Starks Says DC Circuit's 6 GHz Ruling Made Clear FCC Spectrum Authority

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit’s December decision upholding the FCC’s 6 GHz order firms up the agency’s authority as “the expert agency” on spectrum, said FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks during the Fierce Wireless virtual Wi-Fi summit Monday. Other speakers said use of 6 GHz is growing and will be critical to better Wi-Fi.

The D.C. circuit’s decision “affirms, truly, our authority,” Starks said. “The court held that the FCC’s judgment, when it comes to spectrum issues, really is entitled to substantial deference,” he said: “The courts aren’t going to second guess our judgment, in particular when it comes to technical issues.”

Wi-Fi and other unlicensed technologies are “absolutely mission critical to our economy,” Starks said. With Wi-Fi 6, Wi-Fi is “getting its biggest upgrade in nearly 20 years,” he said. Use of 6 GHz will “reduce congestion in the unlicensed bands, allow people to realize the full benefits of their home broadband connections in terms of increased speed, more connected devices, reduced latency,” he said.

One thing that gives Starks pause is the Wi-Fi chip shortage due to supply problems. Wi-Fi 6E, which used 6 GHz, seems to be getting “hit pretty hard” by the shortage, he said: “That’s something that I’m going to be monitoring.” Wi-Fi 6 equipment is “pricey” right now, but costs will come down, he said.

Starks said decisions should be made soon on applications by companies and organizations seeking FCC certification to be an automated frequency coordination (AFC) system operator in the 6 GHz band (see 2112010002). Testing will follow, but who runs tests has to be decided, he said. FCC engineers have “an outstanding reputation,” but the agency is “resource constrained,” he said. Starks said AFC should be “up and rolling” before year's end.

The FCC’s 2020 decision opening the 6 GHz band was “one of the most important and timely decisions for wireless broadband in recent history,” said Chris Szymanski, Broadcom director-product marketing/technology strategy. Getting AFC operations approved is critical, he said. With AFC, Wi-Fi access points will be able to use power levels 63 times higher than without, he said. “What we’re talking about is really GB-class wireless service, throughout a home, throughout a business,” he said. “We really need to move fast,” he said.

For customers, the most important factors for Wi-Fi are reliability, speed and simplicity, said Josh Goodell, AT&T vice president-broadband technology management. Those things “are easy to say, but they’re hard to do,” he said. Customers also care about the value of the service that they get for their money, he said. Congestion has to be minimized through cloud-based channel selection or the use of AI and machine learning, he said. “You really have to have top-shelf equipment in the home or business to enable the types of Wi-Fi connectivity that really accentuates the speeds that we can deliver,” he said.

AT&T joined the legal challenge to the 6 GHz order because of interference concerns (see 2112280047), but Goodell said the company recognizes the importance of Wi-Fi 6E. “It’s the next logical step in the standards evolution,” he said: “The new spectrum can be a game changer, especially when consumer electronics adopt the 6E standard. … It nearly triples the available unlicensed spectrum for Wi-Fi.” Even next year, only about 10% of devices will likely use the standard, he said.

AFC Key

AFC is “the key” to standard power for 6 GHz and will “unleash the full power” of the band, said Mario Di Dio, vice president-software and network technology at CableLabs’ Kyrio. Cable operators rely on Wi-Fi to deliver the wireless services they’re unveiling, he said.

When a client device, including a wireless phone, TV or laptop, is connected at full power “it can operate the way it was originally intended to operate,” Szymanski said: “It will really turbocharge the user experience. … This is the reason why Broadcom is really investing heavily in open AFC. We believe it’s absolutely critical that every access point that wants to be a standard-power access point can be.”

Wi-Fi has become ubiquitous, with more than 600 million public Wi-Fi spots expected worldwide next year, said Matthew MacPherson, Cisco Wireless chief technology officer. “You can’t go into a building without expecting Wi-Fi to be there,” he said. The FCC “really entrusted the industry to make 6 GHz a reality,” he said.

More than half the Wi-Fi gear now being shipped is based on the Wi-Fi 6 standard, a benchmark that took about three years to achieve, said Kevin Robinson, Wi-Fi Alliance senior vice president-marketing. The standard continues to be improved with a new spec already released this year, he said. More than half of internet traffic now uses Wi-Fi “and that’s not going to change anytime soon,” he said.

A year ago, people were talking about the path to Wi-Fi 6 “and here we are, a year later, already talking about Wi-Fi 7,” said Raghuram Rangarajan, Amazon engineering leader. The number of Wi-Fi 6 and 6E devices will grow rapidly, he predicted.