5G and Wi-Fi: Charting a path towards superior indoor connectivity

Having entered the market at a similar time, the two latest wireless standards 5G NR and Wi-Fi 6, both address the acute need for advanced connectivity. Each one boosts the bandwidth and capacity for both today’s and tomorrow’s networks, and both are faster than their predecessors (4G/LTE and Wi-Fi 5), more energy-efficient, and capable of supporting a greater number of devices simultaneously. How then can a service provider know which one to pick in favor of the other? The decision is not necessarily easy.

In this report, we investigate how 5G and Wi-Fi together can meet the following needs:

• Reliability requirements of the traffic
• Critical low-latency requirements
• The need for mobility and outdoor wide-area connectivity
• A complete and future proof solution addressing current and future needs