Wireless Network
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Abstract— as the situation of the world has taken a shift
from businesses being actual physical shops to online shops,
people being connected to one another almost all the time and
even the governance have now become e-governance. This
current world requires a stable and reliable connection over
the wireless connection (Wi-Fi). Hence this is why addressing
the problems with the current framework of wireless network
is important and finding an alternative to it has become the
aim of many companies. This paper discusses why there is a
need of improvement and how these improvements can be
implemented.
I. INTRODUCTION
Internet connectivity has become an essential part of our
lives and now it determines the way we live and regulate our
entire eco-system. As it is efficient and cheap and it
decentralizes nature helps to share, retrieve information,
perform basic operations with any other user within a very
small-time frame [1].
But what basically is Wi-Fi in this large scope of
Internet? According to [1], Wi-Fi is the common term for the
wireless Ethernet 802.11b protocol for WLANs which
applies wirelessly to the hardware surrounding Internet
Protocol data transfer from an Internet connection to a host
device. This is simply a wireless link inside your home
between your device and the Internet network (e.g. DSL
router or cable modem).
Wi-Fi has become a necessity and with its growing
demand, there is always an ongoing conversation that will
our current framework support this increasing demand, or
will there be need of some modifications? If yes, what are
those?
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
From 2012 to 2017 there has been 3 times more increase
in the speed which is from 7.7 to 20.3 Mbps [4]. Alone in the
first quarter of 2019, a 6.9% growth has been seen on
spending on wireless technologies [5]. These statistics shows
that the demand of Wi-Fi is going to increase exponentially
with every year soon. This is the reason why the research has
already begun on the future Wi-Fi as there is continuous
demand for high data rate and spectrum sharing [4].
According to [7], the range of Wi-Fi is limited hence this
brings an interference issue of encrypted access point with
the open access point. This can create problem of accessing
the open access points in the area such as apartments and
buildings – high density of population. This may lead to
privacy issues such as access to personal information from
any user and another issue is congestion. Congestion leads to
poor internet connection with decreased speed and the
quality of service decreases overall.
The increased demand is not the only issue, security is
another issue here. Early Wi-Fi needed the layer 3 of security
which is supported by VPNs this in turn caused overhead of
encapsulation and roaming issue. These issues compromised
the quality of service, client support and expandability which
leave the IP addresses exposed to attacks easily [7].
These are some issues that are being tackled by
introduction of new technologies. The technology that this
paper will focus on are Open Roaming, Wi-Fi 6, and Wi-Fi
6E.
III. DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY
The proposed solution of Open Roaming, Wi-Fi 6, and
Wi-Fi 6E was introduced by Wireless Broadband Alliance
(WBA) and later CISCO started working with WBA for open
roaming [3,8]. The research on this paper is based on their
work by carefully studying the related research articles and
their own thoughts on these technologies. The contribution of
this paper would be identifying these proposed solutions,
analysing them that what they have to offer to the existing
framework of Wi-Fi and then concluding that whether they
are able to solve the problems identified previously.
IV. DISCUSSION
A. Open Roaming
There exist two basic infrastructure operation- basic
service set (BSS) and extended service set (ESS). Open
roaming is based on ESS which a node is free roam from
one access point another and reassociate itself to a previous
one [7].
Figure 1: ESS model
High quality of service can be provided because it will
require certain standard policy to meet before connecting to
maintain the performance [3]. Open Roaming also have high
standard of security as it have multiple layers of security
such as EAP-Transport Layer Security (EAP-TLS), EAP-
Authentication, etc. this ensures that no personal
information of user is expose [3,8].
B. Wi-Fi 6
According to [5,6], Wi-Fi 6 is the new evolution of the Wi-
Fi technology because it is likely to increase speed by 30%
from Wi-Fi 5 and the 6Ghz spectrum is likely to increase the
capacity of channels. This will not only benefit us with
speed but also by bringing lower latency, more
simultaneously deliverable data, improved power efficiency
and reduced interference.
Figure 2: Wi-Fi 6 features
Wi-Fi 6 is an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple
Access (OFDMA) and Multi-User Multi-Input/Multi-Output
(MU-MIMO) meaning multiple transmission eliminating
queueing and allowing upstream multiuser connection (more
users can connect to one network) [5].
C. Wi-Fi 6E
Wi-Fi 6E is same as Wi-Fi 6, it have the same features
as Wi-Fi 6 the only difference is that it is extended with
additional spectrum of frequencies. This is exactly what E
stands for in Wi-Fi 6E. The FCC (Federal Communications
Commission) approved the usage of 5.9 to 7.1 GHz
frequencies for unlicensed use of Wi-Fi, and applications
capable of adopting those additional frequencies should be
branded with the brand-new Wi-Fi 6E specification [6].
Figure 3: Wi-Fi 6E performance boost [ CITATION Wir20 \l
1033 ]
D. Combination of Open Roaming with Wi-Fi 6/6E
The combination of these next generation technologies
will lead to common usage of bandwidth intensive
application along with seamless connection even when the
user is on the move. Open Roaming will enable users to join
from one Wi-Fi hotspot to another without any need for
network authentication yet still hiding their personal
information [2] and open roaming is better adapted to
support technologies such 5G and Wi-Fi [3] Wi-Fi 6/6E
will enable better quality of service by bringing more speed
and less congestion [2]. Users can achieve an enhanced
wireless experience with the ability to access more software
by greater bandwidth and reliability [3].
V. CONCLUSIONS
Open Roaming and Wi-Fi 6/6E are dependent on each
other and the implications of such technologies together can
solve the problems that current Wi-Fi is acing such as lack of
security, congestion, delays, and lower speed. These
technologies look to be promising in the near future.
Meanwhile, this transformation has already begun in 2020
with the release of devices that support Wi-Fi 6. Yet it is not
completely available till now. But the companies such as
WBA and CISCO seem to have taken a head start at a fast
rate hence which is why reason why the future seems bright.
REFERENCES
[1] Al-Alawi, A. I., 2006. WiFi Technology: Future Market Challenges
and Opportunities. Journal of Computer Science, 2(1), pp. 13-18.
[2] Cooney, M., 2020. Cisco moves WiFi roaming technology to wireless
broadband consortium. Netwok World.
[3] MacPherson, M., 2019. OpenRoaming: Automatic and Seamless
Roaming Across Wi-Fi 6 and 5G. CISCO.
[4] Mohapatra, S. K., Choudhury, . R. R. & Das, P., 2014. THE FUTURE
DIRECTIONS IN EVOLVING WI-FI: TECHNOLOGIES,
APPLICATIONS AND SERVICES. International Journal of Next-
Generation Networks (IJNGN), 6(3).
[5] Nagel, . D., 2019. WiFi 6 to Drive Continued Growth in Wireless
Networking Hardware. The Journal.
[6] O'Donnell, B., 2020. New WiFi 6E Standard Brings 5G-Related
Technologies To Local Area Wireless. Forbes.
[7] Wekhande, V., 2006. WI-FI TECHNOLOGY: SECURITY ISSUES.
RIVIER ACADEMIC JOURNAL, 2(2).
[8] Wireless Broadband Alliance, 2020. WBA Assumes Control of
OpenRoaming. Wireless Broadband Alliance Ltd