CableLabs Brings Mobile Wi-Fi’s Power to Wi-Fi Industry for a Better User Experience

Identifying problems with Wi-Fi can be difficult, and people often just turn Wi-Fi off on their devices and instead use their cellular data connection. In doing so, they miss out on the potentially much higher throughput, and hence the faster Internet connection, that a Wi-Fi connection can provide. For several years, CableLabs has been working on a technology to achieve Wi-Fi that acts more like a cellular network. CableLabs Mobile Wi-Fi uses a central controller to group multiple access points or APs (think routers) into one continuous network. The central controller detects which AP your device is closest to and connects your device to that AP. If you move—for example, getting up and walking to a different room—then the controller evaluates whether you would get the best experience by staying connected to the old AP or if your experience would be better by switching to a new one. If it’s the latter, the controller moves your device to the new AP without you even noticing. Instead of asking the phone to reconnect to a different AP, CableLabs Mobile Wi-Fi moves the network itself to the new AP. This makes the transitions between APs seamless and transparent to the phone. The result is that your device will be consistently connected to the best available AP in your space. However, CableLabs Mobile Wi-Fi is not yet available to end consumers.