The Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) has announced the release of its report, ‘Private 5G and Wi-Fi Convergence Report: Phase 2 – Technical Considerations’. The report builds on its phase 1 report, which highlighted key use cases and the integral role Wi-Fi infrastructure plays in optimising 5G performance. The new report presents architectural strategies and technical solutions for seamless interworking between two technologies.
Since 2017, WBA has led efforts to demonstrate the benefits of converged licensed and unlicensed wireless technologies, focusing more specifically 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 OpenRoaming 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.
The latest report outlines the next phase of integration, which includes architectural considerations, providing a comprehensive roadmap for enterprises seeking to leverage both networks to maximise performance, efficiency and csot savings. This convergence will allow enterprises to utilise 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.
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 tech companies including Broadcom, Cisco, Nokia, Aruba (an HPE Company), Boldyn Networks, Intel, and many others within the WBA.
Other proposals include:
- Wi-Fi fast transition domain to include Private 5G: A standardised 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 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,” said Tiago Rodrigues, CEO of WBA. “In many environments, the coexistence of Wi-Fi and Private 5G is essential, and there is significant value in realising 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.”
A new phase will begin next year, 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.
“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,” commented Matt MacPherson, Wireless CTO, Cisco.
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