cellular data vs wifi | Difference between cellular and wifi

This page compares cellular data vs wifi and mentions difference between cellular data and wifi data networks. It mentions integration architecture of cellular network and wifi network.

What is Data ?

Definition: The term data refers to electronic information which is transported over wireless or wired medium connected with internet using any computing devices such as mobile phones, laptops, desktops, PDAs, tablets etc. Depending upon the usage of network for transportation by data, it can be designated as wifi data, cellular data, satellite data, fiber optic data, internet data and so on.

All of the following types of activities or files are considered as data.
• Sharing of photos or images or videos
• E-mail messages
• Browsing of internet or surfing social media websites such as facebook, twitter etc.
• Watching of streaming video
• listening to streaming music
• App downloads from stores of apple, microsoft or google.

Cellular data network

The data transported over cellular network is known as cellular data. There are different cellular networks such as 2G (GSM), 3G (WCDMA), 3.5G (HSPA+), 4G (LTE, Mobile WiMAX), 4.5G (LTE Advanced), 5G NR (New Radio) etc. in increasing order of their data transfer speed.

Figure-1 : Cellular data network architecture

There are three main elements in cellular data network architecture viz. Base Station (i.e. network side), Mobile subscriber (i.e. user side) and internet backbone. This is shown in figure-1, the cellular system connects with PSTN and PSDN to provide support for circuit switched data traffic and packet switched data traffic. Refer Cellular tutorial for more information on cellular network basics.

The silent features of cellular data network are as follows.
• Cellular network is available nation wide due to roaming functionality.
• Cellular data users will be charged as per different subscription rates and usage in various countries.
• Coverage range is higher due to cellular tower height and transmit power as per planned RF link budget.

cellular network and wifi network integration architecture

Figure-2 : Integrated cellular wifi architecture

WiFi data network

The data transported over wifi network is known as WiFi Data.
The WiFi network follow various IEEE WLAN wireless standards such as 802.11a, 11b, 11g, 11n, 11ac (wifi5), 11ax (wifi6) etc.
WiFi network is not available everywhere. Now-a-days wifi hotspots are available in business offices, malls, airports, railway stations etc.

Figure-3 : Wifi data network architecture

There are two elements in wifi data network architecture viz. AP (Access point) or router and STAs (Stations). WiFi operates on 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz frequency bands. WiFi operates in two modes which are adhoc and infrastructure.

The silent features of wifi data network are as follows.
• WiFi data users are not charged and it is available free of cost at most of the public places.
• It supports different data rates as per wifi standard used by APs (i.e. routers) and STAs (stations) which is much larger than cellular data rates.
• Coverage range is lesser compare to cellular network.

Tabular difference between cellular network and wifi network

Following table mentions difference between cellular network and wifi network.

Features	Cellular network	WiFi network
Coverage distance	larger	smaller
Data rate	Lower (Depends on cellular technology), Latest 5G NR offers download speeds in between 1 Gbps to 10 Gbps and upload speeds less than download.	Higher (Depends on IEEE 802.11 standard), Latest wifi6 standard supports 600.4 Mbits/sec (with 80 MHz, 1 SS) and 9.6078 Gbits/sec (with 160 MHz, 8 SS).
Signaling	Out band signaling	In band signaling
Interference	Less	More as signal travels longer distance
Network architecture	Simple as it just requires APs or wifi routers to be installed	Complex as it consists of many systems on Base Station side

Conclusion : The integrated wifi cellular architecture are being deployed due to respective benefits of wifi (i.e. higher speed) and cellular (i.e. larger coverage) technologies. Cellular service providers offload cellular data traffic to wifi network in the areas where user density is higher. It benefits to wifi service provider as its user base increases due to cellular user traffic flow to wifi network. End users avail greater coverage and higher data rate at lower affordable cost. Hence the integration benefits all i.e. cellular service provider, wifi service provider and end users.

Refer mifi vs wifi which describes how both cellular data and wifi data are being used in the home with advanced mifi+wifi routers.

RF and Wireless Terminologies

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