Wifi-based location analytics will play a bigger role for organisations to increase business intelligence, define security policy, and improve customer/user experience, said an expert.

Nader Baghdadi, regional director Mena, Ruckus Wireless, pointed out that analytics will become more important specifically to correlate the myriad data points from clients.

He has also forecast a continued adoption and integration of BYOD solutions and device management; and an increase in the adoption of 802.11ac Access Point (AP), mainly driven by more 802.11ac-enabled devices.

Baghdadi said enterprises continue to look to service providers for a managed wifi service to address issues with network complexity, new services, and a skills shortage in many IT shops.

Work will continue on policy solutions that will help smartphones to select between wifi and cellular connectivity, he stated.

Seamless wifi handoff will become a reality with technologies like 802.11r and 802.11k making their way into mobile devices and APs, allowing wifi to emulate the handoff experience that can be availed with cellular services.

He also pointed out that no matter how much network capacity is put in place through a combination of cellular and wifi, it will never be enough.  More spectrum and spectrum sharing ideas are required, along with ever greater network densification. - TradeArabia News Service