Wi-Fi evolves, maintains core strengths for next generation use cases

Austin, TX – December 18, 2018 – Wi-Fi® addresses a broad range of next generation connectivity scenarios both today and in the future, as explored by Wi-Fi Alliance® in a new whitepaper, Next generation Wi-Fi: The future of connectivity. With an array of portfolio enhancements and evolution to Wi-Fi 6, the whitepaper details Wi-Fi’s broadening ability to support advanced use cases while maintaining inherent strengths that have made Wi‑Fi a success. Wi-Fi delivers reliability, security, and interoperability, and will soon deliver greater capacity, faster speeds, and lower latency to support next generation use cases such as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), Ultra high-definition (Ultra HD) video, multiparty gaming, Internet of Things (IoT), and other immersive experiences.

For nearly two decades, Wi-Fi networks have created a distributed connectivity fabric that brings Wi-Fi where it is needed most: in homes, inside buildings, and in dense outdoor areas. Wi-Fi has done this while protecting users with a high level of security and making efficient use of available unlicensed spectrum. The new whitepaper includes details on the many inherent strengths in today’s Wi-Fi that further pave the way towards addressing next generation connectivity, such as:

• Affordable performance
• Unlicensed spectrum operation
• Ease of use
• Self-deployment
• Long-term compatibility

“Wi-Fi continues to add a richer set of capabilities that broaden deployment scenarios,” said Edgar Figueroa, president and CEO, Wi-Fi Alliance. “Excitement around new technologies will come and go, and meanwhile, Wi-Fi maintains its strong track record and commitment to core competencies that will continue to deliver mission critical connectivity and to carry the bulk of the world’s data traffic.”

The Wi-Fi Alliance portfolio of technologies delivers a broad range of scenarios from low power to high-performance and capacity. Today’s Wi-Fi already supports high-resolution video streaming, Wi‑Fi calling, smart home monitoring, hotspot access, automation of city-wide services, residential AR/VR applications, and seamless roaming. Wi-Fi 6 brings a new level of Wi-Fi capacity and performance, and enhancements to WiGig in the 60 GHz millimeter wave band will deliver faster speeds and longer ranges. Wi-Fi will provide connectivity for many advanced use cases in connected homes, connected enterprises, IoT, smart cities, carrier services, and public venues. Additionally, Wi-Fi HaLow™ will enable a variety of power-efficient use cases for connected car, digital healthcare, and industrial scenarios.

Wi-Fi’s installed base of more than nine billion devices enables delivery of next generation connectivity as part of a gradual transition, with backward compatibility to support legacy devices. Wi-Fi 6 will be introduced where needed and will not require a sizeable investment in new infrastructure, while still providing many advancements in performance and capacity. Similarly, users will be able to upgrade to Wi‑Fi 6 devices as desired. Wi-Fi's ability to address many next generation use cases today reduces the pressure and urgency for operators to deploy more expensive cellular networks, and for subscribers to buy new mobile devices to experience advanced use cases.

Next generation Wi-Fi: The future of connectivity expands on Wi-Fi’s five key inherent strengths that have made it nearly ubiquitous in devices and networks, and further explores Wi-Fi’s evolution to address many important, next generation use cases. The paper outlines advanced use cases that are available today, while also building excitement for what is to come over the next few years. The paper also describes Wi-Fi’s complementary role with 5G, as well as further describing the economic and societal benefits that Wi-Fi brings to our lives.

The full paper is available for download here.

Industry support for next generation Wi-Fi

“Where previous generations of Wi-Fi offered mostly improved data rates and performance, Wi-Fi 6 is designed to deliver transformational change to the traditional Wi-Fi architecture. Wi-Fi 6’s ability to effectively communicate with multiple clients simultaneously adds a level of capacity, performance, and network efficiency never before thought possible over a wireless network. In additional to traditional wireless network demands, IoT, smart cities, connected home, and VR/AR demands will put additional strain on the Wi-Fi network. Wi-Fi 6 has the capability to support and deliver this level of performance. Wi-Fi 6 will support a positive experience to the user (and IT administrator) even in the most dense environments.” - Perry Correll, product management director, Aerohive Networks

"Wi-Fi remains the future of connectivity, as outlined in this concise and insightful new white paper from Wi-Fi Alliance. Innovations such as Wi-Fi 6 coupled with AirTies’ Smart Wi-Fi software will help operators upgrade Wi-Fi performance and coverage, proactively fix and monitor Wi-Fi issues, and improve overall customer satisfaction for the super connected homes of tomorrow." – Metin Taskin, CTO of AirTies 

“Technologies like Wi-Fi 6 and Passpoint will steer unlicensed networks into the 5G era, meeting high performance expectations across speed, latency, reliability, security and traffic management. To realize digital transformations for both people and things, we’ll need Wi-Fi and its ability to carry the bulk of data traffic with unparalleled efficiencies.” – Dr. Derek Peterson, CTO at Boingo Wireless

“In our increasingly digital world, Wi-Fi is more important than ever. It connects us in a cost-effective way whether we are at work, at home or on the go. It adds nearly $2 trillion to the global economy every year. As we look for new ways to seamlessly share what we create, Wi-Fi 6 will keep pace to deliver a swift, steady, and secure consumer experience. This white paper by Wi-Fi Alliance aptly highlights the continuous impact of Wi-Fi.” – Vijay Nagarajan, Vice President of Marketing, Mobile Connectivity Division at Broadcom

“At CEVA, we are already seeing strong market demand for Wi-Fi 6, due to the new features, significantly improved performance and lower power consumption it enables for a wide range of use cases. We have been developing and licensing Wi-Fi MAC and modem IPs for many generations and both our existing customers and our many new prospects are very excited by the capabilities that Wi-Fi 6 brings to the next-generation of smart and connected devices.” – Aviv Malinovitch, general manager of the connectivity business unit at CEVA

“For many years, Wi-Fi has fulfilled its brand promise of “anyone, anytime, anyplace” connectivity at a great price, driving almost $2T of global economic value per annum. The Wi-Fi Alliance’s whitepaper provides yet more evidence that every market segment, including Cisco’s customers in the sophisticated and very demanding enterprise and Service Provider segments, can be confident that Wi-Fi 6 will continue fulfilling this promise and solve real problems well into the future." – Matt MacPherson, Wireless CTO, Cisco

“Wi-Fi is the primary connectivity method for billions of devices, users and things. With the new capabilities offered by Wi-Fi 6, and the pending expansion of unlicensed spectrum, Wi-Fi is in a unique position as the ideal connectivity medium to support a wide range of emerging, innovative, next-generation use cases, including those expected from 5G.” – Chuck Lukaszewski, vice president of wireless strategy and standards for Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Wi-Fi is a true mass phenomenon. Millions of households and businesses in Europe operate their own Wi-Fi networks, making them the fundamental basis for modern, digital, life and digitalized business processes. This is a role only Wi-Fi will be able to play, even in an era of 5G deployments.  – Jan Buis, Vice President Wireless LAN, IoT & Switches, LANCOM Systems

“Wi-Fi technology connects billions of people and their wireless devices to the content and experiences they depend on and enjoy every day. As the number of connected devices and the expectations for faster, more efficient networks grow for families, businesses, and beyond, new technologies like Wi-Fi 6 are meeting the demands of tomorrow’s connected world today. As a global leader in Wi-Fi shipments and deployments, Qualcomm works with leading manufacturers to deliver Wi-Fi 6 technology for the most innovative use cases.” –  Rahul Patel, senior vice president and general manager, connectivity and networking, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.

“Wi-Fi 6 will help enable the next generation of Wi-Fi connectivity by providing significant benefits to end users by enabling faster access to the network, reduced interference and easier integration of IoT devices. Quantenna is a strong supporter of Wi-Fi 6 and our portfolio of advanced solutions provides our customers with its full benefits.” – Ambroise Popper, vice president, strategy and corporate marketing, Quantenna

“With more than 20 billion devices shipped and many new features coming, there is no doubt that Wi-Fi will continue to play a dominant role in our increasingly wireless world. The Wi-Fi Alliance’s new paper, Next Generation Wi-Fi, does a nice job highlighting the major capabilities and services enabled by Wi-Fi 6 and WiGig technologies, the disparate spectrum bands that will be utilized, and the societal and economic benefits of Wi-Fi. Ruckus looks forward to continuing our leadership in Wi-Fi innovation as we enter the ‘5G Era.” – Dave Wright, director of regulatory affairs and network standards, Ruckus Networks, an ARRIS Company

About Wi-Fi Alliance®
www.wi-fi.org
Wi-Fi Alliance® is the worldwide network of companies that brings you Wi-Fi®. Members of our collaboration forum come together from across the Wi-Fi ecosystem with the shared vision to connect everyone and everything, everywhere, while providing the best possible user experience. Since 2000, Wi-Fi Alliance has completed more than 40,000 Wi-Fi certifications. The Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ seal of approval designates products with proven interoperability, backward compatibility, and the highest industry-standard security protections in place. Today, Wi-Fi carries more than half of the internet’s traffic in an ever-expanding variety of applications. Wi-Fi Alliance continues to drive the adoption and evolution of Wi-Fi, which billions of people rely on every day.

Media contacts: 
Andrea Torres
Highwire PR for Wi-Fi Alliance
wi-fi@highwirepr.com
+1-415-963-4174 ext. 13

Next generation Wi-Fi® security for personal and enterprise networks

Austin, TX – June 25, 2018 – Wi-Fi Alliance® introduces Wi-Fi CERTIFIED WPA3™, the next generation of Wi-Fi® security, bringing new capabilities to enhance Wi-Fi protections in personal and enterprise networks. Building on the widespread adoption of WPA2™ over more than a decade, WPA3™ adds new features to simplify Wi-Fi security, enable more robust authentication, and deliver increased cryptographic strength for highly sensitive data markets. As the Wi-Fi industry transitions to WPA3 security, WPA2 devices will continue to interoperate and provide recognized security.

WPA3 security continues to support the market through two distinct modes of operation: WPA3-Personal and WPA3-Enterprise. All WPA3 networks use the latest security methods, disallow outdated legacy protocols, and require use of Protected Management Frames (PMF) to maintain resiliency of mission critical networks. Key capabilities of WPA3 include:

• WPA3-Personal: more resilient, password-based authentication even when users choose passwords that fall short of typical complexity recommendations. WPA3 leverages Simultaneous Authentication of Equals (SAE), a secure key establishment protocol between devices, to provide stronger protections for users against password guessing attempts by third parties.
• WPA3-Enterprise: offers the equivalent of 192-bit cryptographic strength, providing additional protections for networks transmitting sensitive data, such as government or finance. The 192-bit security suite ensures a consistent combination of cryptographic tools are deployed across WPA3 networks.

Wi-Fi Alliance introduced enhancements and new features earlier this year for Wi-Fi Protected Access®, the essential family of Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ security technologies, to ensure WPA2 maintains strong security protections as the wireless landscape evolves. WPA2 continues to be mandatory for all Wi-Fi CERTIFIED devices. As market adoption of WPA3 grows, the new generation of Wi-Fi security will become required for all Wi-Fi CERTIFIED devices. WPA3 maintains interoperability with WPA2 devices through a transitional mode of operation, and Wi-Fi users can remain confident they are protected when connected to secured Wi-Fi CERTIFIED networks.

“WPA3 takes the lead in providing the industry’s strongest protections in the ever-changing security landscape,” said Edgar Figueroa, President and CEO, Wi-Fi Alliance. “WPA3 continues the evolution of Wi-Fi security and maintains the brand promise of Wi-Fi Protected Access.”

Wi-Fi Alliance is also introducing Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Easy Connect™, a new program that reduces the complexity of onboarding Wi-Fi devices with limited or no display interface – such as devices coming to market for Internet of Things (IoT) – while still maintaining high security standards. Wi-Fi Easy Connect™ enables users to securely add any device to a Wi-Fi network using another device with a more robust interface, such as a smartphone, by simply scanning a product quick response (QR) code. Wi-Fi Easy Connect and WPA3 represent the latest evolution in Wi-Fi Alliance programs to ensure users receive a positive experience while remaining securely connected as the security landscape evolves.

“The evolution of Wi-Fi to stay ahead of market needs has been critical to it remaining one of wireless technology’s greatest success stories,” said Phil Solis, Research Director for IDC. “Wi-Fi Alliance has been instrumental in Wi-Fi’s evolution, and diligent about delivering Wi-Fi CERTIFIED programs so users and a variety of markets can rely on the convenience of Wi-Fi connectivity and security to meet their needs.”

Wi-Fi Alliance recently introduced Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Enhanced Open™, a certification program that delivers new benefits for users in open Wi-Fi networks. In scenarios where user authentication is not desired or distribution of credentials is impractical – such as local coffee shops or guest networks with a web portal in airports, hotels, and sports arenas – Wi-Fi  Enhanced Open™ now delivers improved data protections while maintaining the convenience and ease-of-use of open networks.

For more information, please visit: https://www.wi-fi.org/security and https://www.wi-fi.org/wi-fi-easy-connect.

Industry support for WPA3 and Wi-Fi Easy Connect:

“2018 is a transformative year for Wi-Fi with new standards being published such as WPA3, which is the latest evolution of Wi-Fi Protected Access, taking security to a level of robustness and resiliency not seen before. Coupling WPA3 with the promise of 802.11ax’s efficiency will allow Wi-Fi to reach levels of security and performance unimaginable only a few years ago.” – Alan Amrod, SVP & GM, Products & Marketing, Aerohive Networks

"Security has always been a key component of Wi-Fi's broad appeal and Wi-Fi Alliance’s certifications. Ruckus is in full support of continuing to evolve the certification of security standards to meet potential new threats. We are actively developing new software to take full advantage of Wi-Fi CERTIFIED WPA3 for the benefit of our customers and their millions of end users around the world.” - said Mark Hamilton, Principal Networking Standards Engineer, Ruckus Networks, an ARRIS Company

“As Wi-Fi evolves to deliver more value in an ever expanding array of use cases, it’s important that security evolves too. WPA3’s new features, such as improved password based authentication and stronger encryption, will further simplify and strengthen how consumers and businesses connect to the Internet every day.” – Vijay Nagarajan, senior director of marketing for Wireless Communications and Connectivity division at Broadcom

Cisco is in full support of Wi-Fi Alliance’s continual focus on security evolution to WPA3. The WPA3 program will bring much needed upgrades to wireless security protecting all levels of customers from consumer to enterprise/government. Cisco is committed to integrating WPA3 features into our Aironet Access Points and Wireless Controllers via a firmware upgrade so that our existing and new customers can take advantage of the capabilities offered by WPA3. - Greg Dorai, Vice President Cisco WLAN, Cisco

“WPA3 and Wi-Fi Enhanced Open provide a comprehensive security offering without added complexity.  With WPA3, users will receive better experiences with passwords that are easier to remember and manage, and IT will be able to ensure consistent and strong cryptography throughout their infrastructure. Aruba has already begun to incorporate and certify WPA3 for future designs to ensure the most advanced protection for our customer’s data.” – Dan Harkins, Distinguished Technologist, Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Company

“WPA3 is another milestone for the Wi-Fi industry, the extreme high throughput and enhanced security delivered by Wi-Fi will provide an excellent end-user experience in both consumer and enterprise markets. We are pleased to see Wi-Fi to continue to enable the digital transformation in many sectors and businesses.” – Dr. Wen Tong, Huawei Fellow, CTO, Huawei Wireless

“WPA3 brings critical updates to Wi-Fi security for personal and enterprise networks. Intel supports WPA3 and through our involvement in the test bed, we are helping our customers incorporate WPA3 into their products for enhanced security protections.” – Eric Mclaughlin – GM, CCG Wireless, Intel

“Marvell has worked in close cooperation with Wi-Fi Alliance on Wi-Fi CERTIFIED WPA3 and Wi-Fi Easy Connect.  WPA3 builds on the widespread adoption of WPA2 and delivers a high level of security for both personal and enterprise Wi-Fi networks. We support these latest programs as together they provide strong protection against security threats while also enhancing the connectivity user experience for our customers.” – Mark Montierth, VP and GM of the Wireless Connectivity Business Unit at Marvell

“Hospitals are keenly aware of the critical importance of data privacy and security, and maintaining a robust security policy means accessing the strongest security measures available. Philips applauds Wi-Fi Alliance for building upon the success of WPA2 with the latest security mechanisms now available in WPA3.” – Phil Raymond, Director, Wireless CoE, MA&TC CTO Office, Philips Healthtech

“Qualcomm Technologies is committed to safeguarding the trust that millions of users and businesses put in Wi-Fi every day. We are proud to be among the first companies to support WPA3 across our portfolio of mobile and networking infrastructure products, and we are working closely with Wi-Fi Alliance and key stakeholders to accelerate its adoption throughout all major industries and ecosystems that rely on Wi-Fi.” – said Rahul Patel, senior vice president and general manager, connectivity and networking, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.

“Silicon Motion proudly supports the industry transition to WPA3.  Our new low power Wi-Fi SoC, built for IoT applications, supports both the mandatory and optional elements of WPA3 so that our customers can enable the highest level of security possible for their Wi-Fi and low power IoT applications.”  - David Cohen, Sr. Marketing Director, Silicon Motion, Inc.

About Wi-Fi Alliance®
www.wi-fi.org
Wi-Fi Alliance® is the worldwide network of companies that brings you Wi-Fi®. Members of our collaboration forum come together from across the Wi-Fi ecosystem with the shared vision to connect everyone and everything, everywhere, while providing the best possible user experience. Since 2000, Wi-Fi Alliance has completed more than 40,000 Wi-Fi certifications. The Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ seal of approval designates products with proven interoperability, backward compatibility, and the highest industry-standard security protections in place. Today, Wi-Fi carries more than half of the internet’s traffic in an ever-expanding variety of applications. Wi-Fi Alliance continues to drive the adoption and evolution of Wi-Fi, which billions of people rely on every day.

Media contacts: 
Stephanie Burke
Highwire PR for Wi-Fi Alliance
wi-fi@highwirepr.com
+1-646-838-1190 ext. 48

New program enhances protections, maintains ease-of-use on open Wi-Fi

Austin, TX – June 5, 2018 – Wi-Fi Alliance® is introducing Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Enhanced Open™, a certification program that delivers new benefits for users in open Wi-Fi® networks. Wi-Fi Enhanced Open™ provides protections in scenarios where user authentication is not desired or distribution of credentials impractical. These unauthenticated networks are often deployed in public locations such as local coffee shops and guest networks with a web portal in airports, hotels, and sports arenas. Wi-Fi Enhanced Open™ offers improved data privacy while maintaining convenience and ease-of-use.

Wi-Fi Enhanced Open provides protections against passive eavesdropping without requiring a password or extra steps to join the network. Based on Opportunistic Wireless Encryption (OWE), Wi-Fi Enhanced Open integrates established cryptography mechanisms to provide each user with unique individual encryption that protects data exchange between a user device and the Wi-Fi network. Protected Management Frames further protects management traffic between the access point and user device. Network operators that use a captive portal to control network access can maintain the simplicity of their deployment because there are no network credentials to maintain or share.

“Wi-Fi Alliance recommends enabling Wi‑Fi security whenever possible to control who connects to the network and ensure transmissions across the Wi-Fi network cannot be read by others,” said Kevin Robinson, VP of Marketing, Wi-Fi Alliance. “In deployment scenarios where the network owner does not enable Wi‑Fi security to limit network access and wishes to minimize deployment complexity, Wi-Fi Enhanced Open delivers great benefits of protections against passive eavesdropping and a seamless experience to customers.

Wi-Fi Enhanced Open can be deployed in a transition mode which allows for gradual migration from an open network to a Wi-Fi Enhanced Open network without disruption to Wi-Fi users or network operators. As more client devices include Wi-Fi Enhanced Open, they will benefit from the new protections provided. There is no need for additional user configuration. Network operators benefit because they can be confident they are closing off passive eavesdropping attacks that are possible on open networks while minimizing network complexity. Network operators wishing to deploy a fully-featured authentication and device-provisioning solution should consider approaches such as Wi‑Fi CERTIFIED Passpoint®.

Later this summer, Wi‑Fi Alliance will deliver the next generation of Wi-Fi Protected Access® security capabilities for personal and enterprise Wi-Fi networks through Wi-Fi CERTIFIED WPA3™. In scenarios where the authentication capabilities inherent in Wi‑Fi Protected Access are not desired, Wi-Fi Enhanced Open will provide users with enhanced data protections.

For more information, please visit: http://wi-fi.org/enhanced-open.

About Wi-Fi Alliance®
www.wi-fi.org
Wi-Fi Alliance® is the worldwide network of companies that brings you Wi-Fi®. Members of our collaboration forum come together from across the Wi-Fi ecosystem with the shared vision to connect everyone and everything, everywhere, while providing the best possible user experience. Since 2000, Wi-Fi Alliance has completed more than 40,000 Wi-Fi certifications. The Wi-Fi CERTIFIED seal of approval designates products with proven interoperability, backward compatibility, and the highest industry-standard security protections in place. Today, Wi-Fi carries more than half of the internet’s traffic in an ever-expanding variety of applications. Wi-Fi Alliance continues to drive the adoption and evolution of Wi-Fi, which billions of people rely on every day.

Media contacts:
Stephanie Burke
Highwire PR for Wi-Fi Alliance
wi-fi@highwirepr.com
+1-646-838-1190 ext. 48