WiFi 6: A new frontier in wireless communications and connectivity
WiFi is synonymous with fast wireless technology commonly found in everyday electronics, such as smartphones, laptops, home routers and gateways, wireless access points, and TV set-top boxes. For the past two decades, WiFi has enabled billions of people to connect to the internet, stream and enjoy high-quality multimedia content online, and upload and download large amounts of data on mobile devices. More importantly, Wi-Fi has revolutionized the way we access and consume digital information and made it easier for us to communicate and connect with the world around us.
The digital world is becoming increasingly connected as more and more new devices have Wi-Fi built-in. According to the Wi-Fi Alliance, Wi-Fi’s installed base has exceeded 13 billion units. This massive ecosystem of Wi-Fi-enabled devices is still expanding. It’s not just smartphones and laptops that need Wi-Fi connections. New classes of devices like wireless speakers, surveillance cameras, thermostats, refrigerators, and a myriad of other smart appliances and machines are all connecting to the network through Wi-Fi. With the rapid growth of mobile data usage and fast expansion of IoT applications, existing wireless infrastructure operating on legacy Wi-Fi standards (802.11a/b/g/n/ac) are simply not sufficient to handle the increased connectivity and higher bandwidth demands.
Based on the IEEE 802.11ax standard, Wi-Fi 6 is the latest generation of Wi-Fi designed to address the looming capacity crunch while creating a superhighway to support new and emerging multi-gigabit applications. Compared to Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac), Wi-Fi 6 is better equipped to service a large number of Wi-Fi devices, especially in dense environments like city centers, malls, airports, concert halls, and stadiums. In addition, the shift to Wi-Fi 6 includes significant improvements in data speed and latency for both uplink and downlink transmission. Wi-Fi 6 brings a host of feature enhancements, such as 1024-QAM and OFDMA, designed to address high-bandwidth, low-latency use cases.
6-GHz Wi-Fi: The next frontier in WiFi
Legacy Wi-Fi devices have utilized the 2.4-GHz and 5-GHz Wi-Fi bands for decades. Now with the latest addition of Wi-Fi 6, which supports 2.4-GHz, 5-GHz, and future 6-GHz bands, there are essentially six generations of Wi-Fi devices sharing the crowded 2.4-GHz and 5-GHz bands in which end-user applications are constantly competing for airtime. These bands will soon become overloaded due to the growth of wireless connectivity and data. The solution to this challenge comes in the form of a spectrum globally available in the 6-GHz band for Wi-Fi.
6-GHz Wi-Fi will allow multiple 160 MHz channels to enable the next wave of multi-gigabit applications at home and office, thereby realizing the full potential of Wi-Fi 6. In addition, the 6-GHz band offers wide bandwidth with little radio signal interference from other sources, such as microwave ovens, wireless headsets, and cordless phones. The wide range of new and emerging data-intensive applications that 6-GHz Wi-Fi can enable includes:
- 4K/8K video distribution for home and business
- Real-time immersive gaming
- Virtual/Augmented Reality (VR/AR)
- Distance learning
Companies like Broadcom has been at the forefront of Wi-Fi development over the last several decades, creating successive generations of innovative Wi-Fi chips that have revolutionized wireless communications and connectivity. On the cusp of a transition to multi-gigabit wireless communications, Broadcom and its Wi-Fi ecosystem partners continue to push the wireless frontier and drive the next evolution of Wi-Fi to maximize wireless connectivity and applications. Contact Musato Technologies to learn more about our innovative ICT services and solutions.