Over the past few years, Wi-Fi has advanced in many ways, making it faster and more powerful.
Wi-Fi has been given a new designation, bringing some significant changes. Known as Wi-Fi 802.11ax, the new standard’s implementation is designed to improve speed and performance and make it easier to prepare for a wireless future where tens of thousands of devices compete for a limited amount of data.
According to the Wi-Fi Alliance, Wi-Fi 6E, the third-generation Wi-Fi technology, allows for a higher wireless transmission speed than the 5GHz and 2GHz bands, which is expected to increase online traffic and generate $183 billion in revenue over five years.
What is Wi-Fi 6E?
Wi-Fi Alliance expects to release Wi-Fi 6E, which will enable 802.11ax to function within the unlicensed 6 GHz band, as well as 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands currently in use. By using this technology, the previously supported 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands can be used to operate features.
Since Wi-Fi 6E devices will have access to an additional 1200 MHz spectrum in the 6 GHz band, they will be able to operate in a total of 14 80 MHz and 7 160 MHz channels. With this broader spectrum extension, network design is simplified, and Wi-Fi performance is improved, resulting in greater throughput and wider channels while requiring fewer support devices, leading to fewer congestion issues.
Wi-Fi 6E: How Does It Work?
With Wi-Fi 6E networks, you’ll get all the features and capabilities of 802.11ax with the additional benefit of accessing the Internet at speeds of 6 GHz. As part of the 802.11ax standard, innovative technologies are combined to boost the network’s speed and deliver better overall performance when connecting multiple devices using low-latency, high-bandwidth communications.
It is expected that Wi-Fi 6E networks will have more capacity than current Wi-Fi 6E networks as they will operate on the 6 GHz band while utilizing these existing features of Wi-Fi 802.11ax:
- By combining 8×8 MU-MIMO uplinks/downlinks, OFDMA, and BSS Color, the system will provide four times the capacity for more devices to be handled simultaneously.
- In IoT devices, Target wake time (TWT) is critical to improving network efficiency and battery life.
Enhancing the user experience with Wi-Fi 6E
To support new and emerging applications, Wi-Fi 6E will enable enterprises and service providers to ensure that each connected device remains at its optimal performance.
Through the introduction of Wi-Fi 6E, it is possible to increase the contiguous channel bandwidth, thus supporting more significant numbers of devices at unprecedented speeds, thereby addressing Wi-Fi spectrum shortage issues. 1200 MHz added to the 6 GHz band will improve the speed and reliability of enterprise Wi-Fi.
A new era in healthcare
The importance of security in healthcare goes beyond just security. With increased capacity provided by the addition of the 6 GHz band to the digital health network, it is now possible for health monitoring equipment to provide real-time communication of vital information without the risk of congestion and packet transmission delays caused by congestion. Wi-Fi 6E is the perfect candidate for healthcare applications and services requiring high bandwidth.
Retail and Education
Besides the retail sector, the healthcare industry will soon become another area in which Wi-Fi 6E networks and applications will be available. Since the bandwidth capacity has been increased and the interference risk has been reduced, there are no more congestion problems.
What is the main difference between Wi-Fi 6 and the previous standards of Wi-Fi?
Wi-Fi 6 devices paired with Wi-Fi 6 routers are likely to offer performance gains of up to 40 percent compared to Wi-Fi 5 devices and routers. The Wi-Fi 6 does this because it can pack more information into each packet, and it works both on 2.4GHz and 5GHz (and on 6GHz with the Wi-Fi 6E).
In contrast, connecting multiple devices to the same network reveals a more significant benefit.
As stated by Intel’s IT peer network, Wi-Fi 6 is supposed to increase a single network’s efficiency by approximately four times, which is also meant to supplement the average throughput for users connected to Wi-Fi 6 in heavily populated areas by about four times.
Conclusion
It is important to remember that Wi-Fi 6E is not a niche solution, and the scenarios above are just a glimpse of what wireless internet can offer. An increasing number of devices will support Wi-Fi 6E, leading to the development of new applications. It has already shown great potential in the advertising, travel, and entertainment industries.
