This access point (AP) is the first to be installed on the International Space Station’s port truss.

Figure 1: NASA astronaut Raja Chari connects an Ethernet cable to a wireless high-definition camera assembly on the main truss of the International Space Station, converting it to operate as a Wi-Fi access point. (Source: NASA)

During a seven-hour spacewalk on March 23, 2022, NASA astronaut Raja Chari and ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer installed a Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ access point (AP) on the port side of the International Space Station’s main truss. The access point is the first to be sited on the port truss, and from this vantage, the newest AP provides not only a great camera view but also an open Wi-Fi^® line-of-sight for the port side of the Russian segment and the Japanese Experiment Module External Facility (JEM-EF) experiment porch. The station’s solar panels partially block radio signals but the new access point is close enough to penetrate the port solar panels enough to reach the worksite where astronauts recently installed additional panels (iROSA).

An incremental approach

Because the access point is packaged with a high-definition camera, it replaced the existing external high-definition camera (EHDC) on the external television camera group (ETVCG). Chari and Maurer connected an Ethernet cable that was routed a year earlier on March 13, 2021 by NASA astronauts Victor Glover and Michael Hopkins, who were already working in the area. Working among the solar panels at the end of the port truss, the Wi-Fi coverage for Hopkins and Glover’s helmet cameras were challenged by distance and blockages to the nearest access point. Hopkins and Glover did not connect the Ethernet to the high-definition wireless camera at the Camera Port number 8 (CP8) camera at the time because the Ethernet connector is difficult to manipulate while wearing gloves. Originally the camera assembly was designed to connect wirelessly, and the Ethernet connection on the camera was intended as a service connector for logistics on the ground. Before moving the replacement camera into the airlock, Chari and Maurer fitted a pigtail to the replacement camera to allow them to easily connect the Ethernet during the spacewalk.

Figure 2: NASA astronaut Raja Chari double-checks the Ethernet connection to the replacement camera’s test port on March 17th. (Source: NASA)

Figure 3: After routing a pair of Ethernet cables along the port truss out to the Camera Port 8 on the International Space Station, NASA astronaut Michael Hopkins leaves a bag over the end of the cable in March 2021. ( Source: NASA)

The high-definition camera at CP8 was originally installed during a spacewalk in September of 2016 by Commander Jeff Williams and astronaut Kate Rubins. Digital camera image sensors accumulate “dead pixels” and periodically need to be replaced. At that time before the ethernet cable was installed, the camera connected as a wireless client.

Figure 4: The External Television Camera Group (ETVCG) is comprised (left to right) of a luminaire, a motorized pan-and-tilt positioner, and standard-definition camera. In 2016, space walkers mounted a high-definition digital camera (EHDC) beside the analog camera and re-routed luminaire power to pass through the digital camera assembly. The digital camera connected wirelessly as a Wi-Fi client. Close-out photo of Camera Port 8 EHDC installation taken by astronaut Jeff Williams. (Source: NASA)

Eight NASA Wi-Fi APs were already providing coverage around the outside of the space station, with two of them located on the starboard end of the main truss, and six on the pressurized living space. The radio propagation environment of the space station is dominated by the surrounding black emptiness of space, and of course the metal structure and metalized blankets. The high-definition camera at Camera Port 9 presently remains a Wi-Fi client (it has connected to nearby Camera Port 8) but the Ethernet is already routed to convert CP9. When the CP9 camera is replaced, the zone will have redundancy and wireless capacity will double as CP9 will offer significant coverage overlap for CP8.

A welcome improvement

A pair of Russian spacewalks in April were the first to benefit from the improved coverage. Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev and Denis Matveev conducted both spacewalks, which added a European Robotic Arm to the new Russian Nauka module. As customary, NASA’s helmet cameras were installed onto the Russian Orlan suits, and the complement now includes a high-definition Wi-Fi camera supplementing legacy standard-definition analog cameras. As a result of the new access points, the streaming digital video upload from each of the two suits during the spacewalks has become more robust than the legacy video system.

Figure 5: Cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev waves to the camera during a spacewalk on April 18. Artemyev was working to complete the new Nauka multipurpose laboratory module and configure the European robotic arm on the International Space Station's Russian segment. Russian ground controllers supporting Dubrov were able to see live high-definition video from his Orlan spacesuit delivered over Wi-Fi. (Source: NASA)

A robust infrastructure

Wi-Fi infrastructure surrounding the International Space Station is now significantly diversified and roaming clients can find reliable wireless connectivity almost anywhere they can go. The versatility of wireless network technology, interchangeable parts, and easily relocated installations continues to allow NASA’s External Wireless team to adapt quickly to meet emerging needs.

Attendees at the Wi-Fi Alliance^® Lisbon member meeting (#LisbonWiFi22) viewed a demonstration of Wi-Fi Sensing that supports a crucial automotive use case. Child Presence Detection (CPD) leverages Wi-Fi^® to detect if a child is unattended in a vehicle and can also determine if they are moving and breathing. The CPD demo, developed by Murata, NXP^® Semiconductors, and Origin Wireless, utilizes Artificial Intelligence (AI) from Origin Wireless to process the Carrier State Information (CSI) of existing Wi-Fi transmissions to enable Wi-Fi Sensing. In the demo, Wi-Fi Sensing technology is used to identify the presence of a child in a vehicle and can register even slight environmental changes in real-time, including biometric variations like respiration.

Demonstrating Wi-Fi Sensing:

The demonstration includes installation of two Wi-Fi units based on NXP^® Semiconductors' chipsets, one on the left side of the front dashboard and the other on the floor between the front right passenger and back passenger seats. The Wi-Fi Sensing units take the initial measurements of the unoccupied car, which confirm that no occupants or biometric data are recorded. Next, demonstrators simulate an infant’s gestures and breathing by wrapping an animatronic doll with realistic respiratory chest movements in a blanket and place it in the back seat of the car. The Wi-Fi Sensing AI is run again, showing that it is now able to identify the doll’s “breathing” and any movements it makes. Because Wi-Fi radio waves are utilized to sense the environment, blind spots are eliminated, ensuring that the entire vehicle receives coverage. This is proven by rerunning the test by moving the animatronic doll into several different positions, demonstrating that Wi-Fi Sensing can successfully recognize the infant in various locations, even on the floor of the car or under a blanket.

Wi-Fi Sensing CPD capabilities displayed:

• Flexible installation options through pre-configured Wi-Fi systems, such as navigation
• Omnidirectional Wi-Fi radio waves practically eliminate blind spots, providing coverage for the entire vehicle
• Variations in radio wave reflections detect subtle movements, which are captured in CSI data

Figure 1: Wi-Fi units are installed in the vehicle (source: Murata)

Figure 2: Wi-Fi radio signals are used to detect biometric data (source: Murata)

“Wi-Fi Sensing allows the location of sensors to be highly flexible, while still providing comprehensive, real-time detection of environmental changes during critical scenarios, such as monitoring the breathing and movement of a child left behind in a hot car,” said Nozomu Kijiya, Product Engineer, Murata. “It is a powerful way to contribute to the new standard for New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) compliance.”

“Other technologies performing child presence detection often have issues with blind spots, complicated install, or expensive hardware costs,” said Dr. Ray Liu, President and CEO of Origin. “With Wi-Fi Sensing, we’re delivering a superior solution using existing Wi-Fi in a car that will give families peace of mind knowing that they will be alerted if a child is left unattended in the car – no matter where they are or if they are under blankets. We hope to keep making strides with Murata to bring this revolutionary technology to every car in the world.”

The future of Wi-Fi Sensing

Employing Wi-Fi Sensing to enable CPD can deliver peace of mind in automotive applications, but there are countless arenas in which Wi-Fi Sensing technology could make a positive impact. With straightforward installation, comprehensive coverage, and utilization of existing Wi-Fi systems, the benefits of Wi-Fi Sensing could serve multiple markets, including home security, energy optimization, building automation, healthcare, and many more.

With the potential to revolutionize agriculture, improve yields and protect the environment, it’s easy to understand why the smart agriculture market is predicted to reach $24.3 billion by the end of 2022. Last year, farmers installed 27.4 million wireless IoT devices; a number that has risen steadily over the last five years. The increasing use of these devices suggests that today’s farmers require the same level of connectivity as residents of urban environments, if not more.

Harvesting the power of long-range, low-power connectivity is essential to farming in the modern age. With a plethora of connectivity options on the market, Morse Micro conducted testing to better understand how the range of Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Halow™ could perform in rural environments. This test utilized the Morse Micro MM6108-EKH01 Wi-Fi HaLow™ evaluation kit on two farms in Southern Australia to determine the maximum range to cover IoT sensors, actuators, and cameras across paddocks and pastures. Note: the MM6108-EKH01 is an implementation of the IEEE 802.11ah standard in a convenient form factor.

Phase 1:

For this test, Morse Micro upgraded the 900 MHz antenna included in the MM6108-EKH01 to a 1.2 meter (m) 6 decibel relative to isotrope (dBi) omnidirectional vertical antenna on the Access Point (AP), which acted as the ‘base station’. The AP antenna was located on the roof of the homestead at a height of approximately 10 m to create the best line of sight coverage for the farm. The mobile station was placed on top of a car at various test locations. The BSS operating channel was 8 MHz wide and automatic rate shifting to lower MCS rates was enabled, achieving total coverage of the farm at a variety of bit rates. The table below displays throughput versus path results, with the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) and Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) columns showing a range of throughput from worst to best case for several runs. 

Phase 2:

Two paths were attempted in this test, one leading back to the homestead, and the other leading to a dam. It is important to note that the longest path from the high spot to the homestead was "line-of-sight", but the path to the dam was not. The table below displays throughput versus path results, again with the UDP and TCP columns displaying a range of throughput from worst to best case for several runs.

Connectivity yields

Several observations emerged from these initial tests. First, for line-of-sight paths, Wi-Fi HaLow is very robust at 2 km and has the capacity to reach farther with the setup mentioned above. Second, in shorter, but non-line-of-site paths, the technology still performs well, likely due to variables such as knife-edge diffraction or vegetation scattering. Fluctuations in throughput were likely caused by moving people, equipment, and foliage but overall had little impact across tests.

Depending on farm size, meshing like that of a sub-gigahertz (S1G) relay, could be used to increase the range. Alternatively, the current MM6108-EKH01 has a maximum conducted output power of 21 decibels per milliwatt (dBm). With an antenna gain of 6 dBi on the AP, there was 3 decibels available before reaching the maximum Effective Isotropic Radiated Power (EIRP) in Australia of 30 dBm. Increasing transmit power to 24 dBm would result in a doubling of the range. The antenna gain on the mobile station could be increased to 6 dBi for line-of-sight ranges that could exceed 8 km, with the potential to reach up to a maximum of 15 km.

As there is no need for proprietary hubs or gateways, enabling a single access point to support more than 8,000 IoT devices, Wi-Fi HaLow would be particularly useful for livestock or monitoring field conditions. In addition to long-range connectivity that extends more than 1 km from the access point, Wi-Fi HaLow’s ultra-low power enables IoT devices to run on batteries for months (if not years), which is again beneficial to the rollout of IoT infrastructure in agricultural environments.

There are many other considerations in dense farm situations, but overall, our tests support that Wi-Fi HaLow is an excellent choice for rolling out a high data rate, high capacity, farm-wide IoT network.

Neil is an Australian inventor and engineer, noted for having designed a 2-chip wireless LAN implementation and for authoring the textbook Principles of CMOS VLSI Design. He has 20+ years of experience in Wi-Fi and is the VP of engineering at Morse Micro.  He was the founder of Radiata, which produced the world’s first Wi-Fi 802.11a chip, before being acquired by Cisco.

This Special Feature appeared in the November 2022 edition (Issue 7) of the Wi-Fi Alliance^®Wi-Fi 6E Insights newsletter. To subscribe to the newsletter, please sign up here.

As analyst Dean Bubley wrote in a recent blog post for the Wi-Fi Alliance: “Wi-Fi^® is hugely popular, forming the backbone of most connectivity in homes, offices, schools, and many commercial spaces, especially indoors. Many devices such as TVs and displays, laptops, home Internet of Things (IoT) products, payment terminals, retail tills, and industrial automation systems are connected via Wi-Fi only. Home-based work and education also rely on Wi-Fi.”

Now enterprises are taking advantage of the advanced capabilities of Wi-Fi 6E to support demanding applications. In industrial environments, for example, Wi-Fi 6E is beginning to deliver a range of applications, such as machine analytics, remote maintenance, and virtual employee training. Wi-Fi 6, Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7 are based on OFDMA technology and are thereby able to achieve very high quality of service (QoS) levels, particularly in managed networks.

In markets where there is sufficient spectrum available, Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E can connect many devices simultaneously and support fast data throughput, while delivering the low levels of latency required by demanding applications, such as augmented and virtual reality. Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E also allow devices, such as manufacturing robots, and drones, to remain connected even as they move or “roam” throughout a home or industrial networks. At the same time, Wi-Fi is easy-to-deploy and cost-effective – it requires no separate gateways or specialized skills.

It is not surprising then that enterprise demand for Wi-Fi continues to rise rapidly. The value of the global wireless local area network (WLAN) enterprise market increased by more than 20% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2022 to US$2.1 billion, according to research firm IDC.^[1] That follows on from 17.1% growth in the first quarter of 2022. IDC said that growth in the enterprise WLAN market continues to be driven by Wi-Fi 6.

Expanding the Internet of Things

Analysts note that Wi-Fi is playing a growing role in the IoT, which enables organizations to remotely monitor and control devices, equipment, appliances and vehicles. “Wi-Fi can deliver a wide range of data rates and ranges at varying price points because there are an abundance of Wi-Fi chips supporting different levels of complexity and several unlicensed spectrum bands from sub-1 GHz to 6 GHz,” says Phil Solis, research director, IDC. “It is this diversity in chips designs that allow Wi-Fi to meet the broadest array of IoT product and network requirements.”

Adlane Fellah, senior analyst at Maravedis Research, has highlighted how enhancements to latency, determinism, and power efficiency mean Wi-Fi 6 can support many of the requirements for industrial use cases. “In a smart factory, Wi-Fi might deliver the optimal cost/performance for high bandwidth cameras that power augmented reality services and Wi-Fi HaLow^™ might be optimal for machinery monitoring, which needs very low power and low bandwidth,” he added.

Crucially, given rising energy prices and the need to curb climate change, Wi-Fi 6 is also more power efficient than its predecessors. As explained in the Green Wi-Fi report^[2] by Wik Consult, Wi-Fi 6 enables more data to be transmitted while energy usage stays constant. Furthermore, using Wi-Fi 6E’s “deep sleep mode” can reduce power consumption considerably.

Where there is sufficient license-exempt spectrum available, “unlicensed 6 GHz technologies, running at low power levels, offer the opportunity for cellular networks to offload, not just capacity, but also energy consumption and CO₂ footprint,” notes Dean Bubley. “Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7 would connect to a building’s fiber broadband and reduce system-wide energy needs for both the network and user devices.”

This editorial appears in the November 2022 edition (Issue 7) of the Wi-Fi Alliance^® Wi-Fi 6E Insights newsletter, a quarterly newsletter sharing updates on regulatory developments in the growing Wi-Fi 6E ecosystem. To subscribe to the newsletter, please sign up here.

Welcome to the latest edition of the Wi-Fi 6E Insights newsletter. Wi-Fi 6E refers to devices that offer the features and capabilities of Wi-Fi 6 – including higher performance, lower latency, and faster data rates – extended into the 5925-7125 GHz frequency band (the 6 GHz band). Developed for policymakers and regulators in the EMEA region and beyond, this newsletter focuses on developments related to Wi-Fi 6E and the views of key stakeholders.

As spectrum regulators decide to open access to the 6 GHz band, users worldwide are enthusiastically embracing Wi-Fi 6E technology. Wi-Fi Alliance has certified more than 660 devices for Wi-Fi 6E, and in what could be the world’s largest Wi-Fi 6E deployment to-date, the University of Michigan, has installed 16,000 Wi-Fi 6E access points across 225 buildings.

Now, the university’s network can support 70,000 concurrent connections and users typically get download speeds of 300 to 400 Mbps. For a leading research institution, that kind of connectivity is highly advantageous. “We believe in using this unlicensed spectrum because there are inherent benefits for research,” Ravi Pendse, CIO at the University of Michigan, told the Wi-Fi Alliance in a recent podcast. Wi-Fi 6E is allowing “many researchers to move data at incredibly high speeds without interfering with each other because of the number of channels that are simply available.”

Similarly, Wi-Fi 6E has brought a boost to San Francisco’s Chase Center, a major live entertainment venue, while enabling Novant Health to provide secure, dedicated connectivity for mission-critical healthcare apps and thousands of medical devices. "Wi-Fi 6E brings 1200 MHz of interference-free spectrum that will enable advanced healthcare deployment scenarios,” says Allen Rider, chief wireless network architect at Novant Health. “Wi-Fi 6E is the catalyst that will enable our vision of next-generation healthcare and patient experiences.”

Access to the full 6 GHz band brings big benefits

Encouragingly, EMEA regulators are recognizing that allowing license-exempt access to the full 6 GHz band would accomplish two important policy objectives: alleviate growing Wi-Fi^® data traffic congestion, and enable their citizens to benefit fully from the significant performance advances made possible by Wi-Fi 6E, particularly when paired with fiber or cable connectivity. Recently, the United Kingdom spectrum regulator (Ofcom) ,in a submission to the CEPT, accurately assessed the license-exempt use of the upper 6 GHz band (6425-7125 MHz) as “a credible alternative use for this band: North America and a number of countries in other regions have license exempted the band for use, such as Wi-Fi and 5G NR-U (5G New Radio Unlicensed). This would take advantage of the nascent ecosystem of devices serving significant indoor traffic earlier than could be achieved by IMT (International Mobile Telecommunications).”

Similarly, for telecom providers, Wi-Fi 6E is becoming an integral part of their broadband service infrastructure. “Customers will see a step change in performance, with faster speeds, lower latency and improved reliability,” says Kester Mann, director of consumer and connectivity at CCS Insight, in Vodafone’s press release announcing the new Wi-Fi 6E hub, which could enable customers to enjoy average download speeds of 910 Mbps. Vodafone UK noted that more than 150 Wi-Fi 6E devices can be connected to its new hub, underlining the rapid growth in the Wi-Fi 6E ecosystem.

The need to combat climate change and the ongoing energy crisis are also important reasons for expanding Wi-Fi access. Wi-Fi technology excels in low power, cognitive radio techniques including spectrum sensing, spectrum sharing and adaptive transmission. These techniques enable Wi-Fi to significantly outperform cellular in energy efficiency.

Importantly, Wi-Fi is, by far, the best way to provide low cost and energy-efficient indoor connectivity. To penetrate building walls, particularly of energy-efficient buildings, the wide-area, cellular networks need to transmit at high levels of power. As a result, connecting an indoor device to an outdoor base station consumes a disproportionate amount of energy, while also resulting in shorter recharge cycles, increasing battery wear, and additional electronic waste.

Employing Wi-Fi, rather than cellular, in the 6 GHz band will minimize power consumption, helping consumers and business to conserve energy resources. Indeed, Orange France says it will remind customers to switch to use Wi-Fi at home during periods of peak energy consumption. Greater energy efficiency, in combination with significantly lower equipment and deployment infrastructure costs, make Wi-Fi one of the most eco-friendly and economical communications solutions.

In summary, allowing Wi-Fi 6E in the entire 6 GHz band delivers significant socioeconomic benefits to both developing and developed economies. And the Wi-Fi industry is ready to deliver these benefits as it has done for the University of Michigan, Novant Health, the Chase Center and other early adopters of Wi-Fi 6E in the U.S., Canada, Brazil, Saudi Arabia and South Korea.

We hope you find this newsletter a useful source of information on Wi-Fi 6E and its potential to drive socioeconomic progress. If you would like to receive further editions, please subscribe.

2nd India Spectrum Management Conference 2022

New Delhi

The ISMC-22 will look at how a new spectrum strategy can make positive impact on key priorities such as 5G rollout, tackling the digital divide, connecting the unconnected and providing impetus to local manufacturing & innovation.

ISMC-22 is taking place less than a year before WRC-23, which is scheduled to be held in UAE from 10th November to 23rd November 2023. WRC deliberations are mainly driven by the regional positions developed by the regional groups in Asia, Europe, Americas, Africa, Russian and the Arab countries, through a 3-year consensus building process. For WRC-23, the regional positions, both across the Asia Pacific and elsewhere in the world are starting to become clearer and this is the perfect opportunity to take stock of the preparatory work that is being done, and look at some of the challenges that still remain to ensure a successful outcome of WRC-23 for the country and for the South Asian region, as a block.

View Event Website

Most US homes have on average at least a dozen connected Internet of Things (IoT) devices — a number that could eventually exceed a hundred, with 27 billion IoT devices expected to reach the market by 2025.^[1] To support the performance requirements of this many devices, it will be necessary to leverage Wi-Fi^® networks to minimize interference and optimize coverage by providing good oversight and management.

Product developers should consider several technology trends at play in the residential space as they make connectivity decisions for Home IoT products and applications.

Integrating Home IoT products for simplicity and performance

The Home IoT marketplace is shifting away from individually sold smart devices toward integrated experiences and solutions. The interconnection of groups of IoT products — potentially sold and managed by internet service providers (ISPs) looking to provide new value — would include links to cloud services, smartphone apps, and the wider Internet. These links place higher demands on the in-home connectivity layer, with Wi-Fi’s importance increasing relative to other technologies, especially since these managed services packages would emphasize intensive data gathering and analytics.

External connections drive the need for robust security

Certain IoT devices in the home are beginning to connect to external stakeholder groups such as healthcare agencies, employers, utility companies, and local authorities — often using cameras, realtime sensors, and high-definition screens. This shift underlines the importance of reliability and cybersecurity, including end-to-end encryption and virtual private networks (VPNs), and is driving the need for more up to date IP connectivity and authentication. The ability to update Home IoT device firmware and software is also necessary. Additional data volume, as well as tighter latency requirements, will orient developers’ connectivity choices toward Wi-Fi.

Smartphones control Home IoT devices and systems

An increasing trend in Home IoT is the use of smartphone apps as device and system controllers. There are multiple roles emerging:

• Connecting Home IoT devices to the Wi-Fi network
• Mapping Wi-Fi coverage and positioning mesh nodes as needed
• Accessing devices such as locks or security cameras while away from home
• Troubleshooting malfunctioning devices
• Contacting customer support or browsing online help forums
• Monitoring performance, energy consumption, and operational status
• Linking devices into groups or subsystems

Home Wi-Fi upgrades enable massive speed increases

During the pandemic, many users upgraded their connectivity infrastructure to include high quality, whole home Wi-Fi, often by using mesh capabilities. This, in tandem with excellent broadband access through fiber or cable connections, allows for speeds exceeding 1 Gigabit per second (Gbps), making it feasible to support multiple home workers and children conducting their education from home. To enable these higher-end broadband connections, ISPs are increasingly providing Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E gateways. Some homeowners and renters also used the remote work opportunity to add new devices to their home for either security or entertainment purposes, making reliable, fast connections even more expedient.

As the pandemic fades, the legacy of up-to-date Wi-Fi installations will continue, especially as service providers continue to upgrade broadband infrastructure as a result of stimulus funding and national planning.

Conclusion

The net outcome of these trends is clear — connected Home IoT devices will need to be “good Internet citizens” in a wide context, often with greater flows of data than in the past and with higher requirements for performance and security. This will demand faster and more reliable networks, as well as greater interoperability.

As a result of the organic increase of the whole home Wi-Fi installed base and a greater awareness of mesh and other new capabilities, Wi-Fi is steadily growing its addressable market and is the obvious choice of technology for Home IoT devices.

At the Wi-Fi Alliance^® Lisbon member meeting (#LisbonWiFi22), members showcased Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Location™ technology using commercially-available infrastructure and devices. This was the first public demonstration of Wi-Fi Location™ technology by our members including Aruba, Google, and Samsung.

Wi-Fi Location delivers meter-level accuracy indoors. Wi-Fi Location-enabled networks and devices work together to deliver accurate location information with the benefits of Wi-Fi® connectivity and without the need for separate, location-based infrastructure or costly maintenance. Wi-Fi Location primarily uses ranging through the Fine Timing Measurement (FTM) protocol to locate a device within a network. A mobile device can use the FTM Range Request and Report to determine its distance from an infrastructure device such as an access point (AP). This allows the mobile device to locate itself.

Location capabilities demonstrated

During the demonstration, access points (APs) advertised their location coordinates and served as Fine Timing Measurement (FTM) responders, allowing client devices to determine their location on the floor plan. Wi-Fi Location-capable APs were provided by Aruba, and smartphones supporting Wi-Fi Location from Google and Samsung were used to demonstrate their positioning capabilities. Members on-site with personal devices that supported Wi-Fi Location were able to load ranging and navigation apps to experience the technology firsthand.

Wi-Fi Location-capable apps showcased in this demo included:

• Google’s ‘WifiRttScan’ ranging app
• Google’s ‘WifiRttLocator’ navigation app
• A specialized version of the Aruba Meridian navigation app using Wi-Fi Location rather than Bluetooth
• Aruba Utilities app which includes a ranging tab, showing range to FTM responder access points

“Aruba is honored to participate in the first public demonstration of Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Location^TM using fine timing measurements. We’re committed to the success of Wi-Fi-based location and proud to have become the first infrastructure vendor to certify its products through the Wi-Fi Alliance Wi-Fi Location program. Wi-Fi is already present everywhere location is needed. By leveraging this technology as the foundation of our Open Locate initiative, Aruba joins Wi-Fi Alliance and our ecosystem partners in laying a foundation for indoor location services that is not only highly accurate but ultimately scalable across the entire global Wi-Fi footprint.” – said Stuart Strickland, Wireless CTO at Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company

“Google appreciates the support of the Wi-Fi Alliance, Aruba, and Samsung in our demonstration of precise-location over Wi-Fi on a production network. We were excited to see how WiFiRttScan and WiFiRttLocator, contributed by the Android team at Google, could allow users to understand where they were in the Marriott conference center using the latest Android-based smartphones from Samsung and Google Pixel. Improved accuracy of location indoors opens up a variety of new use cases from improving wayfinding and awareness in a stadium, to improving product finding and capacity planning in a retail environment, to locating the right staff in a hospital. We are excited to see what developers create as the ecosystem grows.” - Sean Ginevan, Head of Global Strategy & Partnerships, Android Enterprise, Google   

"Samsung is proud to work with Wi-Fi Alliance and other leading companies on a public demonstration of Wi-Fi Location technology using commercially available Galaxy devices. As a leading innovator of connected mobile experiences, we developed location tracking algorithms for more accurate results, and as part of the upcoming 802.11az standard, we look forward to expanding the number of Galaxy devices that support these and future Wi-Fi solutions in partnership with Wi-Fi Alliance.” – JM Choi, VP of Connectivity R&D Group, Mobile eXperience Business, Samsung Electronics

The future of location beyond navigation

Wi-Fi Location not only improves the accuracy of location data for navigation purposes, it enables the creation of new, feature-rich applications and services. Wi-Fi Location can provide benefits to manufacturers, enterprise, retail, and healthcare markets through:

• Asset management: Tracking high-value mobile equipment
• Network management: Pinpointing where troubleshooting and maintenance are needed
• Geo-fencing: Creating virtual perimeters that trigger actions when devices move in or out of the boundary
• Hyperlocal marketing: Displaying alerts, product information, or special offers when a customer is nearby

Wi-Fi Alliance^® offers three tracks for a product to become Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™: FlexTrack, Derivative, and QuickTrack. QuickTrack is a simpler, lower cost option to attain Wi-Fi CERTIFIED status where companies build products using Qualified Solutions.

Qualified Solutions are modules, chipsets, and other solutions that have already had Wi-Fi^® functionality tested. They meet industry-agreed quality standards for Wi-Fi and are ready to be incorporated into a member company’s end product — such as a smartphone or smart thermostat. Once the member company designs a product using a Qualified Solution, they can become a Member Conformance Test Laboratory (MCTL) and perform the QuickTrack testing themselves or send it away to an Authorized Test Laboratory (ATL). Because QuickTrack testing is less complex and less costly than traditional certification testing, member companies can achieve faster time to market while trusting that their end product is based on a high-quality foundation. Members can find more information about becoming a Qualified Solution Provider here.

Qualified Solutions may use QuickTrack testing to attain Wi-Fi CERTIFIED status for the following certifications:

• Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6^®
• Wi-Fi CERTIFIED ac
• Wi-Fi CERTIFIED n
• Wi-Fi Agile Multiband™
• Wi-Fi Data Elements™
• Protected Management Frames
• WPA2™
• WPA3™
• Wi-Fi Enhanced Open™
• Wi-Fi Protected Setup™
• Wi-Fi Direct™

Espressif’s Qualified Solution powers IoT products across multiple industries

As an example of a Qualified Solution that is available to end-product developers for QuickTrack testing for Wi-Fi certification, Espressif’s ESP32-C2 chip — also known as the Wi-Fi & Bluetooth Internet of Things Module — is built for a variety of Internet of Things (IoT) products, offering simple, high volume, and low data rate solutions in automotive, healthcare, education, and more. It has a unique design and small package, which allows it to deliver fewer unwanted electrical effects and enhanced radiofrequency performance.

Espressif said regarding their experience as a Solution Provider: “It was very positive and straightforward, with support from Wi-Fi Alliance at each step.” Because Espressif’s customers can use trusted core Wi-Fi components early in the production process, Espressif expects to increase its overall influence in the market. Read the full case study here.

Qualified Solutions available for QuickTrack testing

Choosing high-quality customer premises equipment (CPE) is part of the set of responsibilities of network operators, Wi-Fi^® network architects, and Wi-Fi device vendors. However, key performance indicators (KPIs) vary according to the use case that the device is meant to perform under. These KPIs can be challenging to assess due to the complexity of deployment scenarios. Test results can also be difficult to evaluate when using detailed parameter-based testing. Alternatively, Wi-Fi Device Metrics provides a consistent methodology and framework for characterizing device performance across a diverse set of use cases. This ensures that Wi-Fi devices can provide the throughput and latency necessary to support new applications and increasingly complex scenarios.

Wi-Fi Device Metrics tests

Wi-Fi Device Metrics provides testing methodologies by recommending setups and configurations for common use cases found in operator networks.

• Rate versus range
• AP latency with one way delay
• Channel switching
• Band steering
• Roaming
• AR/VR

These test cases guide test engineers in determining the performance of Wi-Fi devices. Wi-Fi Device Metrics does not offer pass/fail criteria, but allows operators to set their own criteria of performance.

Benefits of Wi-Fi Device Metrics

By evaluating the performance of Wi-Fi devices according to a common framework, operators can more easily provide users recommendations for devices with high-quality, reliable network connections, providing an excellent user experience. As a result, operators will see a reduction in the number of customer service calls received.

Wi-Fi Device Metrics standardizes test methods and KPIs, which means these factors are no longer subject to interpretation and disagreement between the operator and suppliers. This significantly streamlines product selection during the RFP process, as operators can perform benchmark tests that allow for real comparisons between products of various providers.

Capabilities and guiding principles

Several key Wi-Fi capabilities, including beamforming, multi-user multiple-input and multiple-output (MU-MIMO), and orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) are included in Wi-Fi Device Metrics’ test methodologies for selected use cases.

While designing this framework, Wi-Fi Alliance’s testing experts observed the following principles:

• Consumer proclivity for “out of the box” device operation
• Repeatable and reproducible testing procedures
• Test result statistical presentation to account for high populations of Wi-Fi devices
• A focus on key Wi-Fi capabilities that most impact end user experience

By establishing a baseline for Wi-Fi device performance using consistent testing parameters and methods, Wi-Fi Device Metrics will result in increased uniformity across device behavior. Industry adoption of this framework will allow operators and Wi-Fi equipment providers to compare their test results and work together to make products even more efficient.

The Wi-Fi Device Metrics framework is available for all industry partner use.

Wi-Fi Alliance Member Meeting - Prague

Prague, Czech Republic

Event details restricted to Wi-Fi Alliance members only.

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If you would like to request an invitation to attend the member meeting as a guest, please contact us.