[Rpm] Re: [Cake] "Fi-Wi is a new forwarding plane for wireless" - Bob McMahon

[David Lang <david@lang.hm>]

This approach seems like it would work when you have one or a small number of 
fi-wi routers covering an area and the users are static

but that's bad RF engineering. having more different fixed stations really 
improves your RF performance. Combine that with devices moving around and you 
are not forwarding in the wifi layer, you need to forward based on where the 
stations are. For that, the IP address (and trditional IP routing) would seem to 
be the answer,

Even when looking at transmissions to multiple stations (I assume that's what is 
meant by aggregates), that depends on both what stations are where and what data 
there is to transmit. the groupings should not be even remotely static

Now, I may have misunderstood things, and I am alwasys aware of the concept that 
the person saying that something can't be done shouldn't interfere with the 
person doing it, but this sounds like something that would work well in a lab 
and fail miserably outside of those very controlled conditions.

David Lang


On Thu, 14 May 2026, Frantisek Borsik wrote:

> Interesting food for though:
>
> "Fi-Wi is a new forwarding plane for wireless.
>
> IP routing maps destination prefix → next hop. Ethernet bridging maps
> learned MAC → port. Fi-Wi maps 802.3 aggregates (A-MPDU) → (RRH, orthogonal
> slot), where an orthogonal "slot" spans time, carrier frequencies, and
> eigenspaces.
>
> Current 802.11 needs a forwarding plane. CSMA/CA via APs is collision
> avoidance — delivery is emergent, no global state, no forwarding decision.
> Fi-Wi replaces that with centralized decision-making running over
> distributed Remote Radio Heads, connected via PCIe-over-fiber as
> cache-coherent, switched DRAM. Every RRH's queue state, channel state, and
> TSF clock visible to the scheduler in a single memory domain.
>
> Same architectural leap that IP made for L3 and Ethernet made for L2. A new
> industry serviced by routers. Another new industry serviced by switches.
> Fi-Wi isn't a new product, it's a third forwarding plane, and an industry
> yet to be built.
>
> Umber Networks. The first company building Fi-Wi."
>
> https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7460693793390968832/
>
> All the best,
>
> Frank
>
> Frantisek (Frank) Borsik
>
>
> *In loving memory of Dave Täht: *1965-2025
>
> https://libreqos.io/2025/04/01/in-loving-memory-of-dave/
>
>
> https://www.linkedin.com/in/frantisekborsik
>
> Signal, Telegram, WhatsApp: +421919416714
>
> iMessage, mobile: +420775230885
>
> Skype: casioa5302ca
>
> frantisek.borsik@gmail.com
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