Wi-Fi 7 market momentum: Driving connectivity across automotive scenarios

Wi-Fi 7 brings advanced Wi-Fi® performance to the next era of connected devices. In this new blog series, we’ll explore how Wi-Fi 7 enables innovation across various market segments.

Automotive presents an interesting opportunity for Wi-Fi^® as vehicles quickly move through multiple connectivity capacities and varying environments. Many of the latest vehicle models offer rich infotainment systems that interact with our devices and require constant data transfer to maintain a high-quality experience. Mobility is also a key consideration and presents a complex radiofrequency (RF) scenario as vehicles pass through multiple sources of interference while in transit. As user demand for interactive applications continues to increase, the key features of Wi-Fi 7, based on IEEE 802.11be technology, work together to support enhanced connectivity in automotive scenarios.

To discuss the automotive space, it is important to understand the three main vehicle telematics/infotainment use cases that are supported by Wi-Fi:

Use case 1: A vehicle telematics/infotainment unit provides a hotspot and is an access point (AP), including providing infotainment services to onboarded devices

Use case 2: A vehicle telematics/infotainment unit acts as a client device and connects to an external AP for:

• Internet connectivity for applications such as software update and download, diagnostics upload, security cameras, live video upload, etc. 
• For data exchange with surrounding devices such as parameter exchange for electric vehicle (EV) charging

Use case 3: A vehicle telematics/infotainment unit provides a means of casting devices brought onboard on the vehicle infotainment unit

Most of the above-mentioned scenarios need to run simultaneously and frequently. Vehicle telematics/infotainment units need to be able to act concurrently as an AP hotspot, a client device, and a peer-to-peer or local AP for casting. Transitions between internet connectivity by cellular and Wi-Fi also add to this mix.

Wi-Fi 7 features that help address automotive-specific challenges

While many of Wi-Fi 7’s features provide overall improvements to many use cases including automotive, these features specifically support vehicular needs:

• Multi-link operation (MLO) and features specific to MLO: Creates robustness by allowing multiple links in different bands, or different portions of the same band, to be established between client device multi-link devices and AP multi-link devices, and reduces the likelihood of disruption in data exchange as transient interferers fall within/without range of the vehicle antennas. This feature is helpful in all three use case categories mentioned above
• Service Level Agreement (SLA) adherence via Stream Classification Service (SCS) and Restricted Target Wake Time (R-TWT): Because of the potentially frequent disruptions or impairment of Wi-Fi links in all automotive use case categories above, it becomes increasingly important to improve quality of service (QoS) predictability and consistency of experience for QoS-sensitive applications such as voice sessions, in-vehicle gaming, audio/video streaming, etc. Added capabilities in SCS to describe desired QoS characteristics such as delay bound and minimum data rate requested for a specific flow are used during resource allocation, while R-TWT allows for a time slot’s exclusive reservation per a STA’s request. 
• 5G Quality Index/Wi-Fi QoS mapping: Because of the potential disruptions or impairment of Wi-Fi links in the automotive use cases listed above, it becomes increasingly important to improve end-to-end QoS predictability and consistency of experience for QoS-sensitive applications such as voice sessions, in-vehicle gaming, audio/video streaming, etc., when the backhaul link for vehicle’s internet connectivity is over a cellular connection, as in use case 2. A consistent treatment of application data packets according to their respective flows’ QoS needs, even as they change transportation medium, e.g., travel through cellular, Ethernet and Wi-Fi can greatly improve end-to-end user experience.

Different locations affect connectivity scenarios

Generally, for a vehicle on the move, the surrounding RF channel the signal has to travel through changes very rapidly. The vehicle on the move might fall in or out of range of other users of the RF medium which could drastically change the interference levels it perceives. This may include scenarios wherein the vehicle is within proximity of LTE or 5G base stations, or even the exclusion zones for incumbent users of channels in 5 GHz (those subject to dynamic frequency selection) and 6 GHz bands (those subject to automated frequency coordination). Such rapid changes expose automotive Wi-Fi use cases to a level of RF channel variations and disruptions not commonly experienced by other types of users. By using MLO to enhance connection robustness and mechanisms mentioned above which allow more strict adherence to QoS required for different applications, Wi-Fi 7 takes meaningful steps toward overcoming the unique challenges of automotive Wi-Fi use cases. 

Important connectivity requirements for each automotive use case

Use case 1: Key factors for scenarios where vehicle telematic/infotainment units provide a hotspot (acting as an AP) for devices onboard include robust links that do not break as different interferers fall within and without range and predictable and persistent QoS in terms of data rate, latency, and jitter. It is important for those indicators to persist through various interference and congestion scenarios. In these scenarios, the range of coverage is of less importance than link robustness since the client devices are in proximity to the vehicle AP.

Use case 2: In scenarios where vehicle telematic/infotainment units act as a client device, range of coverage as well as link robustness are important. QoS indicators can also be important here as users expect smooth sessions with no disruption and sufficiently high data rate and low latency/jitter. For example, it is expected that a vehicle in a parking lot can associate with an externally accessible AP in as far an inter-distance between the two as possible, and that the link established sustains without disruption as other vehicles and devices come and go and deliver the QoS it promises. 

Use case 3: When vehicle telematic/infotainment units provide casting services (either by acting as an AP or via peer-to-peer link) for devices onboard, robust links that do not break as different interferers fall within and without range, and predictable and persistent QoS in terms of data rate, latency, and jitter, are key factors. It is important for those indicators to persist through various interference and congestion scenarios. In these scenarios, range of coverage is of less importance since the client devices are in proximity of the vehicle telematics/infotainment unit. These scenarios include critical applications such as navigation projection whose poor performance could have passenger safety implications.

By supporting increased robustness and QoS for sensitive applications, Wi-Fi 7 delivers a reliable, consistent experience in automotive scenarios. 

Stay tuned as we discover how Wi-Fi 7 will support connectivity enhancements across market segments.