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Potential of WiFi 6.0

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The Undisputable Potential of WiFi 6.0

The Undisputable Potential of WiFi 6.0

Potential of WiFi 6.0

5G is the talk of the town, with all the Communication Service Providers (CSPs) starting to support 5G. One might think that the next-generation wireless networks in the enterprise will revolve almost around 5G, but equally important is the 802.11ax wireless standard, commonly known as Wi-Fi 6.

WiFi is essential for connectivity

Wi-Fi 6 was released in 2019 as a successor of the 802.11ac standard (known as Wi-Fi 5) to increase the speed and provide better network performance when many devices are connected to it.  The coming of WiFi6 is seeping multi-user features with an improved WiFi performance in densely populated networks and its enhanced version namely- WiFi6E offers greater capabilities with wider channels at greater speed and lower latency   Already there is wider adoption with WiFi6 and WiFi6E and in specific the WiFi6E has the greater capability of wide channel spectrum use with multiple 160 Mhz channels made available in regions where the 6 GHz spectrum is allocated or available. 

WiFi6 delivers four times higher capacity and 75 percent lower latency much better than earlier versions and operates in the 6 GHz band, while the 6E version also operates in the same band with better design to process more data and support new technologies such as augmented/virtual reality cloud computing and telepresence.

Essential features of Wi-Fi 6:

Speed

Wi-Fi 6 provides a maximum speed of 9.6 Gigabits per second which was 3.5 Gigabits per second in Wi-Fi 5.

Low Latency

Wi-Fi 6 uses Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA), through which it reduces the latency and delivers data to multiple devices more efficiently.

Support More Users

Wi-Fi 6E broadcasts three bands, 2.4GHz, 5GHz, 6GHz, which opens up additional channels to deliver enormous amounts of data to Wi-Fi devices, especially in crowded environments. This will result in a greater capacity to support more users.

Use of MU-MIMO

Wi-Fi 6 uses MU-MIMO (Multiple User – Multiple Input Multiple Output), which allows multiple devices to communicate with the router at the same time against the SU-MIMO (Single-User – Multiple Input Multiple Output) being used in earlier versions of Wi-Fi, which allows only one device to communicate with the router at a time.

Better upload and download speeds

MU-MIMO was available since version 2 of Wi-Fi 5, but it was available only for download and supported only four simultaneous streams. Wi-Fi 6 is available both in upload and download, and it can support up to 12 concurrent streams, so there is a significant increase in download and upload speeds.

Better Network Performance

Wi-Fi 6 can minimize interference with the other networks by using basic service set coloring technology. Reduction in interference results in quick response time and better network performance.

More Secure

Wi-Fi 6 has the latest security protocol, WPA3, which provides cutting-edge security features that enable a more robust authentication which increases protection from password guessing attempts.

Provides Better Battery Life

Wi-Fi 6 can extend the battery life in Wi-Fi devices using a technology called Target Wake Time. With Target Wake time, a router or an access point schedules a time with Wi-Fi devices when the data is supposed to be sent or received. When the devices send or receive the data, their antennas are powered on. Else, they go into sleep mode, which saves the battery life of the Wi-Fi devices.

Benefits

  • There is an increase in access points capacity for mobile and IoT
  • Wider or greater channel width with auto channel switching
  • Efficient bandwidth sharing
  • Backward compatibility -supports earlier versions of 802.11 ac/n/g/b  

Future

Enterprises will benefit from WiFi6 as it has a range of applications that it can support with high speed and lower latency.  Industry research indicates more than 2 billion shipments of WiFi devices are present currently and will see that growing to over 5 billion devices in the next three years.

End Note

Wi-Fi 6 technology will undoubtedly be the backbone of the next-generation wireless networks. You will benefit from Wi-Fi 6 if you have a lot of wireless devices (15-20 devices). To reap the benefits of Wi-Fi 6, devices must be compatible with Wi-Fi 6. With the Internet of Things (IoT) applications growing rapidly, all the devices need to stay connected and share data between them without negatively impacting the Wi-Fi speeds. Industry-leading aggregator STL has innovated WiFi solutions ready to meet industry needs.  STL WiFi6 solution is equipped with carrier-grade class solutions and helps enterprise operators deliver a rich customer experience backed with high bandwidth speeds even in dense environments. To gain a wider and deep understanding of how STL has innovated its Wi-Fi solutions to address the need

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The Undisputable Potential of WiFi 6.0

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