Exploiting the Synergies of WLAN and Cellular Networks within the Wi-FIP Project

Wireless local area networks (WLAN) and recent Wi-Fi standards, are used since a few decades for a large variety of network applications. Since a few years, the $5^{\text {th }}$ generation wireless cellular networks (5 G) are being deployed and used, most of the time for similar applications. Both technologies and their evolution, are expected to be deployed within the wireless ecosystem by 2030 and for decades beyond. The Wi-FIP project invokes these two wireless networking solutions and their evolution, to further enhance the wireless data networks regarding sustainable and scalable quality of hybrid network services. This paper presents the visions and objectives of the Wi-FIP project, targeting to enhance synergies and integration of Wi-Fi in 5G/beyond 5G networks, through the convergent B2B/B2C usage model concept, sustainable multi-connectivity, hierarchical Software Defined Networking (SDN) and orchestration. The paper analyzes the functionalities to develop for sustainable, secure and hybrid WLAN/cellular networking.