Meta's TIP collaborates with WBA for Wi-Fi 6E

The Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) announced an expansion of its relationship with the Telecom Infra Project (TIP) that will further TIP’s Open AFC Software Group and help spur global adoption of Wi-Fi in the new 6 GHz unlicensed band. The partnership will maximise the benefits of 6 GHz Wi-Fi today and the near future Wi-Fi 7, and all types of use cases that can benefit from it — including indoor and outdoor venues that have adopted OpenRoaming.

Over 41 countries worldwide have already designated 6 GHz for unlicensed use, and many others are actively working to open up the band. Many of these countries see the value of enabling standard power operations that would require automated frequency coordination (AFC). The goal of Open AFC is to develop an open-source reference implementation of an AFC system.

This framework will enable unlicensed devices in the 6 GHz band to operate outdoors as well as increase their indoor range while ensuring that existing services are protected from interference. Enabling the full benefits of 6 GHz Wi-Fi with an AFC system will deliver all the public Wi-Fi benefits of OpenRoaming including automatic friction-free onboarding for users while managing privacy and security and enabling different identity options.

In May 2021, TIP adopted the WBA OpenRoaming standard, which enables users to securely roam from location to location without the need for logins, registrations or passwords. WBA will collaborate with TIP to define how Open AFC will work and how public and guest Wi-Fi based on OpenRoaming can benefit from the full capabilities of Wi-Fi 6E.

Open AFC also complements TIP OpenWiFi. This initiative reimagines the way Wi-Fi networks are built and deployed by leveraging open-source development and automated testing to allow Wi-Fi service providers to confidently deploy APs, cloud controllers and smart analytics from different vendors.

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