Wi-Fi routers are a piece of tech that we don’t upgrade often. This is why it’s important to upgrade to the latest and greatest technology whenever you decide to finally put your old router to rest.
While the latest standard is Wi-Fi 7, its routers are still relatively expensive, making Wi-Fi 6 an amazing option for internet connectivity for multiple devices.
In this article, we’ll take a brief look at some of the features you’ll get with Wi-Fi 6, and its benefits for consumers, businesses, and industries.
What is Wi-Fi 6?
Benefits of Wi-Fi 6 for Consumers
The Technical Aspects of Wi-Fi 6
How Wi-Fi 6 Impacts Businesses and Industries
Is Wi-Fi 6 Right for You? Considerations Before Upgrading
What is Wi-Fi 6?
Wi-Fi 6 is a newer generation of wireless internet technology that improves your internet experience a lot by allowing multiple devices to connect seamlessly to a network as well as improving the speed of the connection.
The Wi-Fi 6 standard is also known as 802.11ax, and also features WPA3 encryption technology, making it a lot more secure compared to the previous Wi-Fi 5.
It has a lot of key features, which include:
- MU-MIMO[SF1] Technology: Multi-user, Multiple Input, Multiple Output (MU-MIMO) was introduced first with Wi-Fi 6 and allows one access point to transmit data to multiple devices simultaneously. This technology can help with congestion that can build up whenever multiple devices are connected to the network.
- Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA)[SF2] : This technology can divide one wireless channel into several sub-channels, which allows data transfer with multiple devices simultaneously. This can help increase the efficiency of the network and can increase the quality of service, capacity, and throughput of the router.
- Target Wake Time (TWT)[SF3] : This feature allows devices to create schedules of when they communicate with a network. Because of this, devices can spend more time in sleep mode, and only wake up when they have to receive or send data, significantly reducing power consumption.
- 1024-QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation)[SF4] : This is a modulation method in Wi-Fi 6 that increases the data rate by around 25% by making changes in the phase and amplitude of radio waves, which allows more data to be added in each transmission. Essentially, there is a denser amount of data in each part of the wave.
Benefits of Wi-Fi 6 for Consumers[SF5]
There are a lot of benefits to switching to Wi-Fi 6 and beyond. Some of them include:
- Faster Speeds and Improved Streaming: Wi-Fi 6 allows for more bandwidth, which means that users can get better upload and download speeds. This is important since file sizes have increased as well as the demand for high-quality 4K video content. This standard supports a maximum throughput of 9.6 Gbps across multiple channels.
- Better Performance in High-Density Areas: In higher-density areas like offices, hospitals, and malls, Wi-Fi 6 can manage the network traffic better than Wi-Fi 5 since it supports around twice the number of devices per single channel. With low power mode, Wi-Fi 6 provisions only the needed resources, which helps manage congestion.
- Enhanced Security with WPA3: This new encryption standard can provide better security by improving the encryption strength and authentication process. WPA3 also offers individualized encryption for each device connected to the network, which means that every device has an individual encryption key.
- Support for IoT and Smart Homes: The increased speed and capacity offered by Wi-Fi 6 allows for real-time communication between devices, which helps create a responsive smart home experience. This also allows for more devices, reduced latency as well as a secure environment for a smart home ecosystem.
A lot of internet service providers now provide Wi-Fi 6 routers with their internet connections. This allows consumers to save a lot of the cost associated with getting expensive Wi-Fi routers. For example, if you sign up for any Xfinity internet deals, you can get the xFi Advanced Gateways, with support for Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E technology with WPA3 encryption.
The Technical Aspects of Wi-Fi 6[SF6]
While we’ve discussed Wi-Fi 6 till now, there’s another iteration of the technology that offers additional features.
The Wi-Fi 6E standard is an extension of the original standard that essentially creates a faster lane that compatible devices and applications can use. This results in faster speeds at a lower latency. While Wi-Fi 6 can work with older Wi-Fi standards through backward compatibility, Wi-Fi 6E doesn’t work with older standards. This means that this standard only works with other devices that are compatible with Wi-Fi 6E.
Where Wi-Fi 6 only has the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands, Wi-Fi 6E offers an additional 6 GHz band, which offers twice the bandwidth of 5 GHz. Wi-Fi 6 can get higher transfer speeds through numerous techniques, like efficient encoding, which allows users to get around 75% less latency.
How Wi-Fi 6 Impacts Businesses and Industries
Wi-Fi 6 can have huge benefits for industries and businesses. Here are some of them:
- Enhanced Remote Work Connectivity: Wi-Fi 6 can provide an internet connection with better stability and speeds, which can be great for remote workers, especially those who make a lot of video calls or transfer large files.
- Applications in Healthcare: Wi-Fi 6 can have a lot of benefits for people who provide healthcare. Nurses can monitor multiple patients from their main stations and receive alerts as well as observe data captured every second. This can also enable telemedicine, where patients can reach out to doctors through the Internet.
- Opportunities in Education and E-Learning: Wi-Fi 6 allows for twice as many connections as the preview iteration, which can help manage internet traffic in schools with high-density data usage. This technology will help with varying requirements for throughput, helping adjust the usage based on user needs.
- Impact on Public Wi-Fi Networks: In public locations, Wi-Fi 6 will increase the amount of devices that can connect to a single network. This significantly decreases the need for multiple Wi-Fi routers in the same location.
Is Wi-Fi 6 Right for You? Considerations Before Upgrading
For the most part, Wi-Fi 6 is worth getting, mainly because it can handle multiple devices a lot better than the earlier iterations. However, you need to have devices that support Wi-Fi 6 to take full advantage of that.
If you’re in a particularly crowded neighborhood, then it’s better to look into Wi-Fi 6E, provided you have the devices to take full advantage of that.
Getting the latest version of Wi-Fi is a great way to futureproof your connection for the future, especially if you’re going to get a faster internet connection. This can also be a great option if you’re looking to add smart devices to your home since Wi-Fi 6 can support twice as many devices as Wi-Fi 5.
With Wi-Fi 7 already in the market, you might be wondering if getting that is a better idea. However, there is a significant price difference between Wi-Fi 6 and 7 routers, which is why currently it’s better to go for the cheaper Wi-Fi 6, which is still amazing today.
