NANOG 95 Keynote: 5G, Fiber, and Wi-fi. The IP Takeover is (Almost) Complete

For NANOG 95, XKL CEO and co-founder of Cisco Systems, Len Bosack, turns his attention towards 5G, building up a retrospective that covers years of 5G implementation, alongside his expectations for the converged networks of the future.

Len’s early days of shaping the infrastructure that would serve as the internet’s backbone inform his analysis of IP services and the eveolution to come.

The writing’s on the wall: We’re engineering the end of access technology silos. IP’s economic value has driven cellular and Wi-Fi network infrastructure to converge. More than ever, network engineers must now understand a variety of software-defined WAN architectures. The driver is simple physics and economics: the demand for packet-switched IP services has made it the preferred medium, at a better price-performance model than legacy approaches. This reality pushed cellular carriers away from circuit-switching and Wi-Fi beyond local access. Both now operate as IP-native platforms, creating opportunities for intelligent traffic routing across 5G, Wi-Fi, and satellite links.

We’ll examine private 5G deployments, mobile edge computing, and satellite integration. You’ll see how Wi-Fi 7’s multi-link operation compares to future plans for 6G next-generation enterprise networks. Walk away with practical frameworks for designing converged access networks, and understanding the universal limits of network technologies.

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