Wi-Fi vs 5G

 

Wi-Fi’s reliability is challenged foremost by its range, Filkins says. “You may be able to guarantee, or not, a service-level, but almost certainly only guarantee it over a short-to-medium range,” he says. Also, most Wi-Fi systems are deployed across unlicensed bands, he says, and the potential for interference becomes greater as more packets share channels.

Wi-Fi 6 helps with the reliability issue by splicing spectrum into resources units, Filkins says, but even with these improvements there’s still the spectrum problem itself, “which introduces potential for interference.”

Deployment costs, range, interference, and the capabilities of IoT devices are all factors in identifying the right primary or complementary connectivity option for an IoT implementation, Menezes says.

“Base the decision on the implementation’s network-performance requirements,” Menezes says. “So, if an endpoint or application doesn’t need 5G performance to function at the required level, that will help dictate the connectivity choice.”

Wi-Fi 6 or Zigbee might be perfectly suitable for some elements of a smart-building controls, but useless for a highly mobile wide area use, Menezes says.

“Further, endpoints using essentially commoditized connectivity technologies such as Bluetooth, Zigbee, RFID, or Wi-Fi may be significantly more cost effective in scenarios where 5G may be available but has not yet reached significant marketplace scale to make endpoints or network services competitive,” Menezes says.

In some cases, such as home use, Wi-Fi usually makes more sense for IoT than cellular, says Shree Dandekar, vice president, Global Product Organization, at consumer goods manufacturer Whirlpool, which offers IoT services such as connected kitchen and laundry appliances.

“The tech world is pretty much aligned to this view, and it is unlikely that 5G technology changes this,” Dandekar says. “Even the cheapest cellular technology [NB-IoT or LTE-M] is significantly more expensive than Wi-Fi.”

On the other hand, Whirlpool’s factories are a different situation altogether. “That environment can be a challenge for Wi-Fi because of so much equipment and so many machines; it’s just a lot of metal that can impact a Wi-Fi signal,” says Michael Berendsen, vice president of IT.

The company is testing 5G on some of its autonomous vehicles at a washing machine plant in Ohio, “because we believe 5G could provide better coverage and be more consistent across such a large space,” Berendsen says.