Wi-Fi-6 and IoT: Impact and industry approach & IoT’

As protocols and standards emerge around Wi-Fi6, and as the mass-scale deployment of Industrial IoT accelerates, the complexities also increase.

At the TLF, a panel of experts – Rakesh Upadhyay, CTO, ONEOTT iNTERTAINMENT LTD; Suryanarayan CS, Country Category Manager at Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company; and Vikas Gupta, VP - IoT Strategic & Smart Connectivity – Enterprise, Vodafone India Ltd – discussed and shared views on whether Wi-Fi 6 will be a game-changer.

The panel was moderated by Amitabh Singhal, Co-Founder/Former President-ISPAI & Founder/Former CEO – NIXI.

What next

The main differentiator between Wi-Fi5 and Wi-Fi 6 is their capability and efficiency to connect so many devices. “We have been using Wi-Fi for over 20 years. What began as a convenience, and helped people get rid of wired connections – has, now, become an essential part of our lives,” said Rakesh Upadhyay, CTO, ONEOTT iNTERTAINMENT LTD.

“Wifi6 has come at just the right time. The technologies it uses work well with both downstream and upstream areas – unlike Wi-Fi-5. It is also suitable for low-power and low-bandwidth devices. IoT is one such application where there is a need- for devices that need a small bandwidth to talk to the Internet.

We have finally found the reality of what Wi-Fi is during the pandemic and work from home. There were issues of connectivity, signals, battery etc. initially.

The battery backup time, removal of unnecessary chatter, spotting, and reduction of interference from nearby devices- make Wi-Fi6 much more efficient and faster than Wi-Fi5. Its next successor – Wi-Fi6 E - would be another game-changer. Once approved - it will see so many applications like VR, AR, IoT that will accelerate with its development.”

Suryanarayan CS, Country Category Manager at Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company said, Wi-Fi is essential today - It’s like Roti, Kapda, and Wi-Fi.

“We have finally found the reality of what Wi-Fi is during the pandemic and work from home. There were issues with connectivity, signals, battery, etc. initially. But over a period of time, all of these got addressed. And Wi-Fi 6 manages these extremely well. Enhancement of performance and speed – was amplified by efficiency, with the advent of Wi-Fi6. Moving forward, we will see a lot of sensors that are low-power and need high efficiency. We will also get good throughput, good battery life, data aspects, system performance, and short packets here. This would also be disruptive for gains like low latency, more efficiency for more data rates, compatibility for multiple devices.”

The Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) and BSS Colouring will drive new use-cases. For example support for IoT. “That’s where the next revolution will happen. A lot of outdoor scenarios like smart city, connectivity, etc. would be a new realm of use-cases now. All this would be significant because our usage pattern has changed - from emails to video meetings – which is where Wi-Fi needs to understand what application, the device type is in action and how to prioritise them.”

Can all this help us to adopt IoT at a wide scale in India?

Vikas Gupta, VP - IoT Strategic & Smart Connectivity – Enterprise, Vodafone India Ltd stressed that IoT was more than a standalone job of one enterprise. “Today, IoT is an ecosystem – hardware, platforms, applications, services- when they all come together, we get a smart IoT solution. Today, there is notable adoption in India. Automotive, BFSI, and even solar management, water management, etc. show high adoption rates of IoT. Thanks to the ‘New Normal’ consumers and enterprises are keen to get a new technology.”

Today, IoT is an ecosystem – hardware, platforms, applications, services- when they all come together, we get a smart IoT solution. Today, there is notable adoption in India. Automotive, BFSI and even solar management, water management etc. show high adoption rates of IoT.

Further, in the last decade, Wi-Fi adoption in India has also increased.

The panel covered industries from healthcare to automotive to manufacturing. And how these would witness the adoption of IoT. What could be the impediments?

Support from end devices could affect the roll-out time felt by Rakesh Upadhyay. “Normally, our intention is to make cheap IoT devices. This can contradict our requirements. If devices are cheap, they will not support the new evolution. As adoption improves, the scale of the economy would work out, I hope. Another key factor would be the need to develop applications for these technologies to work.” Security concerns would be another big area to watch out for. “We have to be very careful. Security has to be well planned before deployment. Most of the time loopholes, like default states, help hackers to compromise more devices after getting into one device. Network-level security, access controls, firewalls, regular patches, best practices- that’s the way to go if we want to keep security intact,” he said.

New vectors for cyberattacks are developing on many IoT networks – for example, IoT devices on CCTV cameras can be used for DDOS attacks. A fish tank can be used to attack a casino, or an open-network printer can be used to get into a bank. These headless devices in IoT need to be secured. Gupta advised adopting network segmentation, strong testing of devices, visibility, secure password practices, continuous patches in firmware, and all-time monitoring of IoT devices. “While the network will follow people – that’s what Wi-Fi6 achieves, security has to also follow,” said Suryanarayan CS.