Get ready for the end of general purpose wireless networks

For decades, most devices surfed between cellular and Wi-Fi networks. If you were at home, your devices would have popped over to the cellular network for, say, calls, or if the main internet went out. Otherwise, Wi-Fi was the most likely conduit they’d use. In enterprise settings, corporate Wi-Fi networks were complex, and cellular networks were the fallback for users who wanted to connect outside of the office network.

But as we have added more devices and more types of networks, wireless connectivity has become a lot more complicated. We have personal area networks for wearables and headsets that use Bluetooth. We have some devices on Wi-Fi 5 networks and others on Wi-Fi 6 or even Wi-Fi 6E. Smart homes might have Zigbee, Z-Wave, or Thread. Corporate offices might have a proprietary OT (operational technology) network and variations on 4G or 5G cellular.

And someone has to manage all of this. Welcome to the end of the general purpose wireless network. Today, it’s all about special purpose connectivity.

Much like the big shift away from general purpose computing a little more than a decade ago, the shift from general purpose wireless will see new players enter the market and lead to more complexity for those responsible for managing the heterogenous networks. It will be a gradual shift, but experts I’ve spoken to anticipate the need for cloud-based management software that provides an overview of varied networks, as well as an emphasis on network construction and antenna design that deals effectively with interference.

Many of the advances we’ll need are already part of existing standards, such as the multiple antennas required for Wi-Fi , Wi-Fi 6, and Wi-Fi 7, and the AI required for modulating 5G networks. But some are still in their infancy, such as management software and billing software for handling such an array of networks.

David Coleman, director of wireless with Extreme Networks, told me that even within enterprise Wi-Fi networks the opening up of spectrum made possible by Wi-Fi 6E and the likelihood that many IoT devices will still use older Wi-Fi 4 and Wi-Fi 5 technologies will make things more complicated. Wi-Fi is designed to be backwards compatible, but as new generations come with higher speeds and lower latency the electrical demands on the network increase. That means companies will need to upgrade their Power over Ethernet gear to provide more watts as well as upgrade their switches.

Heterogenous Wi-Fi networks are already here, but Peter Linder, head of 5G marketing with Ericsson, told me he’s keeping an eye on the complexity coming to enterprise and industrial networks caused by adoption of 5G. Depending on the spectrum used, 5G networks can vary tremendously. Companies are also deploying Wi-Fi networks and IoT-specific networks.

For example, a hospital might have a private 5G network for certain medical equipment so that it can travel between the hospital and a patient’s home while staying on a secure network. But the hospital might also have a Wi-Fi network and a local area network for its IT operations, and a LoRaWAN or other network dedicated to IoT devices that it doesn’t want on its IT network. Add to this any separate OT networks used by the building operations staff for security and safety, and there’s a lot of potential for connectivity chaos.

Linder likened the coming era of multiple networks to a transition from LEGO DUPLO blocks to LEGO Technic blocks. “This is a new world of LEGO Technic where you are playing with more pieces and put them together in more interesting ways,” he said. “But to make those creations you have to know more about the pieces.”

Not only will companies need software that can monitor and manage such a collection of networks, Linder thinks the business models associated with providing connectivity will change. We’re already seeing a shift with the creation of distributed peer-to-peer LoRaWAN and other LPWANs such as Amazon Sidewalk. LoRaWAN networks are much cheaper than cellular options, and are designed for low-cost IoT devices. Amazon’s Sidewalk network doesn’t even charge for connectivity, although it is still in a very nascent phase.

So how will corporate IT departments manage the provisioning and acquisition of connectivity across multiple types of networks? Wi-Fi gear that handles Wi-Fi and Bluetooth that gets managed by the IT department has already come onto the market. But while the IT department might help manage the cellular network bills, with private LTE or private 5G it’s unclear how that gear and management will converge.

IT departments are also responsible for buying LoRaWAN or other LPWAN products, and sometimes contract out their networks to an operator or sometimes manage it themselves. In the coming years, look for established players in the Wi-Fi world and those in the cellular world to start consolidating operations. Keep an eye out as well for new service providers such as Amazon or even companies like Twilio that also want to provide connectivity as a service, no matter what the wireless standard is.

As general purpose wireless networks fade, enterprises will need help. The only question is: Who will win the race to provide it?