Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E: All Your Questions Answered
If you have experienced issues staying connected to a video call or had to pause an episode of your favorite series because of buffering, it is very likely that spectrum congestion was the cause. This is a common problem in densely populated city spaces, especially in multi-tenant office buildings. The culprit here is not just the number of devices but also the wireless routers beaming their signal over the same space, competing for bandwidth on the same channels.
Fortunately, the solution for such network congestion is well on the way and it brings with it not just a congestion-free wireless spectrum but also vastly improved speed and performance. This wireless technology upgrade, i.e. Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E are what this blog post is focused on. We will address the common questions surrounding Wi-Fi 6 and 6E, including the difference, advantages, disadvantages, and upgrading to this new wireless technology standard.
In this blog post, we will cover the following topics:
Wi-Fi 6 is the successor of 802.11ac, a standard for wireless local-area networks (WLANs). As a result, it is also known as 802.11ax WiFi and AX WiFi. It was initially built to accommodate the growing number of devices used in homes and businesses. The primary goal of Wi-Fi 6 is to amplify the throughput in high-density environments such as multi-tenant office spaces, corporate offices, or densely populated city spaces. WiFi 6 gives higher efficiency by providing a signal packed with more data as well as makes Wi-Fi faster by providing a wider channel.
Wi-Fi 6E is the latest wireless networking standard and an extension of Wi-Fi 6. It is a significant development in wireless technology as it enables operation in the 6 GHz band, in addition to the currently supported bands - 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. The use of the 6 GHz band means an additional spectrum available for Wi-Fi 6E devices to operate in. This promises to simplify network design, alleviate network congestion, and improve Wi-Fi performance using wider channels and higher throughput.
The Wi-Fi 6 E is not simply about improving Wi-Fi speed. While primarily designed to ensure seamless Wi-Fi performance for devices in high-density environments and high-bandwidth applications, it is also a critical wireless technology upgrade designed to ensure continued innovation across Wi-Fi user experience and connected devices.
When Wi-Fi 6 was announced, it was limited by law to wireless spectrum covering only the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands. These bands have limited non-overlapping channels, so the spectrum congestion problem was still there. In April of 2020, the Federal Communications Commission opened up the 6GHz band for unlicensed use.
The main difference between Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E is that Wi-Fi 6 devices are the early adopters and therefore limited to the 2.4GHz and 5GHz spectrum, while Wi-Fi 6E devices have access to 6GHz airwaves. Although the increase from 5GHz to 6GHz does not sound like much, it quadruples the amount of airwaves available for routers and smart devices, in effect, reducing signal interference. The 6 GHz band ranges from 5.925 GHz to 7.125 GHz, which means it offers up to 1,200 MHz of additional spectrum.
Here is a list of advantages of Wi-Fi 6E:
Its orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing access feature, enables routers and devices to use bandwidth more efficiently and makes the system less susceptible to interference.
Wi-Fi 6E supports up to 14 80MHz channels or seven 160 MHz which means higher spectrum availability and lower overlap between networks in densely populated spaces.
It offers increased speed, giving devices the ability to experience gigabit speeds more easily.
It can efficiently utilize beamforming to transmit more localized data streams making wireless communication faster.
It will have the ability to uniquely identify local network traffic and ignore any traffic detected on the channel originating outside the local network. This helps increase reliability and improve latency.
Its target wait time feature reduces power consumption and improves device battery life.
Wi-Fi 6E mandatorily requires the use of Wi-Fi Protected Access 3 (WPA3) security certification, which is the latest security and authentication protocol for wireless computer networks. This ensures that your network traffic is more secure.
Here are the disadvantages of Wi-Fi 6E:
Since the existing Wi-Fi equipment, including the Wi-Fi 6 routers, will not work with the 6 GHz band, you will need to invest in new equipment, both broadcasters, i.e routers, and clients, such as laptops, smartphones, etc. with Wi-Fi 6E capabilities, which will likely be more expensive.
The 6 GHz band will not support the operation of legacy devices supported in 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands.
To fully utilize Wi-Fi 6E, you will need a Gigabit-class broadband connection.
The 6 GHz network has a shorter range compared to the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz networks.
Devices including routers, laptops, and smartphones supporting Wi-Fi 6E have already started coming into the market. At present, it is available in high-end devices but is expected to be widely adopted soon.
Wi-Fi 6E is expected to have a considerable impact on how we interact with our wireless devices. Faster speed, increased network efficiency and capacity, lower latency, and improved security make Wi-Fi 6E a significant leap forward in wireless networking. Therefore, whether you are a homeowner or a business, upgrading to Wi-Fi 6E is definitely worth considering.
Conclusion
Wi-Fi 6E is still relatively new. But with the promise of faster speeds - with a maximum throughput of 9.6 Gbps across multiple channels, up to 75% less latency, and less susceptibility to interference even in areas with dense Wi-Fi signals, this new wireless technology is sure to revolutionize how we interact with wireless networks.
More importantly, Wi-Fi 6E bridges the gap between wired and wireless connectivity, making it possible to take advantage of the flexibility of wireless connectivity even while using bandwidth-heavy technologies. For a user, it means more bandwidth, faster speeds, and lower latency allowing them to better utilize technologies such as augmented reality, virtual reality, 8K video streaming, and much more.
Do you need help upgrading your network infrastructure to the latest in wireless technology? Are you looking to improve the performance of your office network? Reach out to us by clicking the button below and find out how we can help you upgrade your network infrastructure to ensure fast, efficient, and secure connectivity.
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