5G vs 802.

11ax
An assessment including comparison
of target use cases

White Paper
Rel. 1.2
July 2019

Customer Operations
CO E2E SA
5G CoC
 Contents

1. Introduction............................................................................................................................... 3
a. How Wi-Fi has over time ......................................................................................................... 3
b. Current and expected frequency bands for different wireless technologies ................. 4
c. 802.11ax Wi-Fi......................................................................................................................... 5
2. Comparison of 5G vs 802.11ax ................................................................................................ 7
a. What 5G can do ........................................................................................................................ 7
b. The differences between 5G vs 802.11ax ........................................................................... 8
i. Comparison............................................................................................................................... 8
ii. Benchmarking of 5G and Wi-Fi in Industry Environment ................................................... 9
iii. QoS Marking by RATs ............................................................................................................... 9
iv. End to End reliability with 5G .............................................................................................. 10
3. Co-existence & Target use cases............................................................................................ 11
a. Can 802.11ax Wi-Fi be for 5G use cases? ........................................................................ 11
b. Summary of the target use cases for 5G vs 802.11ax Wi-Fi .......................................... 13
4. Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 13
Acronyms ...................................................................................................................................... 14

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1. Introduction
The latest generation Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) is emerging onto the market at roughly the
same timeframe as 5G. While both promise similar improvements in peak data rate, they
are distinctly different technologies. This topic is often discussed by CSPs today who are
asking why use 5G when 802.11ax can do the job. This paper gives an overview of the
differences between 5G and 802.11ax and the intended target use cases for each.

a. How Wi-Fi has evolved over time

The figure below outlines the evolution of Wi-Fi:

Figure 1: Wi-Fi evolution

The first version of the IEEE 802.11 protocol was released in 1997, and it provided up to
2 Mbit/s link speeds. Over the years, with every new generation of the 802.11 protocol,
higher speed is offered. Furthermore, every new Wi-Fi generation is an additive
evolution, i.e. newer Wi-Fi generations remain backwards compatible with all legacy Wi-Fi
devices .

Wi-Fi Alliance is a no-profit organization that promotes Wi-Fi technology and certifies Wi-
Fi products for conformity to certain standards of interoperability. In 2012, Hotspot 2.0,
defined by Wi-Fi Alliance, allows mobile devices to automatically join a Wi-Fi subscriber
service whenever the user enters a Hotspot 2.0 area. These hotspots have the purpose
to provide offload capabilities for the cellular networks and provide a very low cost means

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for network operators to increase the capacity of their systems without installing further
base stations.

Wi-Fi Alliance also gave a new name of Wi-Fi 6 to the IEEE 802.11ax standard for the ease
of remembering Wi-Fi standards; it is also known as High Energy Wireless (HEW). IEEE
scheduled to ratify 802.11ax amendment in Q3 2019, while Wi-Fi Alliance has a similar
timeframe for 802.11ax certification.

802.11ax implements a variety of changes including several multi-user technologies

which have been borrowed from the cellular industry – namely MU-MIMO and OFDMA –
techniques that greatly improve capacity and performance by enabling more
simultaneous connections and a more efficient use of spectrum.

802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6) is a dual band 2.4 and 5Ghz technology; 802.11ax offers theoretical
peak data rate up to 10Gbps, the main way it increases speed by fully combining the
2.4GHz and 5GHz spectrum bands. Previously, 802.11ac (Wi-Fi 5) and 802.11n (Wi-Fi 4)
work on the two bands separately, but the new standard 802.11ax can utilise them
simultaneously. 802.11ax expanded on 802.11ac and uses 1024 QAM and OFDMA
modulation.

b. Current and expected frequency bands for different wireless

technologies

3GPP Rel 16
5G NR-U**

Figure 2: Overview of available and expected spectrum

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Unlicensed frequency bands are open for everybody under the regulated usage
conditions. 802.11ax operates concurrently at both 2.4GHz and 5GHz. A new band 6GHz
and above 60GHz allocation for unlicensed will be considered in WRC19.

There is great interest in using unlicensed spectrum to meet the continuous growth in
traffic volume in mobile networks. The integration of unlicensed Wi-Fi networks with
licensed cellular networks has been a topic that has been repeatedly discussed over the
past 15 years or more. Recent reports are characterizing smartphone use by highlighting
that over 70% of mobile data traffic is sent over Wi-Fi networks. Unlicensed bands can
be used as supplementary spectrum to economically increase the capacity of mobile
networks. The main driver for additional unlicensed spectrum is the enterprise market.
The New Radio-Unlicensed (NR-U) in 3GPP Release 16 is proposed to use the same 5GHz
and 6GHz bands.

Figure 3: 3GPP based cellular radio technologies are also targeting at the Unlicensed spectrum

c. Deep dive on 802.11ax Wi-Fi

New features of 802.11ax Wi-Fi are as follows:

• OFDMA technology (Increased efficiency, Reduced latency, Ideal for low bandwidth
applications)
• DL/UL MU-MIMO technology (Increased capacity, Higher speeds per user, Ideal for
high bandwidth applications)
• Higher-order modulation technology (1024-QAM)
• Spatial Reuse (SR) & basic service set (BSS) coloring mechanism
• Target Wake Time (TWT)

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 • Extended range (ER)

Source:Aruba

Figure 4: New features of 802.11ax

As mentioned earlier, 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6) has evolved from 802.11ac (Wi-Fi 5). 802.11ax
uses 1024-QAM with 10 bits per OFDM symbol versus 8 bits for 256 QAM used by
802.11ac, a 25% capacity boost. With DL/UL Multi-user MIMO, 802.11ax allows 8 users
to transmit at the same time.

With Longer OFDM Symbols used in 802.11ax, it increases the duration of OFDM symbol
from 3.2ms (802.11ac) to 12.8ms (802.11ax) and supports a longer cyclic prefix for each
symbol. That provide an increase up to 20% increase in data rate.

If multiple access points are operating on the same channel(s), they can transmit data
with a unique "color" identifier that allows them to communicate over the wireless
medium at the same time without waiting, as the colors enable them to differentiate
between each other's data (Spatial frequency reuse/OBSS (overlapping BSS coloring)).

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 Figure 5: Spatial Frequency Reuse/Overlapping BSS

Power Saving with TWT (Target Wake Time) feature allows the Access Point (AP) to tell a
client when to sleep and when to wake up, which is expected to make a considerable
difference in battery life. The 802.11ax AP is using a smarter scheduler, moving away
from contention-based access to trigger-based access when the devices are supporting
the TWT feature.

The increased OFDM symbol time, combined with the different combinations of guard
interval, enable both higher efficiency and tolerance of long delay spread channels by
providing combinations tailored to each – leading to extended range (ER).

2. Comparison of 5G vs 802.11ax
a. What 5G can do

Figure 6: 5G vs LTE

5G enables new capabilities beyond Mobile Broadband, and it’s grouped into 3 main use
case categories: enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB), Ultra Reliable Low Latency
Communications (URLLC) and massive Machine Type Communications (mMTC).

Target performance of 5G is set to provide high peak data rates of 20 Gbps (100x more
than LTE), high mobility for eMBB at 500km/h, ultra-low latency of 1ms, ultra-reliability
of five nines or more, and, lastly, massive connectivity and extended battery life for UEs

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 for mMTC. With that 5G opens up new use cases beyond classic MBB where LTE has its
limitations.

b. The differences between 5G vs 802.11ax

i. Side-by-Side Comparison
Wifi is a Radio Access technology while 5G is a E2E standard encompassing Radio Access,
Core Network including Subscriber Management as well as Policy and Charging that
ensures a high level of security (e;g. 3GPP air interfaces are extremely well protected
by E2E mechanisms). Due to their different natures, it is difficult to compare the two
technologies from an E2E perspective, and most of the comparison criteria used below
are dealing with Radio interface,

Figure 7: Comparsion of 5G vs 802.11ax Wi-Fi

The major differences between 5G and 802.11ax Wi-Fi is shown in the above diagram.
Although 802.11ax can also achieve peak data rates of up to 10Gb/s, its range of about
100m to 160m is significantly shorter as compared to 5G. The weaknesses or limitations
of 802.11ax Wi-Fi are undeterministic performance and reliability such as interference
free operation unless in a controlled environment, no coordinated handovers, no E2E

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SLA, weak security as compared to 5G with built-in security requirements from day one,
and with user plane integrity protection. 5G supports at least twice or more connected
users in the Industry 4.0 use cases.

ii. Benchmarking of 5G and Wi-Fi in Industry Environment

Figure 8: Benchmarking of 5G and Wi-Fi in Industry Environment

Nokia Bell Labs performed a lab benchmarking of 5G vs 802.11ax for four different
Industry 4.0 use cases: Surveillance camera, Condition monitoring, Augmented reality
and Automation. The 5G setup uses 80 MHz, TDD, 4x4 SU-MIMO, 2 streams, 1024QAM
in Wi-Fi and 256QAM. The results are shown in figure 8 above.

iii. QoS Marking by Different RATs

QoS marking is done differently depending on the RAT used:

• In 3G, L3 marking on NodeB is based on QoS parameters such as Traffic Class (TC),
Traffic Handling Priority (THP), Allocation and Retention Priority (ARP) provided by
SSGN/MSC in the RAB establishment

• In 4G, L2/L3 marking is based on QoS Class Identifier (QCI) on eNB

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 • In 5G, L2/L3 marking is based on QoS Flow ID (QFI) on gNB

• In Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Multimedia (WMM) enhances quality of service (QoS) on a network by

prioritizing data packets according to video, data and voice requirements. In order
to take advantage of WWM functionality, the access point and the user device
need to support WMM, as well as the source application. WMM does not provide
guaranteed throughput

• Wi-Fi AP provides traffic separation via SSID mapped to VLAN ID

iv. End to End reliability with 5G

5G provides a mechanism to support ultra-low latency and high E2E reliability of

99.999% or more. There are several approaches still under standardization (3GPP
Release 16) like multi-connectivity with PDU duplication, support for Redundancy within
5GS, URLLC extensions for Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) for modelling the 5GS as TSN
Bridge. The most reliable solution would require packet duplication over two
independent E2E systems as shown below, which is currently under study.

E2E Ultra Reliable solution

• Several options under study in Release 16.
• Most reliable solution with Packet duplication over two independent
E2E networks

Control plane

User plane

Application server

User plane

Control plane

Figure 9: Packet Duplication over two Independent E2E networks

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3. Co-existence & Target use cases

The applications or use case scenarios of 5G and Wi-Fi are different. While Wi-Fi is mainly
targeted for indoor environments, 5G is a wide area network that is applicable for both,
indoor and outdoor scenarios including mobility. Therefore, it is believed that Wi-Fi and
5G will coexist for long time.

802.11ax Wi-Fi for instance can complement 5G for data offload in very congested areas.
Non-3GPP Access in 5G is mostly referred to IEEE 802.11 types of WLAN. Untrusted
Access is standardized in 3GPP Release 15 where the UE connects to the 5G common
core network via an interworking function (N3IWF) with similar procedure for any access
type such as Wi-Fi. Furthermore, 3GPP has already started to work on using 5G in
unlicensed spectrum (5G NR-U). The current work items are focused on the 5 GHz and 6
GHz bands and will eventually be expanded to include high-band frequencies like 60 GHz
and above. Two modes are being looked at – one where 5G is operated in unlicensed
spectrum alone without restrictions and without any anchor in licensed spectrum, and
the one with a 5G anchor in the licensed spectrum.

a. Can 802.11ax Wi-Fi be a substitute for certain 5G use cases?

5G and 802.11ax Wi-Fi are two distinctly different wireless access technologies with
particular target use cases. In 5G, the applications and use cases are grouped into three
main categories, which we will be comparing against 802.11ax suitability:

eMBB

802.11ax Wi-Fi is ideal for indoor networks use - a suitable substitute for 5G for
consumer broadband use cases requiring high throughput & low latency (e.g. <10ms),
short range and private/public indoor areas (e.g. AR/VR, video surveillance, gaming,
transport hubs, airports).
For enterprise broadband use cases where the enterprise customers require to have
guaranteed SLAs, as well as wide area, outdoor coverage with mobility, then 5G is the
preferred solution. 802.11ax in these cases can be used for offloading 5G traffic in
congested dense area like HotSpot 2.0.

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URLLC

Wireless Smart factory is a typical use case for URLLC with requirements for industrial
devices in the manufacturing industries as follows:

Figure 12: Industrial devices requirements

In here, Industry 4.0 devices can be classified based on four critical requirements being
latency, availability, throughput and massive number of devices to be supported.

5G offers for such Industry 4.0 requirements particular performance and functionalities
like range, QoS, ultra-reliability, high bandwidth, ultra-low latency, accurate location
tracking and massive connectivity. It is by purpose designed to support Industry 4.0 use
cases with deterministic performance, latency, reliability and location-critical features
and even beyond, such as public safety and critical mission applications.

802.11ax in comparison is more variable and incorporates an increased security risk for
critical applications due to the usage of unlicensed spectrum where interference free
operation cannot be guaranteed. Hence, 802.11ax Wi-Fi is not suitable for Industry 4.0
use cases.

mMTC

5G provides massive connectivity within the coverage area with reliable and secured
connections. 802.11ax is compatible with legacy Wi-Fi devices and suitable for indoor IoT
networks with the energy conservation feature (TWT). However, 5G support 3x more
devices than 802.11ax Wi-Fi for low latency and low bandwidth application. E.g. 5G
supports 750 devices vs 225 devices with 802.11ax Wi-Fi for the automation control
application.

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 b. Summary of the target use cases for 5G vs 802.11ax Wi-Fi

Figure 13: Summary of target use cases

4. Conclusion
Wi-Fi continues to evolve and has the potential to deliver for certain use cases with 5G-
like user experiences at a fraction of the cost. However, Wi-Fi 802.11ax is not a suitable
alternative for e.g. enterprise use cases with guaranteed SLA, Industry 4.0 or outdoor
use cases including mobility.

802.11ax Wi-Fi can be a suitable alternative for consumer broadband use cases that
need high throughput (e.g. video surveillance) and low latency (e.g. AR/VR) , where the
service does not require e2e SLA.

Wi-Fi 802.11ax is not suitable for Industry 4.0 applications where reliability, latency,
location and security concern are critical. Here, 5G is as of design, more suitable to
provide what the industry 4.0 needs like range, QoS, bandwidth, ultra-reliability, ultra-
low latency, accurate location tracking and massive connectivity.

It can be expected that Wi-Fi and 5G will coexist for long time.

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References
[1] Aruba, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company
[2] 5G vs Wi-Fi (802.11ax) Simulations for Industry Environment, Nokia Bell Labs

Acronyms
Wi-Fi Wireless Fidelity; Wi-Fi is a trademark of the Wi-Fi Alliance
5GS 5G System
eMBB Extreme Mobile BroadBand
URLLC Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communication
mMTC Massive Machine Type Communication
MU-MIMO Multi-User Multiple Input Multiple Output
OFDM Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing
OFDMA Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access
OAM Quadrature Amplitude Modulation
QCI QoS Class Identifier
QFI QoS Flow Identifier

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