The following is the final installment in a three-part series of articles about WiFi in the cable environment contributed by Nokia. Read Part 1 here, and Part 2 here.
In our previous articles we looked at the current business situation for cable WiFi: the need to provide a manageable quality WiFi experience centered on the home environment as well as possibilities to further monetize this asset.
But what is in store for us in the world of cable in 2020 and beyond? In this article we take a look at the coming of 5G, convergence, cloud-delivered services and the role cable WiFi will play within that context.
Our Homes Are Transforming
Today’s residential cable business models are centered on a connected home. This means cable MSOs will deploy the latest generation residential gateways featuring multi-technology, IP-ready capabilities such as DOCSIS3.1, xPON, Fast Ethernet or Gigabit Ethernet LAN — as well as multi-user MIMO WiFi leveraging standards such as 802.11ac or 802.11n.
The next step for our connected home is the evolution to a smart home concept that embraces embedded Internet of Things (IoT) and the latest video steaming capabilities. This takes us one step closer to the ultimate removal of the set-top box, which in turn will help reduce CAPEX. The smart home will not only glean enhanced operational efficiencies for MSOs, but also open up opportunities for competitive differentiation and the potential for new revenue streams.
It doesn’t take a stretch of the imagination to see that the smart home will logically evolve into the virtual home — MSOs will deploy virtual residential gateways, virtual STB and virtual IoT gateways. Applications will be run from the cloud and cloud DVR to store content will be commonplace. In this environment, wireless home connectivity will be the norm.
Everything Wireless and Home Coverage
Operators of all kinds are moving deliberately toward this evolved residential delivery environment, while taking steps to ensure that this delivery environment does not become a bottleneck, impeding the bandwidth offered via new high-speed fixed access technologies. The whole home becomes a mesh of small cells – primarily WiFi – that may need to support up to 1 Gpbs data speeds from each device. All of this data is then backhauled via the cable operator’s fixed footprint, which must be capable of supporting secure 5G services.
Here is a view of what the home will look like:
• Distributed access points (APs) in every room – number of APs increases
• Devices backhauled by wired and/or wireless technologies
• A multi-gigabit home with Gbps speeds in every corner of the house, consistent connectivity and seamless handover
• Sustained streaming capability of 20 Mbps (4K Video) on all devices in the home
• 1 Gbps peak capacity per device, ensuring crisp responsiveness for cloud-based Apps
• Managed combinations of ‘wall penetrating technology’ to connect to in-room WiFi APs.
• WiFi may be complemented by cellular
• Reliable connectivity to all IoT devices in the home
• A secure environment that avoids misuse from outside
WiFi will have a strong role to play here as coverage needs will increase, but operators should be conscious that WiFi can easily be one of multiple wireless technologies that will be deployed within the home to achieve the required service levels. Just for IoT, WiFi would be just one access type within a possible complex mix of alternative technologies such as LTE-M and low-power, wide-area connectivity options like 802.11ah HaLow. A mix of licensed and unlicensed technologies would service a plethora of objects connected in short range or long range, managing the appropriate level of throughput and latency for delay-sensitive and delay-tolerant applications.
Within the next five years it is estimated that seamless handover to cellular technologies will be a requirement – meaning that a subscriber’s device IP address should be maintained across technologies. The good news is that this is not a new concept for MSOs who currently deploy carrier WiFi configurations working with IP mobile gateway components as part of their full-mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) core.
WiFi and the Residential Gateway (RGW)
The RGW will need to support extensive WiFi capabilities while leveraging open software architectures (such as OpenWRT, RDK). Expect to see integrated high-performance WiFi access chipsets that support multiple in-home backhauling techniques (wired and wireless mesh/extender). These gateways will also feature wireless controller capabilities for handoff control, zero-touch wireless configuration and continuous home network diagnostics.
Need for Tools
This technological and service evolution also blurs the lines of demarcation in terms of customer service. MSOs will have to take full ownership of the connectivity, with clear KPIs to live up to customer’s needs. In effect, they will have to adopt approaches similar to those inherited from today’s mobile network operators by taking responsibility up to the end-user device and responsibility of the coverage in the home.
Each home network is a complex affair with multiple links and network elements in one of a number of differing topologies. The MSO will need a mechanism to capture the topology of the home and create at least an abstracted version – the part relevant for connectivity. This could be achieved via discovery applications installed on subscriber mobile devices, self-optimizing features of the installed equipment and neighboring WiFi AP discovery. Then automated design tools should give recommendations for locations of bridges, WiFi APs, etc. Finally, MSOs will need extensive network management and performance management tools based on analytics to check the ongoing quality of the customer’s experience.
Your IP Mobile Core Will Evolve in Tandem
It’s not only the home network that is in flux, of course. The above evolution toward 5G as well as the availability of cloud technologies affects what is today’s IP mobile core and interaction with gateways such as those for trusted and un-trusted WiFi access found in many MSOs.
• Hybrid access: the core will handle carrier WiFi as well as residential or corporate virtual CPE (vCPE) with integrated APs and the move to 5G technologies.
• Voice: in particular for MVNO-enabled and converged MSOs – voice over LTE (VoLTE) and handoffs to 2G/3G circuit-switched networks as well as interworking with Voice over WiFi via the Evolved Packet Data Gateway (ePDG).
• Virtualization: many components of today’s Enhanced Packet Core (EPC) found in converged operators are being virtualized. User Plane and Control Plane communications will be separated and distributed gateway functions will eventually replace today’s WLAN gateways and ePDG.
• Services: steering capabilities for services are required as well as the chaining of service functions in this new virtualized environment.
• Support for IoT technologies: security will become increasingly important.
The core will ensure security associations with connected objects. In terms of authentication, the core will handle WiFi connected objects without SIMs as well as those that are SIM-based.
The evolved core will not only bring reliable deep indoor coverage and extra capacity for data and voice services, but also to ensure a robust and consistent end-user experience as mobile devices concurrently access WiFi and 4G/5G.
Branded Connectivity
In conclusion, cable operators with their existing WiFi assets are well positioned on this journey towards cable 2020+. WiFi most certainly is not going away in the short term numbers as residential APs will increase and new revenue streams based on connected objects will leverage WiFi, which will sit within a mix of licensed and unlicensed technologies — all of which being handled via an evolved, converged core. MSOs will benefit in this future environment from having the infrastructure as well as tools and processes to understand, optimize and monetize a branded converged connectivity offer.