By Claus Hetting, Wi-Fi NOW CEO & Chairman
Zyxel says 2024 is the year ‘for bringing Wi-Fi networks up to speed’
Zyxel Networks says 2024 is the year for enterprises to make ‘much needed’ investments into upgrading their Wi-Fi and networking systems. While the emergence of Wi-Fi 7 is important, the company expects to see a continued increase in Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E uptake, especially in the case of small or medium-sized businesses where the price tag on Wi-Fi 7 equipment may initially be prohibitive.
Other trends include the move to multi-gigabit switches delivering up to 10 Gbps to connected devices and higher power PoE capabilities to support more power-hungry pan-zoom-tilt surveillance cameras, for example. For more read the full blog by Zyxel’s Kevin Drinkall here.
Morse Micro demonstrates world’s longest-range video call over Wi-Fi HaLow
Morse Micro last week released a video showing a demonstration of the world’s longest-range video call over Wi-Fi HaLow – and (some would argue) perhaps the world’s longest-range Wi-Fi call in general. The company managed to complete a video call across a distance of 3 kilometres (just less than 2 miles) along San Francisco’s Ocean Beach neighbourhood.
The data rate ranged from about 17 Mbps at 250 meters distance to around 1 Mbps at 3 kilometres (see the video below). Morse Micro says Wi-Fi HaLow offers more than 10 times the range, 100 times the coverage area, and 1000 times the volume of traditional Wi-Fi technologies’ The company’s MM6108 Wi-Fi HaLow SoC has already been incorporated into dozens of IoT products and modules, representing a major market breakthrough for Wi-Fi HaLow technology. Read more here.
Pavlov Media acquires key OpenWiFi solution provider NetExperience
Last week Canada-based NetExperience – so far the most significant provider of Telecom Infra Project OpenWiFi Cloud Controller software – was acquired by Pavlov Media, a major US-based provider of fibre-based broadband services for MDUs. NetExperience has been instrumental in the successful deployment of OpenWiFi networks all over the world and will continue to supply its existing customer base while being run as an independent division of Pavlov Media, the company says. Read more here.
Fortinet releases Wi-Fi 7 networking solution
Fortinet released its first Wi-Fi 7 access point last week dubbed FortiAP 441k. The company says the new AP will deliver twice the speed of the previous latest models, lower latency, and better load balancing. The FortiAP 44k is powered by Qualcomm’s Networking Pro 1220 Platform. Read more here.
/Claus.