The Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) announced the release of "Private
5G and Wi-Fi Convergence Report: Phase 2 - Technical Considerations". This
report builds on the phase
1 report - which highlighted key use cases and the crucial role Wi-Fi
infrastructure plays in optimizing 5G performance - to now present advanced
architectural strategies and technical solutions for seamless interworking
between the two technologies.
Since
2017, WBA has led efforts to demonstrate the benefits of converged licensed and
unlicensed wireless technologies, focusing on integrating 5G and Wi-Fi. While
private 5G and Wi-Fi have aligned technically and complement each other, their
distinct characteristics make them suitable for different use cases and market
needs. Technological advances like WBA OpenRoamingTM and enhanced Quality of
Service (QoS) in Wi-Fi have further bridged performance gaps, allowing for
coexistence that reduces operational costs, simplifies management, and improves
user experience across diverse environments.
This
report outlines the next phase of integration, including architectural
considerations, providing a comprehensive roadmap for enterprises seeking to
leverage both networks to maximize performance, efficiency, and cost savings.
This convergence will allow enterprises to utilize the high-speed, low-latency
benefits of 5G alongside the broad coverage and flexibility offered by Wi-Fi,
tailored to different use cases and industry demands.
Architectural
and technical proposals for convergence
Notable
proposals include using RADIUS-based AAA infrastructure for 5G device
authentication, enabling network operators to unify identity management and
policy enforcement across both Wi-Fi and Private 5G. This integration allows
for a singular policy to be enforced on all sessions from a given device,
whether connected via Wi-Fi or 5G, simplifying network management and improving
user experience. The report is a comprehensive exploration crafted by experts
from leading tech companies including Broadcom, Cisco, Nokia, Aruba (an HPE
Company), Boldyn Networks, Intel, and many others within the WBA.
Additional
proposals include:
-
Wi-Fi Fast Transition Domain to include
Private 5G - A standardized approach for bootstrapping keys on Wi-Fi access
based on the key material generated from the 5G access authentication. This
helps in reducing number of messages exchanged during the initial attach.
Proposed is a method and technique for leveraging session keys generated in
3GPP access (5G/LTE) and leveraging 802.11r capability of Wi-Fi infrastructure
to derive the Fast Roaming (FT) Keys, as the user moves from private 3GPP
access to Wi-Fi access. This approach results in a drastic reduction of
connection establishment time to Wi-Fi access, upwards of 90%.
-
Indication of Identical Services on another
Radio Access Technology (RAT) - The network will maintain a
mapping of Service Name/Network Identifier in one access, with the
corresponding identifiers in the other access. Both the Wi-Fi and Private 5G
access networks will have awareness of these service mappings.
-
IP Address Preservations and Seamless
Mobility - Enabling a multi-access capable piece of user equipment (UE) to
attach to both Wi-Fi and Private 5G access networks and have distinct IP
address configuration on an access basis. Application-binding to the access is
based on the UE policy.
The
report explores several other technical solutions, such as Service Functions,
which are extensively deployed in most networks providing features such as
security, WAN acceleration, and server load balancing. It also covers how a
device connectivity status can be shared across networks for optimizations, and
how latency can be improved by moving user place traffic in Wi-Fi and Private
5G access networks.
Tiago
Rodrigues, CEO of the Wireless Broadband Alliance, said: "The convergence and
coexistence of Wi-Fi and Private 5G play an important role in shaping the
future of wireless networking. It will not only help establish the standards
needed to ensure its technical success for operators, network owners,
enterprises and users, but provide clear advice on the architectural
considerations for such converged implementations. In many environments, the
coexistence of Wi-Fi and Private 5G is essential, and there is significant
value in realizing synergies between these two technologies to increase
competitiveness and reduce operational costs by the elimination of redundant
functions, simplifying management, and greatly improving end-user experiences."
Developing
new convergence standards in 2025
A
new phase will begin in 2025, focused on developing new industry standards,
including RAT Roaming, Access Traffic Steering (ATSSS), and Quality of
Experience (QoE) metrics. This convergence strategy will set new benchmarks for
network interoperability, security, and user-centric services, enabling
enterprises to harness the strengths of both 5G's speed and reliability and
Wi-Fi's coverage and flexibility.
Matt MacPherson, Wireless CTO at Cisco, added: "Wi-Fi
meets the demands of most enterprise customers. However, the convergence of
Wi-Fi and Private 5G elevates capabilities by offering policy-based
segmentation aligned with business needs. By combining Wi-Fi and Private 5G
with a unified policy, enterprises gain control. Cisco is excited to
collaborate on this pioneering report, which provides the architectural and
technical guidance enterprises need to leverage the combined strengths of both
networks."
Download the
"Private
5G and Wi-Fi Convergence Report: Phase 2 - Technical Considerations" for
more information on methods for internetworking between these two technologies
and realizing the potential of their coexistence.