New Wireless Technologies 2020

The following is a round-up of wireless technology trends predicted in 2020 and possible new wireless technologies we will see in the upcoming year.

Major trends and drivers of wireless technology adoption

New wireless standards specifically targeting new use cases outside of just cellular or wide-area-network communications.

> Greater penetration of wireless technology across all verticals. Industrial IoT (IIoT) and wireless technology in virtually all applications is being increasingly adopted and there is substantial demand for wireless technology that better suits individual applications requirements.
>More spectrum availability has opened up much higher bandwidth wireless capabilities, which may enable applications that are otherwise too bandwidth intensive for typical wireless technology.
>New wireless techniques that enhance spectral efficiency and enable better radio coexistence.
>Greater adoption of software-defined radio (SDR) technologies in industrial applications
>Possible opening up of the 6 GHz unlicensed spectrum (5.925 Ghz to 7.125 GHz) in the US

New Wireless Standards

In 2020 there will be a host of new wireless standards, many updates and advancements of existing standards, and some completely new standards designed to bring IoT and wireless technology to new applications.

List of upcoming Wireless Standards & solutions in 2020

>The “full vision” of 5G with 3GPP Release 16 for stand-alone millimeter-wave communication
>Wi-Fi 6 (AX WiFi/802.11ax) is an improvement of 802.11ac with up to 9.6 Gbps data rates and 4x the capacity
>Bluetooth 5.0 is a low energy upgrade with a physical layer that enables 2 Ms/s, 4x the range compared to Bluetooth 4.0, and improved frequency hopping.
>IEEE 802.11az, Wi-Fi location technology that can be used to optimize the wireless link between communicating devices
>60 GHz Unlicensed Radar spectrum for gesture sensing and other use cases.
>Citizens Broadband Radio Service

Upcoming Trends That Will Lead to Further Adoption & Evolution of Wireless Technologies

Late 2019 led to many innovations and changing circumstances that will open up applications and opportunities for wireless technology growth and adoption.

List of trends of wireless technologies in 2020

It is likely that in December 2019 that Amazon, Apple, and Google agreed to work together to enhance smart home automation by making their products intercompatible. Currently the very disparate smart home ecosystems have been largely incompatible and the onus of compatibility has been on the IoT device manufacturer, which has led to substantial customer confusion. Limiting this confusion and having truly intercompatible smart home solutions across these major brands may finally allow for seamless smart home automation.

>Standalone 5G with fixed wireless access (FWA) readily available may lead to a new market of high-speed home internet services with last-mile wireless internet delivery to areas that are otherwise fiber-constrained.
>Increased use of streaming video services will lead to higher bandwidth demand at home and on the go.
>Greater vehicle infotainment systems, steady advance of semi-autonomous driving features, advanced driver assist systems (ADAS) will continue to lead to innovations in smart car connectivity and wireless services for both the car and driver.
>Edge Computing for lower latency and more reliable data infrastructure while also enhancing efficiency.
>Software defined networking and intelligent networking services can better utilize networking resources, which are also becoming more diverse
>Cloud platform providers developing on-premise cloud operating stacks (AWS Outposts, Microsoft Azure Stack, and Google Anthos) to serve as base stations for customer’ edge deployments.