Federated Wireless CEO outlines the breakthroughs, challenges, and future opportunities tied to AFC systems
In sum – what to know:
Standard power Wi-Fi 6E is commercially viable – Federated Wireless and Cisco demonstrated that AFC can safely manage 6 GHz spectrum, enabling higher-power Wi-Fi deployments without disrupting incumbent users.
Enterprise and venue impact is significant – Stadiums, convention centers, universities, and industrial sites can now deploy fewer, more powerful access points, making Wi-Fi behave more like 5G networks in terms of coverage, capacity, and reliability.
Wi-Fi 7 is the next step – These Wi-Fi 6E breakthroughs serve as a foundation for Wi-Fi 7, which promises even greater performance, predictability, and AI-driven spectrum optimization to rival private 5G in many environments.
Federated Wireless, in collaboration with Cisco, has reached a key milestone in proving that standard power Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7 are not only technically possible but also commercially viable in enterprise environments. In a recent conversation, Federated Wireless CEO Iyad Tarazi outlined the breakthroughs, challenges, and future opportunities tied to Automated Frequency Coordination (AFC) systems and the broader Wi-Fi ecosystem.
When the FCC opened 5.925–7.125 GHz for unlicensed Wi-Fi two years ago, the industry celebrated. But with incumbents like satellite providers already in the band, the FCC required AFC to manage interference. Devices are limited to low-power indoor access points or standard-power APs for indoor/outdoor use.
Federated Wireless introduced its AFC platform last year, highlighting early collaborations with Cisco, HPE Aruba, MediaTek, and Tarana Wireless. The platform delivers spectrum management and SLAs for Wi-Fi devices operating in 6 GHz.
According to Tarazi, the recent achievement, which utilized Federated Wireless’ AFC service and Cisco’s wireless infrastructure, stems from years of regulatory and technical work, with a key focus on ensuring interference protection. “Goal number one was to make sure we protect 100,000 or so microwave links that are already sitting in the band. And I think we’ve done that quite well in the way we’ve done the algorithms,” he said. The team had to incorporate antenna design details and microwave link specs to accurately model and protect incumbent systems while maximizing available spectrum.
Beyond protection, Federated Wireless needed to demonstrate cloud scalability. “They needed us to be able to show that our platform can support a million access points, 10 million access points, and do it at very low latency,” he explained. Early work with Cisco centered on scaling performance and high availability in the cloud. More recent focus shifted toward optimizing the user experience, particularly in high-density venues, such as sports stadiums.
“A typical stadium … in the old days of a Wi-Fi, you would almost have to put like a small Wi-Fi under every third seat … And that was not scalable,” said Tarazi. “What [6 GHz] does is allow Wi-Fi to operate almost like a 5G network.”
The company sees major opportunities in stadiums, but also spaces like convention centers and industrial environments. “Standard power outdoors increases coverage by something like 50x, 10x the propagation … It’s very, very significant,” he continued.
Federated and Cisco jointly demonstrated deployments in both industrial automation and public venues. “In this case, with Cisco, we showed two different deployments. One is an industrial automation deployment where it’s a lot of IoT devices and robotics. The second thing we did in the University of British Columbia. That was a very dense indoor-outdoor public venue deployment.”
The work also sets the stage for Wi-Fi 7. “What we’ve been able to do is show that 6E works. It can take this massive amount of spectrum. It can operate at really high power. It can do it without interfering with itself,” summarized Tarazi. “6E is a step toward 7, and 7 will have even more, but this is a very important checkpoint in the process.”
When asked how this progress complements or competes with private 5G, he acknowledged that private 5G remains critical for sectors like manufacturing, government, and the military, where robotics, automation, and security demands exceed what Wi-Fi can deliver. However, most universities, hospitals, and schools are likely to stick with Wi-Fi. “Eighty to 90% of indoor deployments, it’s still Wi-Fi — a lot of enterprises, schools. As Wi-Fi 7 becomes more high-performance, higher capacity, and predictable, that will allow an upgrade path for a lot of these locations at a cheaper rate than pursuing a private 5G.”
Earlier this year, the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) noted that globally, AFC has “progressed cautiously” and “no disasters” have been reported regarding its implementation. Currently, AFC is operational and authorized in the United States and Canada, while Saudi Arabia and Colombia have proposed regulatory frameworks for AFC, and several other countries, including Australia, Brazil, and South Korea, are evaluating its feasibility.
With AFC gaining traction in the U.S., Canada, and beyond, Tarazi sees predictive analytics and AI as the next step. “These systems will increasingly resemble 5G networks, where all the towers work together,” he said — underscoring how Wi-Fi 7 could reshape enterprise connectivity worldwide.
