Is WiFi with WBA and WiFi Alliance sufficiently focused to come for 5G?

This is a discussion with industry experts Oscar Bexell.

Oscars Linkedin profile is - https://www.linkedin.com/in/oscar-bexell-9462922/

Q. 5G still seams to be dimensionless, where do you see Wi-Fi fitting with 5G?

A. Residential and for enterprises (how long depends on how well 11ax plays out). In the longer run, and with new types of gadgets coming in, I don't think anything LBT/CS fits the bill. CBRS will take off in the US and take the indoor enterprise space. In China the MNOs have been doing this with small cells for quite some time. In other countries there will be other approaches. Different markets will also take longer/shorter time to adopt. For many Wi-Fi system integrators and vendors, there will be market shares to take with CBRS.

Q. Wi-Fi in current wireless access technology space is on hype or settled, why?

A. I only follow them from a distance. I like the NGH initiative. I think they should get into CBRS+4G/5G. That's where the MSOs and many service providers will be able to take footprints over time. Build ecosystem and drive standardization/harmonization.

Q.How relevant Wi-Fi Alliance has been so far, and what you think about its future role should be?

A.It's probably the main factor behind the success of Wi-Fi. I see their work as critical, both for new standards, but maybe even more for driving interoperability work and harmonization of frequencies. They should keep on doing exactly this, but I also think they should drive CBRS spectrum harmonization in more markets and the ecosystems around this. That is the future for enterprise/venue in-building networks.

Q. Wi-Fi access would be catching what kind of segments of IOT?

A.It's already used a lot, especially in in-home deployments and as backhaul to many Bluetooth/Zigbee/Z-wave/gateway applications. It will play a very big role in the coming years as it's already present in most environments. I think mainly as backhaul. I'm also looking forward to see how 802.11ah takes off. I see that mainly as an in-home competitor to Bluetooth 5.0 and Zigbee.

Q.Do you feel for any need of collaboration or association for Wi-Fi ecosystem development with a fresh view (may be like use case basis/software defined/cloud based)?

A. N/A