Can AI Improve Your WiFi Performance?

WiFi AI tools can improve wireless network performance, security, efficiency and more — and they’re becoming more capable every year. Here are the benefits of AI for wireless networks.

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AI and machine learning are getting more intelligent and capable every year. One emerging application for this technology is WiFi network management. What are the benefits of AI for wireless networks?

Benefits of WiFi AI

Implementing AI for wireless networks and home WiFi has many benefits, particularly for network management. Nearly every aspect of daily life connects to the internet in some way today, so it’s crucial to have resilient network management tools, including AI.

Efficient Network Optimization

Users and IT professionals can use AI to monitor the health and performance of their networks. Monitoring network activity requires constant data collection on metrics like uptime, download speeds and connected devices. This data is perfect for an AI analytics algorithm.

AI is great at deciphering data and identifying valuable insights. It can quickly analyze a huge data set of network activity, and pinpoint trends and connections. Network managers can use this information to optimize the network efficiently without spending hours combing through performance data.

Automated Network Security Monitoring

AI can also improve network security. WiFi settings and network properties can expose users to cybersecurity risks without careful protection and monitoring. Users may not even notice a hacker is on their WiFi network until it’s too late. By then, they could install malware on a network device, access private files and more.

WiFi AI threat monitoring can defend against unauthorized network access. Once integrated into the network, the AI monitors network traffic around the clock. It uses machine learning to understand regular user behavior and commonly used devices. If the AI detects anything that doesn’t match normal network activity, it can block the unauthorized connection and trigger a security alert.

Smart Resource Management

Leveraging AI for wireless networks can result in more efficient use of network resources. One of the main drawbacks of a typical internet connection is range. As a user gets further from the epicenter of the network, their signal quality worsens.

The network’s signal could potentially reach further if there were a way to direct it to a specific user or device rather than a general radius. Luckily, there is a technology that can accomplish this — WiFi beamforming. This network management strategy improves signal quality by “beaming” the signal directly where it’s necessary at a given time.

WiFi AI can make beamforming easier and more efficient to implement. Network managers can use AI to automate device detection and tell the network where to beam a signal. As a result, users can eliminate WiFi dead zones around their homes and offices, and experience improved connectivity.

How Carriers Leverage AI for Wireless Networks

WiFi AI is an invaluable tool for home and office network management. But what about AI for wireless networks? Wireless carriers can utilize the benefits of smaller-scale WiFi AI as well as some big-picture applications.

For example, AI is a powerful tool for creating and analyzing digital twins. A digital twin is a highly realistic virtual model of a physical system or object — in this case, a wireless network. AI and machine learning are core components of digital twins. They power the predictive modeling capabilities at the heart of any digital twin platform.

Wireless carriers can use digital twins to understand and analyze the strengths and weaknesses of their networks. They can model various risks and emergency scenarios to test responsiveness and predict the impact of outages under many conditions.

Modeling these situations in a digital twin allows carriers to develop robust prevention and response strategies. As a result, they’re better prepared to predict and avoid network outages. A digital twin can even help a wireless carrier optimize its network to perform better every day.

Research shows the digital twin market has a projected CAGR of 61.3% with an estimated value of over $110 billion by 2028. This technology is in high demand, and for good reasons. By adopting it now, wireless carriers can leverage the power of AI predictive analytics to deliver cutting-edge network performance and get ahead of competitors.

Innovating With AI for Wireless and WiFi

Adopting WiFi AI, digital twins, and other AI-powered tools can improve network optimization, security, connectivity and resilience. AI is a powerful tool for home and office WiFi, as well as larger wireless networks. The data analysis capabilities of AI and machine learning make it invaluable for understanding and improving network performance.

About the Author:

Zachary Amos is the Features Editor at ReHack, where he writes about artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and other technology-related topics.