You have probably experienced a situation where your device was connected to Wi-Fi but could not send or receive data. Do you know why?
The Wi-Fi market is predicted to reach $12.1 billion in 2022 and increase at a CAGR of 20.1% by 2027, which is massive !!
The demand for Wi-Fi is rising as more portable devices such as laptops, Smartphones and others incorporate Wi-Fi technology. Wi-Fi products and services are in great demand as a result of IoT and its applications in sectors such as healthcare, education, retail, transportation, and other fields. Wi-Fi market revenue growth is also driven by the adoption of Wi-Fi by mobile operators, the rise of social media, higher Internet penetration, and increasing consumption of media content.
Wi-Fi enables businesses to grow beyond their geographic space. Wi-Fi services are readily available at many airport departure lounges, train stations, hotels, cafes, and restaurants, permitting customers to connect their laptops and mobile devices to the internet. Wi-Fi is therefore a necessity, not a nicety.
The common issues with Wi-Fi devices have been highlighted in Omdia’s Service Provider Connected Home survey in November 2020. [1]
Broadband-related issues can be addressed only with help of ISPs, so leaving this out, Wi-Fi connectivity issues are the most frequent causes, as the survey mentioned above clearly demonstrates. According to recent Wi-Fi market research and growth rate projections, Wi-Fi connectivity is undoubtedly the key to extending the frontiers of business and accelerating global digital transformation.
In some circumstances, like in hospitals, the wireless network is essential. It is deployed for services like administrative access, communications, and biomedical devices. So, is the poor Wi-Fi experience still negligible?
Challenges:
Wi-Fi standards today come with great performance and improved capabilities. But there are challenges and it demands extensive testing. There are various factors that affect Wi-Fi connectivity and performance.
- Distance between the device and access point(router)
- Dynamic configuration change at the access point
- Mobility of the device
- Interoperability
- Capabilities or supported features list
Ensure a reliable Wi-Fi connection
For more than ten years, Alethea Communications Technologies PVT LTD has offered tools and services for Wi-Fi client testing. Evaluate Wi-Fi connectivity at scale to address this gap and prevent defect leaks under dynamic field situations.
Alethea has defined a test plan for a Wi-FI client testing to ensure a reliable Wi-Fi connection that incorporates experience from in-house R&D and Wi-Fi device metrics specification by the Wi-Fi alliance. WiSure is the solution to ensuring a reliable Wi-Fi connection. WiSure is test and measurement equipment that comes with test suites for WLAN device testing, it enables the test with possible WLAN configurations, dynamic changes in the network, varied WAN settings, performance tests and much more.
Coming back to our initial problem! Wi-Fi is connected but the network is not reachable. Do you know why?
The possible reasons are the device may not have adopted the new configuration changes like a channel change or in some cases, the signal coverage is poor to maintain internet connectivity. Congestion can cause the AP to change channels, and devices can move out of coverage due to mobility.
A variety of market devices have been tested with WiSure and found devices did not either change the channel or roam to a better AP until disconnected and connected again. This is just one example of many issues that can be identified before deployment. In the following section of the blog, we will compare some key metrics of popular devices measured with WiSure. Stay tuned!
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