Wi-Fi is getting its biggest upgrade in 20 years

CyberTech

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Nov 10, 2017
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In a few months, there’s going to be a lot more Wi-Fi to go around. The Federal Communications Commission voted today to open up a plot of spectrum in the 6GHz band for unlicensed use — the same regulatory go-ahead that lets your router broadcast over the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. That means there are now more open airwaves — a lot more — that routers can use to broadcast Wi-Fi signals. Once the new spectrum is officially opened for business later this year, that should translate to faster, more reliable connections from the next generation of devices.

This is the biggest spectrum addition since the FCC cleared the way for Wi-Fi in 1989, so it’s a huge deal. The new spectrum basically quadruples the amount of space available for routers and other devices, so it will mean a lot more bandwidth and a lot less interference for any device that can take advantage of it.

“This is the most monumental decision around Wi-Fi spectrum in its history, in the 20 years we’ve been around,” Kevin Robinson, marketing leader for the Wi-Fi Alliance, an industry-backed group that oversees the implementation of Wi-Fi, said ahead of the vote.

Devices are expected to start supporting 6GHz Wi-Fi by the end of 2020, so its implementation isn’t far away. When it arrives, expect to see it branded under the name “Wi-Fi 6E.”
 

scorpionv

Level 2
Apr 20, 2020
87
This is a huge deal, awesome. Even the close range 5GHz band is getting congested in busy area's, so a new band is more than welcome. I suppose the range will be even more limited than the 5 GHz band, but that becomes less important with the mesh/fast roaming networking techniques getting better and better.
 

scorpionv

Level 2
Apr 20, 2020
87
Checked out the facts behind my previous comment about the range. A picture is worth a thousand words.

wifi-6e-trials.jpg



WiFi-6-Frequentiebanden_lg.jpg
 

Cortex

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Looking good, it will be some time before products start supporting 6 as many still not got around to using 5 yet such as the quite new SONOS AMP/Printers etc. - Not an issue to me as not many other routers around me, I Ethernet if I can though.
 

Ink

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Jan 8, 2011
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Should enterprises skip Wi-Fi 6 and wait for Wi-Fi 6e to be released?

What is Wi-Fi 6?
OFDMA is a critical piece of technology in Wi-Fi 6. To achieve the additional capacity for a network, a 20 MHz channel is split into as many as nine smaller channels. Using OFDMA, a Wi-Fi 6 AP could simultaneously transmit frames to nine Wi-Fi 6 clients. Wi-Fi 6 brings back 2.4 GHz support as 802.11ac was 5 GHz only.

While I prefer to use 5 GHz band (a minimum of 19 non-overlapping channels vs. 3 for 2.4 GHz), 2.4 GHz is still being used by devices due to its low cost and battery life (particularly for IoT sensors). Another critical addition for Wi-Fi with Wi-Fi 6 is called Target Wake Time. TWT allows devices to set when and how often they will wake up to send and receive new data. TWT increases device sleep time and can substantially improve battery life for mobile devices and IoT sensors.

With Wi-Fi 6e, it’s a revolution for wireless networking. The best way I know how to explain it is to imagine if all Tesla cars had a road just for themselves. How much less traffic would you see on your commute? That is what Wi-Fi6e creates. It operates on the 6 GHz band so that no legacy devices can access it. Wi-Fi 6e devices will be able to work on Wi-Fi 6 and other previous standards, but no devices without 6e support will be able to access the superhighway. From a capacity standpoint, it’ll have access to 59 non-overlapping channels, so places like sports arenas, concert halls, and other high-density environments will provide much more capacity with less interference.

Should you wait on Wi-Fi 6e?
[..] but the common question is, should you wait on that if you need a network upgrade today? The answer, in my opinion, is no. We are years away from Wi-Fi 6e being a reality for devices and networking hardware.

Read more at Source.
 

jetman

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Jun 6, 2017
470
WiFi 6 Routers are currently very expensive- hopefully the cost will fall in the coming months.

The original posting refers to the 'Federal Communications Commission' who I assume are based in the USA. Therefore, i'm not sure how relevant the announcement is outside that indiivual country. I imagine that each government around the world has its own regulations concerning which frequencies can be used for which purposes.
 
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