-home Wi-Fi, analyze application demand, develop WFH packages, and accelerate Wi-Fi 6 and mesh solutions.
- Access Point / Client Vendors / Chipset Suppliers: Expect demand for mesh deployment, develop home-worker bundles, and design Wi-Fi 6 & 6E solutions for IoT environments.
- Enterprises: Consider in-house testing, develop managed-QoS packages, examine Wi-Fi roles for smart buildings, and optimize public hotspot implementations.
- Government and Regulatory Agencies: Release 6GHz unlicensed band, extend broadband regulations to indoor environments, and consider subsidies for home Wi-Fi upgrades.