CARRIER GRADE WI-FI: –
Service providers of all types are rapidly embracing Wi-Fi as an essential part of their wireless portfolio. Wi-Fi offers many compelling advantages including access to as much as 700 MHz of spectrum, availability on all data-centric devices, low cost, ease of installation, neutral host capable, and the list goes on. While this all sounds compelling, the technology must also be carrier-class. The term ‘carrier-class Wi-Fi’ gets used a lot, but what does it actually mean? What are the requirements of a carrier-class deployment and what do users and carriers expect from such an offering? Wi-Fi didn’t actually start out as a carrier-class technology. Its genesis was as a consumer and business class technology, but it has undergone a major transformation over the past few years that have allowed it to emerge as a cornerstone technology in the mobile Internet. Wi-Fi now carries the vast majority of all smartphone traffic worldwide.