Helping retailers roll out next-gen WiFi solutions

02nd May 2019
Helping retailers  roll out next-gen WiFi  solutions
Santanu Ghose at IIIT-Bangalore; Inset Aruba Series 530 WiFi 6 Access Points

Aruba  seminar at IIIT-Bangalore, unveils first WiFi6  access devices
From  Anand Parthasarathy
Bangalore, May 2 2019: WiFi -- the wireless solution  that links users and devices at home, in the office and in lakhs of public  "hotspots" -- is 20 years old this year and has gone through 5  technology upgrades which have kicked up  data speeds by a factor of 50 to nearly  1 gigabit or 1000 megabits per second.
2019 will see the 6th iteration of WiFi  and a nomenclature change for the better. Instead of calling  the versions 802.11 b, g,  n, ac, based on the original number that  relevant standard bore, the new  and 6th version will be known simply  as WiFi 6, promising an almost 4-5 times improvement in  data speeds and transfer.  By year end,   customers for a host of WiFi-driven devices from routers to  smart TVs to  smart home automation to voice-controlled home appliances will be offered  new editions that are WiFi 6-compatible.  But is the service industry  geared to  offer the zippier speeds of WiFi 6 which will easily exceed  1 GBPS and  probably offer  a peak speed of 5 GBPS? 
Last week at a workshop hosted by the International Institute of Information  Technology in Bangalore ( IIIT-B), Aruba, a company  in the Hewlett Packard group specialized in networking solutions,  briefed  engineers from dozens of OEMs,  system integrators  and retail product  makers and service providers, on what needs to be done to ensure that Indian enterprises are ready to roll out  devices and  solutions that will help consumers experience   the dizzying speeds of WiFi 6, along with the rest of the world.
Led by Santanu  Ghose, Director -- India at Aruba  and Shubha Chandrasekhar, Marketing Manager for Aruba at HP Enterprise,  the company unveiled some of the  global networking industry's first WiFi 6-ready devices:  These include  Series 530 and  550 Access Points which eliminate the need for IoT gateways and  result in a significant saving in  network management  overheads.  This could be an important factor as IoT devices are exploding  at around  14 million a day  worldwide.
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"What we are going to experience is the Perfect Data Storm of Mobile, IoT and the Cloud", Ghose says. The company has  set up the WiFi infrastructure for some of the largest and densest  networks:  the Chatrapati Shivaji International  Airport Mumbai,  the nationwide GST network of the Government of India,  India's biggest  public WiFi, the Aaple Sarkar network  of the Maharashtra government in Mumbai,  the Bhopal Smart City,  SBI's 3-lakh device -strong  data network,  the Kumbh Mela...
WiFi 6 will  inevitably  impact all such projects -- even as  the aam aadmi demands a better, faster way to use Wifi  to  transform today's homes to tomorrow's smart homes.Ghose also points to an interesting development:   mobile service providers, increasingly partnering WiFi providers  in a win-win situation. How does this work?  Say, I am a  4G  ( soon 5G) customer of Airtel, Jio or   Vodafone. When I am in a public or office area where fast WiFi  is already working, an arrangement between the phone company and the WiFi network owner will recognize my mobile subscription and seamlessly shift from  data network  from cellular LTE to WiFi  for better speed and reliability. This is increasingly  how  cellular 5G and WiFi 6 will  work together in the near future, suggests Aruba.
Time to say  hello to the 5G-WiFi6 sangam! Service providers and consumer OEMs  have no time to waste, if they are to ride this new telecom wave.