A subscriber’s Wi-Fi quality of experience (QoE) has been an industry focus for many years. On the CPE side, the approach has long been to increase the MIMO configurations with each generation as well as to maximize the power budget by using better components, to provide maximum coverage at adequate speeds from a single access point location.
Now, as the industry pivots towards access point disaggregation, by adding Wi-Fi extenders in multiple locations in the home, we must find a way to deploy these additional devices in CAPEX and OPEX efficient ways. Typically, multiple access points immediately trigger a quest for the best roaming solution.
However, Technicolor believes this is a misplaced area of focus, firstly because an extender is often not a solution to the problem, on the contrary. It is imperative to first proactively determine which households will actually benefit from an extender, allowing a Service Provider (SP) to better plan its CAPEX investments. Secondly, these roaming solutions will commoditize over time, as standardization increases and client devices (STAs)1 implement better roaming algorithms and standardization increases.
Technicolor recommends a five-step plan to allow a Service Provider to further enhance a subscriber’s Wi-Fi QoE, in CAPEX and OPEX strategic and efficient ways: