Low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellations are on the rise, making broadband speeds available anywhere on the globe, beginning to disrupt broadband markets and changing the way we think about connectivity. This year, LEO Direct-to-Device (DTD) has matured from a concept to first commercial services.

DTD denotes the principle of connecting your everyday smartphone directly to satellites, without extra hardware in between. That’s a big deal for closing the last coverage gaps of our terrestrial networks and could make “always connected” finally mean everywhere. Players such as SpaceX’s Starlink, AST SpaceMobile and Skylo are already shaping DTD ecosystems.

The Starlink Question: From Partner to Competitor?

So far, Starlink has acted as a partner, working with mobile operators and using its licensed spectrum for DTD services. However, by acquiring EchoStar’s mobile assets (the AWS-4 and H-Block licenses in the United States, plus global Mobile Satellite Service [MSS] priority rights), SpaceX seems to have opened the door to taking on a broader role. Elon Musk even hinted at launching a mobile DTD service with indoor coverage within two years.

That development is causing industry concern. Is Starlink gearing up to become a mobile operator in its own right? Becoming a full MNO without a terrestrial network already in place would be a challenging and daunting endeavor. It would mean building terrestrial sites, deploying a mobile core, and handling billing, customer support and regulatory compliance across dozens of markets. That’s a heavy lift, even for Starlink.

Instead, this spectrum deal looks more like a strategic enabler than an all-out move into retail mobile. It gives Starlink more flexibility in its wholesale and partnership business. And realistically, it will take two to three years before we see any market impact, as both satellite constellations and handsets evolve.

Starlink’s spectrum move isn’t a declaration of war. Rather, it’s a signal. It tells us that the boundaries between satellite and terrestrial networks are dissolving, and the next chapter of connectivity will be written through collaboration, not competition.

The bigger story here isn’t about who “wins.” It’s about how everything connects. LEO DTD is becoming a key convergence layer in a world where fixed and mobile, terrestrial and satellite networks work together to keep users seamlessly connected. No single network type can cover it all, but together, they can, and partnerships are crucial to make that happen. The real opportunity lies in building converged user experiences rather than competing over who owns the access layer.

CableLabs Shapes the Connected Future

For CableLabs members, that’s an opportunity, and we’re deeply engaged in helping them understand and shape this new reality. We’re building the foundation for members to adopt, partner and innovate confidently in tomorrow’s world. Our experts are working on:

• Seamless connectivity frameworks that unify terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks.
• Simulations and techno-economic models to analyze LEO DTD and broadband capacity, performance and cost structures.
• Integration architectures that show how DTD can fit into existing cores, backends and traffic steering systems.
• Regulatory engagement to ensure that our industry’s voice is heard in spectrum and interoperability discussions.
• General Seamless Connectivity Services (SCS) to provide a ubiquitous, reliable, adaptive connectivity fabric irrespective of access type

If you’re an operator or technology partner looking to make sense of how DTD fits into your roadmap, now is the time to connect with CableLabs experts. The earlier we align on architectures, interoperability and business models, the stronger the ecosystem we can build together.

To explore the broader topic of Seamless Connectivity Services, check out the recent blog post. If you’re a member, get involved in our working group or watch the recent Seamless Connectivity Services/Mobile Optionality webinar on the Member Portal (login is required).

“Have you ever had to…”

This phrase sometimes precedes a story about a challenging or difficult experience. For internet users around the world, maybe this rings a bell: Have you ever had to turn off the Wi-Fi on your phone to prevent calls from dropping when leaving home?

It’s likely that many people reading here can relate to this scenario. Why is that?

It’s because mobile devices tend to stick to Wi-Fi (whether at home, in the office or elsewhere) for too long, often switching to cellular when it’s too late. This can lead to dropped voice calls and data connections that stall for 20 seconds or more. This “sticky” behavior has existed ever since mobile devices first integrated Wi-Fi and cellular radios.

The problem stems from a fundamental characteristic of mobile devices, which follow a “Wi-Fi first” approach. However, the problem is exacerbated by the lack of a standardized mechanism to seamlessly transition between Wi-Fi and cellular networks, which leaves users vulnerable to connectivity disruptions.

How Does This Impact the End User?

In today’s digital age, we rely heavily on mobile devices for everything — from video calls and streaming services to online work and social interactions. Yet, many users face a frustrating experience: When moving between cellular and Wi-Fi networks, their devices often struggle to maintain a stable connection, resulting in dropped calls, buffering videos or lost data sessions.

This lack of seamless connectivity not only disrupts user activities but also impacts perceptions of service quality, leading many to disable Wi-Fi altogether or switch to less efficient networks.

How Can We Improve the Experience?

Collaborating with member operators, CableLabs has been working to characterize the poor user experience that this problem creates and to understand how frequently it happens.

Our field testing included evaluating hundreds of video conference calls, testing video calling apps and making voice calls across devices from major manufacturers and operating systems. We assessed the user experience based on audio dropouts, video stutters and freezes, and dropped calls, and compiled the results.

Our members also analyzed hundreds of millions of Wi-Fi signal strength data points during times when phones transitioned from Wi-Fi to cellular networks. We even conducted surveys with actual customers to gather insights into their experience when leaving Wi-Fi coverage.

What Did We Find?

Long story short, the problem is real. It’s disruptive to users and occurs frequently. Our testing highlights the extent of this issue as summarized below.

• Most devices we tested experienced long periods (usually between 19 and 54 seconds) of bad audio, dropped audio and/or frozen video during calls.
• Standard voice-only calls had between 10 and 13 seconds of bad audio during the transition from Wi-Fi to cellular.
• From analysis of operator-provided Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) data, the RSSI is low enough to likely cause issues with Wi-Fi voice calls 60 percent of the time when transitioning from Wi-Fi to cellular. When using other apps problems are likely to occur 40 percent of the time.
• About half of the surveyed users manually switch their mobile device between their home Wi-Fi and cellular at least once per week, with 44 percent of those users experiencing issues during the transition.

The consequence is clear: Without seamless network transitions, user experience suffers, reliability drops and dissatisfaction increases.

While standards development organizations have made some advancements, particularly for Wi-Fi calling, these solutions have not yet fully addressed the latency and disruption challenges during network transitions for other applications.

What’s Next?

This problem is multifaceted, given the diverse set of stakeholders involved — including device vendors, operating system (OS) vendors, chipset vendors, operators and application developers, each using their proprietary algorithms/KPIs to try to solve the sticky Wi-Fi problem. Switching to cellular as soon as Wi-Fi starts to degrade can improve the user experience to a certain extent, but it won’t fully solve the problem.

CableLabs is actively engaging with all the industry stakeholders in an attempt to align on a common, streamlined solution aimed at enhancing the user experience. This will ensure we can address the challenges users face today during network transitions in a consistent manner, regardless of a user’s access network or device.

We are also working with industry vendors and standards organizations (like Wi-Fi Alliance) to test and develop solutions for truly seamless connections that offer reliable and consistent experiences for users. If your company is a mobile device vendor and you would like to engage with CableLabs in this work, contact us to learn how we can collaborate to achieve seamless connectivity.

To read more about this and the CableLabs working group tackling this problem, read our recent blog post, “Unlocking the Power of Seamless Connectivity.”

CableLabs is proud to partner with Broadcom, Cisco, the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) and the Wi-Fi Alliance (WFA) to offer an open-source version of the Open Automated Frequency Coordination (AFC) solution.

This platform enables unlicensed devices to operate as Standard Power (SP) devices within the recently opened 6GHz band. SP devices have a higher power than indoor devices operating in the same band. While the most common unlicensed technology is Wi-Fi, the AFC can also support other wireless technologies.

What Is the Open AFC Project?

This partnership, called the Open AFC Project, focuses on maintaining an open-source version of the AFC. The goal is to provide a foundation for new AFC vendors to enter the ecosystem and to offer a platform for global regulators to further explore expanding share spectrum in their regions. The Open AFC open-source platform originated from the Open AFC work under the Telecom Infra Project (TIP).

In March 2024, TIP announced the retirement of the Open Automated Frequency Coordination Software Group, which had been tasked with developing a platform to enable Standard Power Wi-Fi operation in the 6GHz band. This industry collaboration group’s mission was to quickly develop an AFC platform for the U.S., with an eye toward global adoption.

The TIP Open AFC enabled three entities — Broadcom, WBA and WFA — to receive Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approval, expanding the number of AFC solutions available within the ecosystem. With the retirement of the TIP Open AFC, TIP has handed off the golden version of the open-source reference Open AFC platform to the Open AFC Project.

The goal of the Open APF Project is to manage this open-source AFC platform, ensuring continued alignment with current and future FCC regulations. Contributions from the AFC community will support ongoing improvements, and as more global regions adopt 6GHz, the AFC can expand to include their regulations and rules — ultimately supporting a unified global platform.

As additional bands are reviewed worldwide to become shared spectrum between licensed, partially licensed and unlicensed deployments, AFC technology has the potential to play a key role in coordinating services within those bands.

For more information about the Open AFC Project, contact Luther Smith, or subscribe to the CableLabs blog for updates on our work on wireless technologies and more.

Seamless connectivity is increasingly becoming an integral part of the connectivity service offerings of multiple system operators (MSOs). MSOs with their hybrid network infrastructure and varied service offerings may supplement their connectivity offerings with other wireless operators — for example, mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) agreements with mobile network operators (MNOs) — in addition to leveraging their own infrastructure. Depending on the infrastructure they own, MSOs may have to contend with disparate sets of wireless infrastructures.

In such scenarios, the transition of the user’s data traffic between these disparate networks becomes critical for ensuring a consistent user experience. It is also key to enforcing uniform and personalized policies as users move in and out of coverage of these networks with regards to:

• The transition being optimally triggered, considering not just the received signal strength indicator (RSSI) but also the network congestion, availability of and interference from neighboring networks and the traffic requirements (based on traffic/application type).
• The transition being as quick and seamless as possible (without any noticeable service disruption to the user) while maintaining security and privacy of user data.

Addressing these challenges will enable seamless and consistent connectivity for subscribers, dynamically adapting to evolving user needs and network conditions.

CableLabs’ Work In the Seamless Connectivity Space

CableLabs recognizes the evolving mobile industry landscape driven by the introduction of 5G and the availability of new and innovative spectrum options. Aware of our members’ growing mobile subscriber base and a need to complement their existing broadband offerings, we understand how critical it is to resolve the pain points that they face today (or may face in the near future).

Considering this, CableLabs, in collaboration with our members, started a Seamless Connectivity working group (WG) to understand and validate some of these issues. The aim of the group is to come up with multiple solutions that could cater to specific member needs by aligning with their infrastructure and deployment strategies. Seamless connectivity is a key theme of the Technology Vision for the future of the industry.

One potential solution for addressing the seamless connectivity issue is ATSSS, or Access Traffic Steering, Switching and Splitting. To learn more about the standardized ATSSS feature, watch our demo video below. You can watch the full video, “Harnessing ATSSS: Seamless Traffic Switching for Uninterrupted Connectivity,” here.

To learn more, check out the paper on seamless connectivity that we published at SCTE TechExpo24.

If you have any questions on the ATSSS demo or seamless connectivity initiative or if you would like to participate in the working group and collaborate with us, please reach out to me or my colleagues Sanjay Patel, John Bahr and Neeharika Jesukumar.

Modern networks deliver impressive speeds — often reaching gigabits per second — yet they still suffer from unpredictable delays that can disrupt interactive applications. Whether it’s video conferencing, cloud gaming or remote collaboration, these inconsistencies can lead to frustrating user experiences. As network operators strive to enhance reliability and responsiveness, a more effective solution is needed.

To address this need, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) — an organization responsible for developing open internet standards — has specified the Low Latency, Low Loss and Scalable (L4S) throughput architecture. L4S enables applications to implement a new mechanism to ensure that they are sending their data as fast as the network can support, but no faster. The result is efficient capacity usage with minimal queuing delay and low packet loss.

This shift to a more comprehensive quality of service (QoS) model is essential for delivering smooth and uninterrupted performance across a wide range of services, from gaming and video streaming to cloud computing and augmented reality.

What Is L4S?

The power of L4S stems from new congestion control algorithms that adapt to new fine-grain notifications of congestion at the IP layer across various network elements along an end-to-end (E2E) path. While L4S can be deployed on each element of the network, its most significant impact is at points of congestion, also referred to as network bottlenecks — where the rate of incoming packets can exceed the departure rate.

The cable industry already adopted support for L4S, as part of the Low Latency DOCSIS® 3.1 specifications (and it carries forward into DOCSIS 4.0 gear as well). Operators are beginning to enable this functionality in their networks, and more are expected to do so over the coming months. That said, the broadband access network segment is only one potential bottleneck. There are others on the E2E path.

The Need for L4S in Wi-Fi Networks

Wi-Fi networks, in particular, require L4S support as they are frequently a point of congestion in E2E networks. Indeed, although Wi-Fi networks often advertise their maximum capacity that is greater than the broadband access connection, actual performance is significantly influenced by factors such as the distance between clients and the access point (AP), as well as the number of APs and clients operating on the same channel. This need for L4S support is even more critical given that a substantial portion of internet traffic is transmitted over Wi-Fi.

WBA L4S Implementation Guidelines and NS3 Simulator

Wi-Fi presents unique challenges for L4S implementation compared to wired technologies such as DOCSIS® networks. While wired networks primarily see only buffering delays, Wi-Fi additionally introduces media access delays, which can be significant in congested environments. To tackle these challenges, CableLabs worked within the End-to-End QoS Working Group of the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) to produce a set of guidelines to implement L4S in current Wi-Fi products.

The guidelines cover:

• An overview of L4S technology, explaining its mechanics and benefits.
• The importance of L4S support in Wi-Fi equipment for improving E2E application performance.
• Implementation strategies for Wi-Fi equipment suppliers to enable L4S functionality in their products.
• Simulation and test results demonstrating the advantages of L4S in real-world scenarios

The simulation results are based on a Wi-Fi NS3 model developed by CableLabs, designed to evaluate L4S performance in Wi-Fi networks. The model is open-source and available to industry and research players to support L4S deployment and assess its impact on various use cases. In addition, CableLabs provided field test data that were conducted with a Nokia AP.

The Future of L4S in Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi equipment suppliers today can leverage the L4S Implementation Guidelines to develop support on their existing platforms (e.g. Wi-Fi 7 devices). Several proposals from industry leaders, including CableLabs, aim to incorporate L4S support into the 802.11 Wi-Fi standard, ensuring native support for L4S across future Wi-Fi generations.

In addition, as the ecosystem matures, CableLabs will continue refining the NS3 model to expand its applicability to more scenarios and use cases. This ongoing effort is being advanced in collaboration with the WBA E2E QoS working group.

L4S is a critically important next step in the evolution of the internet that solves many of the issues that cause frustrations today, where it seems that bandwidth alone hasn’t fully enabled reliable and responsive interactive application experiences.

To fully take that step, the segments of the network that are the likely bottlenecks in residential deployments — the access network and the Wi-Fi segment — both need built-in support for L4S.

The Open RAN movement is gaining momentum, with increasing numbers of operators and vendors embracing the potential of open, interoperable radio access networks (RANs). At CableLabs, we’ve been at the forefront of this movement from the start, hosting NTIA-sponsored 5G Challenge events in our lab, as well as O-RAN Global PlugFests twice a year to bring together industry leaders and drive innovation.

Building on the success of our previous PlugFests, we’re committed to continuing this work, pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with Open RAN. In this blog post, we’ll take you through our latest efforts to test interoperability, efficiency, performance and security of Open RAN components.

Energy Savings Meet Uncompromised Performance

Together with Effnet, Red Hat and VIAVI, we tested ways to reduce energy consumption for cloud-hosted and resource-demanding telecom workloads by controlling the CPU power management feature. Doing so involved using the underlying cloud infrastructure to dynamically turn off unused CPU components and adjust CPU frequency in response to central unit (CU) traffic load conditions. This solution saved energy and reduced heat output while maintaining quality of service.

Furthermore, we looked at the impact that hardware accelerators like application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and graphics processing units (GPUs) have in offloading the CPU. We performed these tests by processing large volumes of data in parallel to optimize specific tasks (e.g., 3GPP high physical layer, AI training). In a true multi-vendor Open RAN 5G gNB implementation, AMD, Effnet, Phluido, Red Hat and VIAVI demonstrated over-the-air peak throughput values close to the theoretical limits while maintaining high virtual RAN (vRAN) workload efficiency. Peak-load MAC stress tests demonstrated scalability gains with hardware acceleration (HWA) enabled.

Continuing our exploration of ways to harvest energy savings from every RAN component, we took a closer look at the Open RAN radio unit (O-RU) radio frequency (RF) front end. In collaboration with Eridan, Rohde & Schwarz and VIAVI, we observed stable RU energy consumption even when higher modulation orders are used, thanks to the linearity of the power amplifier.

Automated Security Assurance in Action

Telecom network evolution to modular, open architectures on cloud platforms poses security challenges due to increased software interdependencies and interface exposure. To mitigate these risks, periodic and automated security assurance testing is crucial as part of network operations.

Mavenir and VIAVI have successfully demonstrated this concept by automating the testing of 3GPP service-layer security implementation, validating secure interworking across RU, distributed unit (DU) and central unit components of a distributed 5G base station. All of this builds on momentum from the Spring 2024 PlugFest.

Open Fronthaul M-Plane Enables Multi-Vendor Operations

By providing a standardized interface for managing RUs from various vendors, the M-plane open fronthaul interface enables multi-vendor RU operations, eliminating the need to integrate and maintain multiple proprietary management interfaces. During the Fall 2024 PlugFest, we observed the Eridan RU M-Plane successfully integrated with the VIAVI DU emulator to demonstrate adherence to the Open RAN Working Group 4 (WG4) technical specifications. The results of this test offer a promising outlook for future collaborations, as the knowledge obtained will be instrumental in multi-vendor operations and open standard implementations.

Get Involved in Open RAN

Guided by the Technology Vision for the network of tomorrow, CableLabs committed to driving innovation in network infrastructure. In the future, we plan to further explore innovative Open RAN implementations that enable operators to share infrastructure, scale economically, reduce total cost of operation and ultimately migrate to AI-enabled networks.

We welcome CableLabs members, vendors and application developers to join us at these upcoming events.

Did you know that there is more to Wi-Fi than plugging in your router and choosing your internet service provider? To unlock faster speeds and get the best connection, it’s helpful to understand how Wi-Fi works and what you can do to improve performance in your home.

Wi-Fi operates using a complex system of radio waves. Like sound waves, these waves can experience interference from environmental factors. Signals can bounce off or be absorbed by walls, metal appliances and even water-filled items like aquariums. This interference weakens the signal leading to slower speeds and connectivity issues, especially as the distance from the router increases.

For most users, simple adjustments like moving your router to a different location in your home can improve signal strength and connection quality.

Watch our video, “How Does Wi-Fi Really Work?,” to learn more about how you can reduce interference and enjoy a better Wi-Fi experience.

Fixed wireless access (FWA) is a mature access technology that could provide cost-effective solutions for both mobile network operators (MNOs) and multiple system operators (MSOs). It enables MNOs to provide fixed cable-like services and MSOs to increase speed and capacity while extending HFC services beyond their current footprints.

CableLabs recently analyzed how key propagation parameters impact FWA performance. Our findings indicate that while FWA propagation can be challenging, it is scenario dependent. Factors such as user throughput targets, antenna design/selection and MIMO channel capacity can play significant roles. The analysis also highlights some opportunities for operators to mitigate the propagation challenges.

We detailed these findings in two new SCTE papers: “Fixed Wireless Access Propagation Challenges” and “Experimental FWA MIMO Capacity Analysis in 6 and 37 GHz Bands.” We explored our insights further during our session at SCTE TechExpo24, which is now available to watch on-demand.

Together, these publications, along with related papers, analyze the FWA propagation-related challenges for North American residential and indoor office environments and summarize our latest research on FWA.

Our investigation was based on experimental results provided by four extensive indoor and outdoor-to-indoor (O2I) test campaigns, followed by a thorough data analysis and statistical model development.

Customer premises equipment (CPE) in a FWA network can use either an outdoor or an indoor antenna. While the outdoor antenna offers better technical performance, the indoor option is more cost-effective due to minimal installation costs.

Fixed Wireless Access Testing

When using 5G support, the FWA performance is augmented by the associated large channel bandwidth (ChBW), e.g., up to 100MHz for sub 7GHz spectra and up to 400MHz for millimeter (mmWave, 24 - 52 GHz), accordingly increasing user throughput.

CableLabs analyzed the propagation impact upon FWA performance in both indoor and outdoor-to-indoor (O2I) scenarios in the 6 GHz and 37 GHz bands. The studies are grouped into two categories:

• Single-input multiple-output (SIMO) propagation challenges (path loss, O2I loss, power delay and angular profiles, delay and angular spread, angle of arrival, synthetic beamwidth, Small-scale fading Rician K-factor)
• Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) channel capacity gain

To evaluate the FWA network performance and impact from the propagation channel, multiple test campaigns were designed to characterize the path loss, building entry loss (BEL), large-scale fading (e.g., shadowing), small-scale fading impact (e.g., changing the receiver position by a few lambdas). We selected the test environments accordingly:

• An indoor office environment (CableLabs’ main office in Louisville, Colorado -- 2nd floor), providing 172 links (86 for each 6 and 37GHz band)
• O2I residential environment (the CableLabs Test House in Brighton, Colorado), providing 216 links (108 for each 6 and 37GHz band), in LOS, NLOS, deep NLOS and through vegetation (trees) propagation

The test setup was based on a virtual circular array (VCA), featuring the equivalent of 1,000 antenna elements. For each antenna position on the VCA, measurements included the channel transfer functions (CTFs), channel impulse responses (CIRs), path loss, etc. Using such a VCA avoided a need to re-align the CPE antenna for each measurement and the small-scale fading impact.

Propagation Impairments

Our indoor and O2I measurement results support a direct comparison of the propagation impact upon the indoor and O2I FWA indoor performance for the 6 and 37 GHz cases.

A high-level comparison of the measured FWA O2I path losses indicates that there is a 15-20 dB link budget penalty when 37 GHz links are used vs. similar 6 GHz links for the same type of environment. The 37 GHz O2I penalty is partially compensated by the reduced number of multipath components (MPCs), caused by the rapid Rx power decay of the 37 GHz MPC in the O2I and indoor FWA environments. Intuitively, the latter suggests that 37 GHz FWA O2I/indoor links could provide a better performance (SNR/User Throughput) vs. sub 7GHz bands if the related link budget penalty could be compensated.

MIMO Channel Capacity Gain

The MIMO channel capacity gain represents the ratio of the MIMO vs. SISO channel capacity. The MIMO channel capacity gain is identical to the MIMO user throughput gain (the ratio of the MIMO user throughput vs. SISO user throughput). For a MIMO 2×2 link, the ideal MIMO capacity gain/user throughput is equal to two. Our findings indicate that the MIMO capacity gain and the MIMO user throughput gain is degraded due to the propagation in a FWA scenario.

Our SCTE paper and presentation provide more details on the causes of the MIMO user throughput gain being higher in NLOS than LOS conditions and on MIMO user throughput gain impacted by antenna separation distance and orientation, etc.

Future Opportunities

Despite the propagation-related challenges — particularly in North American residential and indoor office environments — FWA O2I presents a viable solution for operators seeking to expand their service footprint. To learn more, download the SCTE papers, “Fixed Wireless Access Propagation Challenges” and “Experimental FWA MIMO Capacity Analysis in 6 and 37 GHz Bands,” and watch our TechExpo presentation.

The wireless cellular communication industry has always pushed boundaries. Waves of mobile-network generations — or Gs — have introduced a multitude of features, capabilities and improvements that have led to today’s 5G networks. Although 5G provides substantial improvements and serves multiple modern use cases, the industry is already discussing the key enabling technologies and requirements for 6G, with a target rollout date of 2030.

Building on previous generations’ trends, 6G technology is expected to drive exciting and far-reaching societal shifts in digital economic growth, sustainability, digital equality, trust and quality of life. But what are the technologies that will actually make it happen? This blog post aims to provide some insight.

What Is 6G, and What Will It Require?

A recurring theme among standardization organizations is an attempt to define where 5G ends and 6G begins in terms of offered use cases and associated key enabling technologies. The lines between 5G and 6G couldn’t be any blurrier, thanks to the release of two feature-rich 5G-Advanced releases of, which are intended to serve as a collective bridge to 6G.

The realization of the 6G standard will depend on a collection of key enabling technologies. This collection can be split into two sub-groups:

• The first sub-group will be made up of further enhancements and improvements to 5G and 5G-Advanced capabilities such as mmWave, Advanced MIMO, NR Reduced Capability (RedCap) for low-power communication, and Precious Positioning.
• The second sub-group will include brand-new technologies/capabilities that will be unique to 6G and aren’t currently available in 5G. In particular, we believe that three game-changing technologies have the potential to transform tomorrow’s networks. They are Joint Communication and Sensing (JCAS), Zero or Near-Zero Energy Communication (ZEC) and Artificial Intelligence (AI)/Machine Learning (ML).

Let’s dive deeper into these technologies.

Joint Communication and Sensing

JCAS — also known as Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC) — refers to an awareness of the physical environment around a device or base station (BS), achieved by leveraging currently deployed communication waveforms or by introducing new ones that better lend themselves to sensing and communication. Essentially, JCAS aims to map the environment using reflections of communication waveforms to gain additional dimensional awareness, thus reducing dependency on channel measurement operations and eventually dropping the dependency on technologies such as radars and lidars.

JCAS is equivalent to giving “eyes” to a device or BS, where it becomes aware of its relative proximity to physical boundaries that cause signal reflections and refractions to itself and other communication devices. The technology can even replace regular measures such as sensors and cameras for traffic monitoring.

Zero or Near Zero Energy Communication

The wireless industry has always been conscious of energy consumption from a cost and environmental perspective. As a result, it has been pushing hard to achieve energy savings with protocols such as Long-Term Evolution Machine Type Communication (LTE-M), Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) and NR RedCap, all of which target lower-energy communication.

The 6G standard aims to take those efforts even further. After a signal is decoded, what happens to its energy? Can it be harvested back, similar to the way hybrid cars capture wasted energy from braking?

ZEC — or “Ambient IoT,” as 3GPP refers to it, can benefit smart connected networks and applications where, for example, sensors may be installed in locations that later become inaccessible, making it impossible to charge or replace their batteries. In addition, ZEC can facilitate dropping batteries all together and result in reducing the environmental footprint associated with producing them.

Imagine a drone hovering over a forest or bridge that locates embedded zero-energy sensors, wakes them up using 6G waveforms, commands the sensors to perform their measurements and then communicates their readings. This kind of enabling technology could pave the way to future IoT capabilities!

Given the nature of today’s communication-focused waveform design, new waveforms that lend themselves to both energy transfer and communication are needed in 6G. Moreover, contrary to the current systems, those new protocols need to have minimum overhead to reduce the communication burden on the shortly energized devices.

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

The growing complexity of successive wireless technology generations has made traditional analytical models insufficient for describing system behavior. In addition, the ubiquity of smart devices and AI-empowered applications means that 6G must address the need for hyper-distributed services, intelligent service deployments and semantic communication approaches that facilitate seamless service delivery, efficient resource usage and improved quality of service.

This unprecedented level of complexity requires a paradigm shift in the various approaches to network design, deployment and operations. That’s where AI/ML can help!

AI/ML technologies have increasingly become integral to mobile communications systems and digitalization across various industries. The AI/ML techniques needed in 6G are expected to be on an entirely new level. By embracing a data-driven paradigm, where new AI capabilities are embedded into various network nodes/endpoints and interfaces from the beginning, there’s an opportunity to design 6G with pervasive intelligence capabilities.

Moreover, the adoption of an AI-native air interface — where AI/ML is primarily used to design and optimize the physical and MAC layers instead of model-driven signal processing — promises significant performance improvements and operations efficiencies. In short, AI/ML could act as the backbone for efficiently realizing multiple other key enabling technologies such as ZEC and JCAS.

This new generation of AI/ML is expected to pose multiple challenges for practical deployment. Native AI has an inherent need for robust cooperation between network infrastructure and application layers, in addition to tight integration of computing and communications layers, to eventually provide pervasive end-to-end intelligence for everyone everywhere. Therefore, it’s crucial to evaluate current 3GPP standardization process for specification development, performance evaluation and conformance testing.

Engage With CableLabs in Our 6G Efforts

CableLabs’ Technology Group is actively engaged in standards organizations such as 3GPP, IEEE, NextG Alliance, O-RAN and 6G WinnForum. Our work in these groups targets 6G research, seamless connectivity and convergence.

To get involved in shaping the next generation of wireless ecosystems, their use cases and respective technical solutions, consider participating in one or more of the various activities and industry organizations driving 6G.

We hear a lot about 5G/6G mobile and 10G cable these days, but another technology is also helping lead the pack to much less fanfare. It’s a technology that’s as essential as the public utilities you rely on every day. In fact, you’re most likely using it to read this blog post.

Just as you expect your electric, water, sewer or natural gas services to be available without interruption, you likely also depend on your Wi-Fi to be working all the time.

Regardless of the service you use to access the internet (i.e., coax, fiber, wireless, satellite), Wi-Fi is the typical connection to that service. When was the last time you connected a wire to your laptop or had a great experience using your mobile device over the mobile network while inside your home or workplace? The fact is, most of us make use of Wi-Fi when we’re indoors.

Why Wi-Fi? Why Now?

With the introduction of Wi-Fi 6/6E, Wi-Fi 7 and Ultra High Reliability (Future Wi-Fi 8), Wi-Fi is growing to meet and even exceed the growing need for fast, reliable and lower latency broadband connections. It is available basically everywhere you go — work, school, shopping and even while in transit — allowing you to be connected over a high-speed network just about anywhere.

There is an argument that Wi-Fi is not usable or available outside of the home or work. This is rapidly changing as operators, venues, transportation services and even municipalities deploy Wi-Fi networks. It’s true that mobile networks have greater outdoor coverage, but many of the applications in use only require low bandwidth, which is not the case with Wi-Fi.

Evolving Wi-Fi Network Applications

In the car, kids often watch video or play games, which are likely carried over mobile. But now many newer cars on the road have a Wi-Fi hotspot built in. The automotive industry is shifting from mobile connections to Wi-Fi as makers update their onboard software options. Autonomous vehicles and robotics are making use of Wi-Fi, too.

Many mobile carriers are moving to Wi-Fi offload to reduce costs and help meet the demands of broadband traffic. Wi-Fi access points (APs) are now at a price point that almost every home has at least one AP or Wi-Fi extender, with many homes having more than one. In work environments, businesses can quickly deploy a Wi-Fi network on their own or with a third party.

Frameworks for a Wider Wi-Fi Network Footprint

With the addition of WFA Passpoint and WBA OpenRoaming™, the public Wi-Fi network footprint continues to expand. Passpoint allows internet service providers (ISPs) to offer a seamless Wi-Fi connection experience like the mobile connection experience. Passpoint is now included in 3GPP specifications as the named function to assist with mobile devices connecting to Wi-Fi network. OpenRoaming enables access network providers (ANPs) to offer Wi-Fi services to users regardless of their home ISP. This allows providers the ability to offer more locations where subscribers can access Wi-Fi networks. Identity providers (IdPs), such as Google, Samsung and Meta, can also make use of OpenRoaming Wi-Fi network access for their subscribers.

We expect our home utilities to function reliably every day, and now Wi-Fi has become an essential service, supporting our daily activities such as living, learning, working and, of course, playing. For more on Wi-Fi 6/6E, Wi-Fi 7 and Wi-Fi 8, stay up to date here on the CableLabs blog.