What is the difference between cellular and wifi?
Cellular and wifi are both methods to connect to the internet via radio technology. These technologies can compete and complement each other. The main difference between WiFi & cellular networks is that WiFi uses micro and radio waves to provide high-speed data transfer to different computing devices, and they can communicate with each other. A cellular network uses mobile towers to enable mobile communication and provide internet access on the device.
What is wi-fi? Wireless Fidelity
Wifi is a wireless local area network which means: no cables are required to connect to the internet. The internet is broadcast across the air via a radio technology using frequencies that are available for the purposes of data communication.
The wifi transmitter is called a wifi access point. This could be a dish or box attached to the wall of a building. The wifi receiver is in your phone or laptop.
The original wifi standard was a basic 2.4gHZ which could provide wifi for a small number of users. Over time the standards have increased. Today we are at wifi6e which supports sophisticated Mimo aerialsv and it also support a different protocol known as frequency division multiplexing which supports high speed and many users.
Frequency bands
The original frequency bands were 2.4GHz. Currently the majority of wifi access points offer 2.4 or 5GHx but the 6e standard adds a 6GHz band which is empty (not many people have access points) which means less competition in that part of the spectrum which means faster speeds!
What is cellular
Cellular is also a radio technology, where the area is broken up into cells so a mast from one mobile network serves an area of not more than a couple of miles radius. Cellular is a family of standards that began with GSM which was the original voice mobile protocol standard. It then progressed to 2G, 3G, 4G and we are in 5G.
Wide Area Network (WAN) allows you to connect a computer or phone over a wide area.
These technologies can be complementary. A WAN could be an office, factory. How do you connect the office to the internet where you have no fixed lines? EMS iMO OptiBond is a cellular router which can connect to your wifi access point so you can connect your office to the internet.
It’s great to have a high-performance wireless network in your premises but what if you don’t have a fixed line to drive it? This is where EMS iMO OptiBond comes in! You could use bonded cellular to be your internet point of presence (deliver internet) and to distribute as a local area network service to user pcs and phones, this requires a wifi access point.
One scenario uses Maraki as a managed wireless access point to which users connect. The internet required to feed the access point is fed by EMS iMO OptiBond.
Failover
EMS iMO OptiBond appliances offer the best of both worlds – cellular and wifi and even failover to satellite.
iMO OptiBond 225 5G Router
- 2 x integrated 5G compatible modems.
- Bonding: 5G links can be bonded together for extra bandwidth and resilience or can operate independently
- Intelligent routing: different traffic types can be routed on separate mobile links (e.g. one link for data, the other for VOIP).
- Resilience: up to four SIMS from diverse networks to allow for management of data allowances by means of SIM switching
- High performance multi element ‘MiMo’ type 5G aerial designs are supported
- WAN port for support of satellite receivers, broadband or additional cellular routers etc.
- More info
iMO OptiBond 210 4G Router
- 2 x integrated LTE-A / 4G+ compatible modems.
- Bonding: individual LTE/4G links can be bonded together for extra bandwidth and resilience or can operate independently.
- Failover: different traffic types can be routed on separate LTE links (e.g. one link for data, the other for VOIP).
- Automatic failover: up to four SIMS from diverse networks to allow for management of data allowances by means of SIM switching
- High performance multi element ‘MiMo’ type 4G aerial designs are supported
- WAN port for support of satellite receivers, broadband or additional cellular routers etc.
- More info
, … EMS i-MO OptiBond delivers fast, resilient aggregated 4G, 5G / fixed line services to site in days. For difficult to serve and new commercial and infrastructure projects contact us.