We bring to your attention Huawei's view of Wi-Fi 6 - the technology itself and related innovations, primarily in relation to access points: what's new in them, where they will find the most suitable and useful application in 2020, what technological solutions give them the main competitive advantages and how the AirEngine line is generally organized.
What's Happening in the Wireless Industry Today
In the years when the previous generations of Wi-Fi - the fourth and fifth - developed, the concept of all-wireless office, that is, a completely wireless office space, was formed in the industry. But since then, a lot of water has flowed under the bridge, and business demands for Wi-Fi have changed qualitatively and quantitatively: bandwidth requirements have increased, latency reduction has become critical, and the further, the more urgent the need to connect a large number of users.
By 2020, a landscape of new applications has emerged that must work reliably over Wi-Fi networks. The illustration shows the main areas to which such applications belong. Briefly about a few of them.
A. Augmented and virtual reality. For a long time, the abbreviations VR and AR appeared in the presentations of telecom vendors, but few people understood what the applied application of the technologies behind these letters was. Today, they are rapidly entering our lives, which is reflected in Huawei products. In April, we introduced the Huawei P40 smartphone and along the way launched - so far only in China - the Huawei Maps service with the AR Maps function. It is not just a "GIS with holograms". Augmented reality is deeply embedded in the functionality of the system: with its help, it costs nothing to literally βgrabβ information about a particular organization whose office is located in the building, lay a route through the surrounding space - and all this in 3D format and with the highest quality.
Also, AR is definitely waiting for intensive development in the fields of education and healthcare. It is also relevant for industries: for example, in order to train employees how to act in emergency situations, it is difficult to come up with something better than simulators in augmented reality.
B. Security systems with video surveillance. And even wider: any video solution that belongs to ultra-high definition standards. We are talking not only about 4K, but also about 8K. Leading TV and infopanel manufacturers promise that 8K UHD models will be available throughout 2020. It is logical to assume that end users will also want to watch videos in super high quality with a significantly increased bitrate.
B. Business verticals, and primarily retail. As an example, let's take is one of the largest supermarket chains in Europe. She uses Wi-Fi in new, scenarios of interaction with consumers, in particular, it introduced ESL electronic price tags, integrating them with its CRM.
As for large-scale production, the experience of Volkswagen is noteworthy, which has deployed Wi-Fi from Huawei in its factories and uses it to solve a variety of problems. Among other things, Wi-Fi 6 is used by the company to operate robots that move around the factory, through AR scenarios, parts are scanned in real time, etc.
D. Smart Offices also represent a huge space for innovation based on Wi-Fi 6. A large number of IoT scenarios for the smart building have already been thought out, including security control, lighting control, etc.
We must not forget that most applications migrate to the clouds, and access to the cloud requires a high-quality, stable connection. That is why Huawei uses as a motto and strives to implement β100 Mbps everywhereβ: Wi-Fi is becoming the main means of connecting to the Internet, and no matter where the user is, we must provide a high level of user experience.
How Huawei proposes to manage the Wi-Fi 6 environment
Currently, Huawei is promoting a ready-made Cloud Campus end-to-end solution, aimed, on the one hand, at helping to manage the entire infrastructure from the cloud, on the other hand, at serving as a platform for implementing new IoT scenarios, whether building management, monitoring of equipment, or, for example, if we turn to a case from the field of medicine, monitoring the vital parameters of a patient.
An important part of the ecosystem around Cloud Campus is the marketplace. For example, if a developer has created an end device and integrated it with Huawei solutions by writing the appropriate software, he has the right to make his product available to our other customers using a service model.
Since the Wi-Fi network, in essence, becomes the foundation for the operation of a business, the old ways of managing it are not enough. Previously, the administrator was forced to almost manually, delving into the logs, to figure out what was happening with the network. This reactive support mode is now scarce. A toolkit is needed for proactive control and management of the wireless infrastructure, so that the administrator understands for sure what is happening with it: what level of user experience it provides, whether new users can connect to it without problems, whether some of the clients need to be βtransferredβ to the neighboring access point (AP), what state each individual network node is in, etc.
With regard to Wi-Fi 6 devices, Huawei has all the tools to proactively analyze and control what is happening on the network in detail. These developments are based primarily on machine learning algorithms.
On the access points of the previous series, this was not possible, since they did not support the corresponding telemetry protocols, and in general, the performance of those devices did not allow this functionality to be implemented in the form in which our modern access points allow.
What are the benefits of Wi-Fi 6
For a long time, the stumbling block to the spread of Wi-Fi 6 was the fact that de facto there were no end devices that would support the IEEE 802.11ax standard and could fully reveal the benefits inherent in the access point. However, a turning point is taking place in the industry, and we, as a vendor, contribute to it with all our might: Huawei has developed its chipsets not only for corporate products, but also for mobile and home devices.
- Information about Wi-Fi 6+ from Huawei is circulating on the Web. What is this?
βIt's almost like Wi-Fi 6E. All the same, only with the addition of the 6 GHz frequency band. Many countries are currently considering making it available for Wi-Fi 6.- Will the 6 GHz radio interface be implemented on the same module that is currently operating at 5 GHz?
- No, there will be special antennas for operation in the 6 GHz frequency band. Current access points do not support 6 GHz, even if you update their software.
To date, the devices shown in the illustration belong to the hi-end segment. At the same time, the Huawei AX3 home router, which provides speeds up to 2 Gb / s via radio interfaces, does not differ in price from the access points of the previous generation. Therefore, there is every reason to believe that in 2020 a wide range of devices in the middle, and even the initial segment, will receive support for Wi-Fi 6. According to Huaweiβs analytical calculations, by 2022, Wi-Fi 6-enabled hotspot sales will be 5 to 90% of those built on Wi-Fi 10.
In a year and a half, the era of Wi-Fi 6 will finally come.
First of all, Wi-Fi 6 is designed to make the wireless network as a whole more efficient. Previously, each station was given a time slot in sequence, and it occupied the entire 20 MHz channel, and therefore the rest had to wait for it to send traffic. Now these 20 MHz are cut into smaller subcarriers, combined into resource units, up to 2 MHz, and up to nine stations can broadcast simultaneously in one time slot. Hence a significant increase in the performance of the entire network.
We have already said that higher modulation schemes were added to the sixth generation standard: 1024-QAM versus the previous 256. The coding complexity thus increased by 25%: if earlier we transmitted up to 8 bits of information per symbol, now 10 bits .
The number of spatial streams has also increased. In previous standards, there were a maximum of four, while now there are up to eight, and in older Huawei access points, up to a dozen.
In addition, Wi-Fi 6 again uses the 2,4 GHz frequency band, which makes it possible to relatively inexpensively produce chipsets for end terminals with Wi-Fi 6 support and connect a huge number of devices, whether they are full-fledged IoT modules or some very cheap ones. sensors.
Most importantly, the standard implements many technologies for more efficient use of the radio spectrum, including channel and frequency reuse. First of all, the Basic Service Set (BSS) Coloring is worthy of mention, which allows you to ignore other people's access points operating on the same channel, and at the same time βlistenβ to your own.
Which Wi-Fi 6 hotspots from Huawei we consider it necessary to do first
The figures show the access points that Huawei offers today and, most importantly, which will soon begin to supply, starting with the base AirEngine 5760 model and ending with the top ones.
Our access points supporting the 802.11ax standard have a whole range of unique technological solutions.
- The presence of a built-in IoT module or the ability to connect an external one. In all access points, the top cover now opens, and two slots for IoT modules are hidden under it, and almost anything. For example, from ZigBee, suitable for connecting smart sockets or relays, telemetry sensors, etc. Or specialized ones, for example, for working with electronic price tags (Huawei implemented such a solution in partnership with ). Plus, some series of access points have an additional USB connector, and the Internet of Things module can be connected through it.
- New generation of Smart Antenna technology. Up to 16 antennas are placed in the access point body, forming up to 12 spatial streams. Such "smart antennas" make it possible, in particular, to increase the coverage radius (and get rid of "dead zones") due to the fact that each of them has a focused radio signal propagation range and "understands" where a particular client.
- Larger signal propagation radius means that the RSSI at the client, or the signal level at the reception, will also be higher. In comparative tests, when a regular omni-directional access point is tested and one equipped with smart antennas, the second one has a twofold increase in power - an additional 3 dB
In the case of using smart antennas, there is no signal asymmetry, since the sensitivity of the access point increases proportionally. Each of the 16 antennas acts as a mirror: due to the principle of multipath propagation, when the client sends a beam of information, the corresponding radio wave, reflected from various obstacles, hits all 16 antennas. Then the point, using its internal algorithms, adds the received signals and restores the encoded data with a greater degree of reliability.
- All new Huawei access points have implemented SDR (Software-Defined Radio) technology. Thanks to it, depending on the preferred scenario for operating the wireless infrastructure, the administrator determines how the three radios should function. How many spatial streams to allocate is also determined dynamically. For example, you can make two radio modules work for connecting clients (one in the 2,4 GHz band, the other in 5 GHz), and the third one functions as a scanner, watching what is happening with the radio environment. Or use three modules exclusively to connect clients.
Another common scenario is when there are not too many clients on the network, but they have high-load applications that require high bandwidth on their devices. In this case, all spatial streams are tied to the frequency bands of 2,4 and 5 GHz, while the channels are aggregated to provide users with not 20, but 80 MHz bandwidth.
- Access points implemented filters according to 3GPP specifications, in order to delimit radio modules that can potentially operate at different frequencies in the 5 GHz band, to avoid internal interference
Access points provide for operation in different modes. One of them is RTU (Right-to-Use). Briefly, its basic principle is as follows. Individual series models will be supplied in a standard version, for example with six spatial streams. Further, with the help of a license, it will be possible to expand the functionality of the device and activate two more streams, revealing the hardware potential inherent in it. Another option: perhaps, over time, the client will need to allocate an additional radio interface for scanning the air, and in order to put it into operation, it will be enough to purchase a license again.
In the lower right part of the previous illustration, the access points have digital correspondences, for example, 2 + 2 + 4 in relation to the AirEngine 5760. The bottom line is that the AP has three independent radio modules. The numbers show how many spatial streams will be assigned to each radio. Accordingly, the number of threads directly affects the throughput in a particular range. The standard series provides up to eight streams. Advanced - up to 12. Finally, flagship (hi-end class devices) - up to 16.
How the AirEngine line is arranged
From now on, the common brand of corporate wireless solutions is AirEngine. As you can easily see, the design of the access points was inspired by the turbines of aircraft engines: special diffusers are placed on the front and rear surfaces of the devices.
AirEngine 5760-51 initial series devices are the most accessible to the consumer and are designed for the most common scenarios. For example, for retail. However, they are quite suitable for office needs, being universal in terms of the technological stack used in them and the cost.
The next oldest series is 5760-22W. It includes wall-plate access points, which are not suspended from the ceiling, but placed on a table, in a corner, or attached to a wall. They are best suited for those scenarios in which you need to cover a large number of relatively small rooms with wireless communication (at a school, hospital, etc.), where a wired connection is also needed pointwise.
The 5760-22W (wall-plate) model provides 2,5 Gb / s connection via copper interfaces, and also has a special SFP transceiver for PON. Thus, the access layer can be fully implemented over a passive optical network and connect the access point directly to this GPON network.
The range includes both internal and external access points. The latter are easy to distinguish by the letter R (outdoor) in the title. Thus, the AirEngine 8760-X1-PRO is designed for indoor use, while the AirEngine 8760R-X1 is designed for outdoor scenarios. If the name of the access point contains the letter E (external), then its antennas are not built-in, but external.
The top model - AirEngine 8760-X1-PRO is equipped with three ten-gigabit interfaces for connection. Two of them are copper, and both support PoE / PoE-IN, which allows you to reserve the device for power. The third one is for fiber optic connection (SFP+). To clarify, this is a combo interface: it is possible to connect both via copper and optics. Also, let's say, nothing prevents you from connecting an access point via optics, and giving power from an injector through a copper interface. We should also mention the built-in Bluetooth 5.0 port. The performance of the 8760-X1-PRO is the highest in the line, since it supports up to 16 spatial streams.
- Will PoE + access points be enough for power supply?
- Senior Series (8760) requires POE++. That is why CloudEngine s5732 switches with multi-gigabit ports and 802.3bt support (up to 60 W) go on sale in May-June.
What's more, the AirEngine 8760-X1-PRO gets extra cooling. Liquid circulates through two circuits inside the access point, removing excess heat from the chipset. This solution is primarily designed to ensure long-term operation of the device with peak performance: some other vendors declare that their access points are also able to deliver up to 10 Gb / s, however, after 15-20 minutes, these devices are prone to overheating, and for the sake of lowering their temperature, part of the spatial flows is turned off, which reduces the throughput.
The access points of the younger series do not have liquid cooling, but they also do not have the problem of overheating due to lower performance. Mid-range models - AirEngine 6760 - support up to 12 spatial streams. They also connect via XNUMX-gigabit interfaces. In addition, there is a gigabit - for connecting to existing switches.
For a relatively long time, Huawei has been offering a solution , which implies the presence of a central access point and remote radio modules controlled by it. Such an AP is responsible for all sorts of high-load tasks and is equipped with a CPU to implement QoS, make decisions about client roaming, limit bandwidth, recognize applications, etc. In turn, external radio modules actually send traffic in its original form to the central access point and act converters from 802.11 to 802.3.
The solution turned out to be not very popular in Russia. Nevertheless, its advantages cannot be ignored. For example, the ability to save a lot on the cost of licenses, since each radio module does not need to be purchased separately. In addition, the main load falls on the central access points, which allows you to deploy a huge wireless network of tens of thousands of elements. So we updated Agile Distributed Wi-Fi to take advantage of our technology stack around Wi-Fi 6.
Access points for outdoor use will also go on sale in June. The senior series among outdoor devices is 8760R, with the maximum technological stack (in particular, up to 16 spatial streams are available). However, we assume that for most scenarios, the 6760R will be the optimal choice. Outdoor coverage, as a rule, is required either in warehouses, or for wireless bridging, or at technological sites, where from time to time there is a need to receive or transmit some kind of telemetry or remove information from data collection terminals.
About the technological advantages of AirEngine access points
Previously, the variability of external antennas for our access points was extremely limited. There were either omni-directional (dipole) antennas, or completely narrowly directed ones. Now the choice is wider. For example, an antenna 70 Β° / 70 Β° in azimuth and elevation saw the light. By placing it in the corner of the room, you can cover almost the entire space in front of it with a signal.
The list of antennas that are supplied with internal access points is being replenished, and it is possible that it will be replenished, including those produced by other manufacturers. Let's make a reservation, there are no directed ones among them. If you need to organize coverage focusing indoors, you need to either use models with external dipole antennas and position them yourself for optimal radio signal propagation, or take access points with built-in smart antennas.
There are no significant changes regarding the installation of access points. All models are equipped with mounts for mounting both on the ceiling and on the wall or even on the pipe (metal clamps). For office ceilings with railings such as Armstrong mounts are also suitable. Additionally, you can put locks, which is especially important if the access point will operate in a public place.
If you take a quick look at the key technological innovations that have been implemented in the development of the model range , you get a list like this.
- Industry-leading productivity achieved. To date, only Huawei has been able to implement 16 transmit and receive antennas with 12 spatial streams in a single access point. Smart antenna technology in the form in which it is embodied by Huawei is also not available to any other company at the moment.
- Huawei has dedicated solutions to achieve ultra-low latency. This allows, in particular, to provide completely seamless roaming for mobile warehouse robots.
- As you know, Wi-Fi 6 technology carries two solutions for multiple access: OFDMA and Multi-User MIMO. No one, except Huawei, has so far been able to organize their simultaneous work.
- IoT support for AirEngine access points is unprecedentedly broad and native.
- The line meets the highest safety standards. For example, all our Wi-Fi 6 points are encrypted based on the WPA3 protocol.
What determines the bandwidth of the access point? According to Shannon's theorem, from three factors:
- on the number of spatial streams;
- from the bandwidth;
- from the signal-to-noise ratio.
Huawei solutions in each of the three named areas differ from what other vendors offer - and each contains many improvements.
- Huawei devices are capable of generating up to twelve spatial streams, while top access points from other manufacturers are only eight.
- The new Huawei access points are able to generate eight spatial streams of 160 MHz each, while competing vendors have a maximum of eight streams of 80 MHz each. As a result, one and a half or even two times superiority of our solutions in performance is potentially achievable.
- As for the signal-to-noise ratio, due to the use of Smart Antenna technology, our access points show a significantly greater tolerance to interference and a much higher RSSI level at the reception at the client - at least twice as much (by 3 dB).
Let's figure out where the bandwidth comes from, which is usually indicated in datasheets. In our case, 10,75 Gbps.
The calculation formula is shown in the figure above. Let's see what the multipliers in it are.
The first is the number of spatial streams (at 2,4 GHz - up to four, at 5 GHz - up to eight). The second is one divided by the sum of the symbol duration and guard interval duration, according to the standard used. Since in Wi-Fi 6 the character duration is quadrupled to 12,8 Β΅s, and the guard interval is 0,8 Β΅s, the result is 1/13,6 Β΅s.
Further: recall, thanks to improved 1024-QAM modulation, up to 10 bits can now be encoded per symbol. In total, we have a bitrate of 5/6 (FEC) - the fourth multiplier. And the fifth is the number of subcarriers (tones).
Finally, adding the maximum performance for 2,4 and for 5 GHz, we get an impressive value of 10,75 Gb / s.
Also in our access points and controllers, DBS radio frequency resource management has appeared. If earlier it was necessary to select the channel width for a particular SSID once (20, 40 or 80 MHz), now it is possible to configure the controller so that it does this dynamically.
Another improvement in the distribution of radio resources was introduced by SmartRadio technology. Previously, if there were several access points in one zone, it was possible to specify by which algorithm to redistribute clients, to which AP to connect a new one, etc. But these settings were applied only once, at the time of its connection and association with the Wi-Fi network. In the case of AirEngine, algorithms for load balancing can be applied in real time when clients are working and, for example, moving between access points.
An important nuance regarding antenna elements: in AirEngine models, they implement both vertical and horizontal polarization at once. Each supports four antennas, and there are four such elements. Hence the total number - 16 antennas.
The antenna element itself is passive. Accordingly, in order to focus more energy in the direction of the client, it is required to form a narrower beam with compact antennas. Huawei has succeeded. The result - radio coverage is on average 20% more than that of competing solutions.
With Wi-Fi 6, ultra-high throughput and high modulation levels (MCS 10 and MCS 11 schemes) are possible only when the signal-to-noise ratio, or Signal-to-Noise Ratio, exceeds 35 dB. Every decibel counts. And the smart antenna really allows you to increase the level of the received signal.
In real tests, 1024-QAM modulation with the MCS 10 scheme will work at a distance of no more than 3 m from the access point, whichever one is available on the market. Well, when using a "smart" antenna, the distance can be increased to 6-7 m.
Another technology that Huawei has integrated into the new hotspots is called Dynamic Turbo. Its essence lies in the fact that the AP can recognize and classify applications by class on the fly (for example, it transmits real-time video, voice traffic or something else), distinguish clients by their degree of importance and allocate resource units in such a way so that high-level applications that are important to users run as fast as possible. In fact, at the hardware level, the access point performs DPI - deep traffic analysis.
As noted earlier, Huawei is currently the only vendor that provides simultaneous operation of MU-MIMO and OFDMA in its solutions. Let's take a closer look at the difference between them.
Both technologies are designed to provide multi-user access. When there are many users in the network, OFDMA allows you to distribute the frequency resource in such a way that many clients receive and receive information at the same time. However, MU-MIMO is ultimately aimed at the same thing: when several clients are located at different points in the room, each of them can be sent a unique spatial stream. For clarity, let's imagine that the frequency resource is the Moscow-St. Petersburg route. OFDMA seems to suggest: "Let's make the road not one lane, but two, so that it is used more efficiently." MU-MIMO has a different approach: "Let's build a second, third road so that traffic goes along independent paths." Theoretically, one does not contradict the other, but in reality, the combination of two methods requires a certain algorithmic base. Thanks to the fact that Huawei was able to create this base, the throughput of our access points increased by almost 40% compared to what competitors are able to provide.
In terms of security, the new access points, like the previous models, support DTLS. This means that, as before, CAPWAP control traffic can be encrypted.
With protection against external malicious influences, everything is the same as in the previous generation of controllers. Any type of attack, be it a brute force attack, a Weak IV attack (weak initialization vectors), or something else, is detected in real time. The reaction to DDoS is also configurable: the system can create dynamic blacklists, notify the administrator about what is happening when trying to distribute a network attack, etc.
What solutions accompany AirEngine models
Our Wi-Fi 6 analytics platform CampusInsight solves several problems. First of all, it is involved in radio management along with the controller: CampusInsight allows you to calibrate and allocate channels in real time in the best possible way, adjust the signal strength and bandwidth of a particular channel, and control what happens to the Wi-Fi network in general. For all that, CampusInsight is also applicable in wireless security (in particular, for intrusion prevention and intrusion detection), and not in relation to a specific access point or one SSID, but across the entire wireless infrastructure.
WLAN Planner is also worthy of attention - a tool for radio modeling, and it can determine some of the obstacles, such as walls, on its own. At the output, the program issues a short report, which, among other things, indicates how many access points are required to cover the premises. Based on such inputs, it is much easier to make more meaningful decisions regarding equipment specifications, budgeting, etc.
Among the software, we also mention the Cloud Campus App, available to everyone on both iOS and Android and containing a whole set of tools for controlling the wireless network. Some of them are designed to test the quality of Wi-Fi (for example, a roaming test). Among other things, you can evaluate the signal level, find sources of interference, check the throughput in a particular area, and if there are problems, identify their causes.
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Huawei experts continue to host regular webinars on our new products and technologies. Among the topics: the principles of building data centers using Huawei equipment, the specifics of the operation of Dorado V6 arrays, AI solutions for various scenarios, and much, much more. A list of webinars for the coming weeks can be found by clicking on .
We also invite you to take a look at , where not only our solutions and technologies are discussed, but also broader engineering issues. Including a Wi-Fi 6 branch is open on it - join the discussion!
Source: habr.com