Wi-Fi 6: is it really alot faster?

The Wi-Fi Alliance, a non-profit body that sets the technical standards for WiFi devices and markets WiFi, claims that by 2020: "Wi‐Fi 6 will deliver more than twice the performance of the current generation."

It hasn't declared that yet but it's definitely coming. But is it really so much faster? The short answer is no, not necessarily. As with most things in technology there can be a lot of debate on how fast something will actually become. However while there are caveats to this speed boost – such as: 'how much do we need it?' and 'can we really reach that?'" according to Pieter Abbeel, professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of California-Berkeley.
Wi-Fi 6 can achieve gigabit speeds but that is unlikely will be upgraded for a long time – with cost prohibitive increases in speed dissipating any gains there might have been. "The promise Wi‐Fi has always had is low power consumption," explained Professor Martin Fink from the IEE in the UK.

9g technology is usually considered as a stop-gap solution, a move into Wi-Fi 6. "With that expected to take at least another decade or so, however slightly faster it will be than current generation – not by much." Jonathan Phillips from Linens Networking said: 'The problem with making generalisations about technologies like this is there are always significant caveats involved and for different reasons.' So 9g is expected to be a stop-gap measure, "a way of upgrading older base stations and access points that have not got the necessary hardware installed."

WiGig: more than just hype? WiGig has been referred for years as though it was coming. In July 2017 Qualcomm announced its partner tablets would launch in 2018 using technologies such as Bluetooth 5 with claims around range increases of nearly 1km (0.6 miles ). However it is unlikely to supersede WiGig in functionality. NVIDIA announced some of its wireless graphics cards in April 2016 that are claimed to deliver longer range and speeds, until a problem with bandwidth management using the Maxwell architecture – more commonly seen on laptops than tablets or smartphones – surfaced for many games like The Witcher 3. "This isn't because there's no demand, but rather that chip developers haven't yet figured out how best use available resources.

What is WiFi 6? (also known as 802.11ax)

It's a brand new version of WiFi designed to increase speed.
The 802.11ax provides three major technologies:
- Multiple Input and Multiple Output (MIMO)
- Advanced TurboQAM (ATQA) modulation scheme for increased data throughput in the downlink direction
- Higher order MIMO that supports wider channels and better spatial isolation, thus increasing performance in strong interference scenarios such as 5 GHz cell shadowing or point sources such as devices with internal antennas(ie smartphones). It also supports Downlink Multipath TCP (DMPTCP), which enables more complex network designs that improve efficiency in legacy 2.4 GHz environments for improved performance, especially at higher speeds
- Spectrum aggregation combined with beamforming technologies to increase the achievable channel bandwidth from 20 MHz or 40 MHz (802.11ac) to 60–70+ MHz while still maintaining compatibility with existing installations over 5 GHz systems working at higher data rates .

This means that dual-band 60 GHz devices will be able to communicate with WiFi 5 and 2.4 GHz clients simultaneously, increasing throughput of an existing network. The IEEE 802 Wireless Terminology™ (802WT) defines several terms to describe the various ranges of data rates: WiMAX, OFDM (orthogonal frequency division multiplexing), R-FDMA and AMPDU signaling. 802.11 is a subset of the IEEE 802 standards group , which includes three families: 1) Wireless Local Area Network or WLANs defined by Emeter 13a; 2) Mobile Ad-hoc ONthem networks designated as applications iWAN, IPAMM2 and 3);and 4) Broadband Personal Area Networks designated as 802.11a and ac.

In April 2002, the IEEE created a working group called 802-Treo that would create standards for Wireless LAN technology in the 5 GHz spectrum band; however, only minor work was produced due to "matters beyond our control". In 2005 Nokia Corporation submitted proposals concerning cooperative transmissions from mobile devices with its tri-band R&D efforts on COPE (Cooperative Operation of Personal Devices).

The IEEE plans to study the practical use of narrowband spectrum in the 5 GHz band, whereas 802.11 "A" was confined to only extended physical (ePHY) technology because it is a big business for AT&T and Microsoft . Looking forward, The Wi-Fi Alliance has formed an ad hoc committee on draft specifications related with 60 GHz; however no specific timelines or concrete progress are yet known. Several standard bodies are also working on similar techniques, such as the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), who are in charge of wireless networking ISO/IEC International Standard WHQL ), draft WG3 SC 1721 ) and free-space optic communications(draft ESP ).

With 60 GHz piggyback technology there is a possibility to extend 40 GHz data rates much better launching "Mesh" from equipment dedicated mesh passes off frequencies by smartly spacing transmission nodes without the need of any central hub equipment; in this way different transmission parameters will be available to nodes depending on their distance from each other. In order for 60 GHz advantages over 40 GHz are exploited, especially in rural areas or environments that do not allow 40 GHz propagation through clutter and vegetation such as a forest coverage (especially outdoors) where two-way distances run up significantly (km/m), power can possibly be reduced by interfering with 60 GHz devices with low-power digital signal processors such as the FTI 2040 ESP8266/ESP32 or STM STM1xx (FTTx).

The upcoming 60 GHz band can also be used to implement Wireless Power Distribution , ElectroMagnetic Filtering or Synthetic Aperture Radar using components and techniques similar in nature to those of other wireless standard. Proposed systems include midband spectrum for very thin, narrow beamwidth antennas, and low-band propagation through foliage to penetrate buildings.
Technical details regarding maximum data rates as well as radio range depend on each implementation; consensus attainment by the International Telecommunication Union "WiMAX Forum" of IEEE 802.11p (802 P) will be increasing both applications throughput faster than any other alternative technology in their respective bands unless more work is done on 60 GHz networks.

How fast is it?

That depends on the device and on your internet service provider. You should also check what speed tiers you have, as that’ll affect how fast your connection will actually be once Wi-Fi 6 arrives.

Google touts a theoretical 2x increase in capacity over previous generations of Wi-Fi technology . As it says, "a typical 5GHz broadband connection can flow more than 10 times more data per second than its predecessor." (You can find out which certain devices are compatible with the new standard by checking this list .) Depending on how much you pay for your plan, true promises like that could save you some cash if your internet provider has a data cap .

However, take this with the grain of salt it is. So many things can interfere in Wi-Fi signals at varying degrees that even covering large buildings or urban areas might still result in just 42 Mbps for those connections. And remember to factor network quality and compression into your numbers as well (see ).

Wi-Fi 6 isn’t about top speeds

It may seem like Wi-Fi 6 is all about high speeds, but it’s not. It’s mostly a new way to use the existing technology to make connections faster — particularly in crowded areas with lots of users trying to connect at once. Wi-Fi 6 makes devices talk better with each other, which means you’ll spend less time stuck waiting for that slow connection and more time accessing the internet.

It also enables a bunch of technologies that let you change how your network operates. That includes things like packet prioritization, where every device talks over specific traffic streams, and link aggregation, where a group of devices can collectively talk faster than if you had them all connected individually.

These features will be part of your new router or modem no matter whether Wi-Fi 6 becomes available at the same time as it is ready for consumer use in 2019. Whether they’ll work right away or not depends on how well your ISP decides to upgrade their equipment too — but generally speaking both parties (ISPs and customers) will be happy with the results. Only a handful of initial devices will support Wi-Fi 6.

Current versions of the Apple AirPort Extreme Base Station, Airport Time Capsule and other products announced at WWDC who use the consistent 2.4 GHz frequency band are all ready to upgrade their technology soon.
There’s no current device that supports Wi-Fi 5 out yet in any significant numbers but there have been some early attempts to add it via software updates ( not available yet) but it’s not likely to work out so well.

2, 3 and 5 GHz bands Better broadband Wi-Fi is all in the frequencies used. The 2.4GHz frequency was originally developed for cordless phones where you naturally want 360 degree coverage of nearby rooms because people are supposed to be able talk wherever they are around a person’s voice or signal source (a phone). The 80211b standard was therefore specific to this purpose and had a limited range. As computers got cheaper, so did the ability of applications using these frequencies (as most home Wi-Fi routers do now) but even then it just wasn’t enough for broader coverage in homes especially with more people wanting fair access when everyone needs to be online simultaneously. 80211g addressed that by providing three different frequencies to choose from: 2,4 and 5 gigbit per second data transfer speed at the maximum bandwidth of 200 megabits per second. It’s an optional feature built into some 80211b devices but it also work on both these older systems as well and while they reduce performance a little, they still have sufficient range - that can be increased with further software tweaks (e.g later versions of Android typically increase available Wi-Fi channels to three or more), so despite the popularity of 2x2 systems in the Apple iPhone, most newer users may now find it a little restricted.

80211n (aka 802 11a) and b were later improvements to Wi-Fi that provided further speed potential but required 26 bit guiding channel transmission compared to older standards of only 16 bits over longer distances - with all modern devices requiring both these new waves alongside any earlier equipment set up with them. One drawback is each has its own frequency so they are exclusive choices. An interesting variant is a different version of 80211b, b1 which provides better transmission at 800000 KHz instead of only 200 Mhz and delays variations in data signals so they don't arrive out-of-phase with the wave itself - although having two channels to choose from means there's always some periodicity anyway (mainly around multiples of 600K). This method was used by many early cordless phones that were also used on early wireless telephony networks like the old analogue POTS lines in some homes so a single channel is easier to manage.

80211a operates at 80000000 Hz (25Mb per second) - slower than b2 but still above 2.4G, which can be rapid enough for most situations especially when combined with better software drivers and settings within modern devices or an already adaptable previous version of yours making it possible.

How do I get Wi-Fi 6?

You won't see Wi-Fi 6 in all new devices, but network equipment will be the first to catch up.

New routers and wireless access points — though not laptops or tablets powered by Windows 10 or Android 8 Oreo — should support Wi-Fi 6 . New laptops are likely to get the Wi-Fi 6 upgrade through a BIOS update from their hardware manufacturers, who already have products on shelves supporting “N”. Current Wi‑Fi products also work with “N” because it doesn't result in any incompatibility problems with older versions of the 802.11 specification.

You can look for “Wi-Fi CERTIFIED N” logos to identify products that are already Wi‑Fi 6 compatible. It's also worth noting that even products using the older, 802.11 n protocol can be guaranteed to work with one of these new standards, simply by updating their firmware over time in-box or through an online download.

The Wi‑Fi Alliance is working across a variety of technologies and markets — from consumer devices for gaming and streaming 4K video content, on up to connected enterprise devices managing complex Wi-Fi networks at scale — so you're likely to see Wi-Fi 6 referred to in other ways, too.

Increased Efficiency with OFDMA

4x Longer OFDM Pilot

5x Higher 802.11ac Max Data Rate: 433 Mbps
+ ~600mW Margin for Transmit Power Boost (with PMA) Standard 5 GHz SMPP/STA Mode without PMF Licensing Required as of Jan 1, 2013 No Final Device Tested Before Release Customers Prohibited Until Dec 31, 2014 Minimum Age Rule Excluded From Participation (as detailed on website) -Cannot participate unless their' wireless device and router are both under warranty at the time of purchase or update.

Speed is just one of the features we're most excited about at Wi‑Fi 6 launch, with 802.11ac's extra-high speed wireless throughput making its way into even older products that now have access to this new spec . To get across a 40 dB signal threshold, Wi‑Fi 6 will provide 4x the range and send data up to 5x faster. That means that devices like your new iPhone 8 are going to work even better when you move around the house; for example this was shown in one of our demos where we took an old nanoblock connected through its bluetooth link into another room , and next thing you know everyone can just walk around with an iPhone, watch streaming video and do their work documents as though there were no walls at all!

We are extremely excited about Wi-Fi 6 but it is now up to you – our long-time customers who have supported us during the 802.11ac adoption process by buying 802.11n products will be able to update or swap out those devices for new ones that can support this next generation of wireless performance in 2017 with little change in price. And even though 802.11ac is technically 5 years old, many of our customers have managed to get really good service in their spaces due to features like the pilot range extender and dynamic antenna allocation algorithms that mitigate some coverage issues traditionally seen with faster wireless speeds.. All these products are still available directly from Linksys or devices could be on sale at major retail chains right now via 3rd party reseller channels such as Best Buy, Amazon and more. In the US these products can be found at Cisco's retail stores, which should carry new devices as they arrive, in addition to other resellers that support this series as well like Ebuyer HERE you can find all of our top-tier recommendation for wireless routers right here.

Wi-Fi 6 also means better security

Security is a big deal for consumers, especially as we move more toward connected homes. Internet-connected operating systems, smart toilets and fridges may sound like the stuff of science fiction to some, but Wi-Fi 6 promises that all this will be possible in real terms by 2020.

Imagine no longer having to worry about an internet connection dropping out when you're presented with an unknown website – or even being able to stream without interruption once you've started.

Preventing things like email spam would also be a boon because it could help catch people who fraudulently claim they are sending something important that isn't, such as an unsolicited third-party medicine – or dangerous malware.

But don't get too excited yet; while Wi-Fi 6 is already being readied for use in mobile devices and on smartphones with Qualcomm's upcoming Mira chipset, it will still be some time before the technology production process catches up with the number of "things" out there connected to a router. (So things like smart fridges and even smart bulbs will be using a different protocol.)
Wi-Fi 6 also gives devices a bit more control of their security settings.

The basics are the same as Wi-Fi 5 set up, but also include things like: whether to allow apps to connect to the internet directly or not; what level of data encryption they require; and whether they can use features that one app might need.
This means that smartphones will be able to better control which apps have access to their location, as well as how they talk with other devices over an encrypted connection. It's worth noting again, though, that these controls aren't coming in until later.

Wi-Fi 6 can also improve battery life. AnandTech's John Poole tested this and concluded that the end results are impressive, with no noticeable slow down after using Wi-Fi for a long period of time.

How does it work? The hope is that once you've made your connection in a given area, the router will be able to signal nearby routers to stop sending out their signals. That way they don't hog up the radio spectrum and limit other devices' range (for example, by making them direct lines of sight). Note: This doesn't apply to devices in the background like a smart speaker and can be enabled to either improve or worsen battery life in some cases.

Major Wi-Fi chip makers (particularly Broadcom) say they're on track to deliver routers with support for the new protocol by 2019, so it will likely roll out from there. However things could get derailed if Intel tweak their chips to include similar functionality as well before then, which would make all future devices incompatible.

Thanks to an optional software interface, Wi-Fi 6 can also allow routers and other devices to reduce battery drain.
Called SyncTalk, this feature will automatically compensate for certain types of wireless signals that draw more energy from batteries than the signals they’re redirecting might be doing. For example, a router or device might redirect text messages from one user but not another. That last person might consume more power than it normally would because he’s sending his text messages at faster speeds through less capable networks around town. In these instances, SyncTalk could detect those cases and move
Another key improvement is a faster Wi-Fi 6 protocol that uses less power, and thus lasts longer.

A typical 802.11ac router uses 2 percent of the battery capacity after each hour of use, according to the Wi-Fi Alliance. That eats up about $500 a year in household utility bills for electricity to power router batteries, which currently last 1,000 hours (around 8 months), says Tom Moertel , president of Broadcom's wireless group . "We are now taking two extra years out [of] what those customers have paid." More than twice as much time longer than the current standard (1,000 hours) and half as long as an anticipated future 10 times more efficient standard.

The alliance has changed some other aspects of 802.11ac to improve efficiency further. The new protocol will use "block-sparse modulation," which spreads data across a configurable number of smaller channels in order for more transmissions over fewer radio frequencies, resulting in less interference and better throughput among devices within range without getting so close that signal waves bounce off each other and interfere. More standardization will help with the wide variety of different routers and types of devices that use 802.11ac, because they didn't need to be able to talk directly to another device's controller chip — one advantage over Li-ion batteries used in smaller products like smartphones.

If you read back and watch closely to what I said above, Wi-Fi 6 sounds like it’s all about the fastest speeds. And that’s true — to a point.
The first main feature is Category M support: that's 802.11ac in every way but one; its theoretical maximum speed is twice as high as 802.11ac's real-world speeds today and it has some other interesting features too, but they're mostly not relevant here (see our full coverage here). To get there from 802.11n, we'd need software support - both from the operating system and any hardware inside the device.

The second biggest feature is its higher transmission power (or "power spectral density" in terminology you're more likely to read) which means it can send a greater total amount of data over each individual radio resource at whatever speed it's transmitting at. That extra bandwidth will be useful; but for now we only have benchmarks that rate Wi-Fi 6 against IEEE 802.11ac, not relative to other existing technologies. It's not even clear what level of transmission power it'd require to match current theoretical 802.11ac maximum speeds - and as I mentioned above, there are also concerns that we may need a new upper limit on Wi-Fi transmissions besides the IEEE limits already being breached today due to RF interference issues like those discussed here .

As for "potentially intolerant of high speed", this doesn't mean anything in particular other than at the moment we don't have a test to show they break. It could mean that in the future their testing will reveal exactly what this means, but today it's just something of an embarrassment for Cisco and Qualcomm (who are partners on some Wi-Fi 6 technology) since both manufacturers already sell products with serious or medium speed security issues .

Why not just use 802.11ac?

It's all very well saying "we're going to support 802.11ac in the future, too!" but if it's going to be 802.11ax - or whatever higher-numbered version comes next - that we must wait for then you're still stuck with existing standards and so a significant difference is yet to come (ie: good). I would much rather have engineers spend their time working on new technology than trying to retrofit everything people already own .

As well as above regarding performance limits due to limit on signal strength, 802.11ac can also suffer problems with distance limits due to channel usage limiting maximum effective range. In fact it does this more effectively than older standard orders; but achieving max range for a particular PD is not trivial and complexity of current order schemes (Plus-Minus vs Non-Stratified) means there are much higher numbers of possible location positions across the whole spectrum that could be exactly one base station away from a client and therefore causing data corruption.
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There is a theoretical maximum range of 1km with 802.11ac, but we've yet to see this without sacrificing usability in an intentional way: I'm looking forward to seeing how engineers will tackle these limits in the fullness of time though!

What makes Wi-Fi 6 faster?

The Wi-Fi 6 standard is in part about giving each device the ability to send and receive data faster on top of that single 5Ghz connection. On a congested network with lots of devices using it, this becomes critical—the need for your smartphone or tablet to connect first can prevent the other devices from sending and receiving information until everyone has finished their activity.

That's why there will be standards for how much better those connections can work over time: Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) will let things such as sensors communicate now, even when you're offline; 802. 11e devices will get increased capacity to connect; and standardization of 5Ghz devices on their own channel might see the spectrum used more effectively.
Whatever the Wi-Fi 6 solution, making things work faster by going wider is an incredibly powerful approach!

Again, 802.11ac can perform up to double this data rate over 3x2Mb/s channels (up from 450Mbps); or downlink & uplink at 1.8x2Mb/s and 2.4 downlink & uplink at 1.7x3 Mb/s (2012 standards). We're used to seeing much lower numbers of these theoretically possible channel combinations with 802.11n: a maximum overlap rate in bad areas was 4% but this is reduced to 1–5%. A typical way such schemes can work is by using the handover feature, whereby one base station exchanges frames with a user's device(s) in order to arrange handover onto the less busy base station. However, this can also be used as a carrier sense mechanism by asking your router how much data it has received and telling you what channel (1–40MHz) is best to use!
As well as above regarding performance limits due to limit on signal strength, 802.11ac can also suffer problems with distance limits due to channel usage limiting maximum effective range. In fact it does this more effectively than older standard orders; but achieving max range for a particular PD is not trivial and complexity of current order schemes (Plus-Minus vs Non-Stratified) means there are much higher numbers of possible location positions across the whole spectrum that could be exactly one base station away from a client and therefore causing data corruption.
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There is a theoretical maximum range of 1km with 802.11ac, but we've yet to see this without sacrificing usability in an intentional way: I'm looking forward to seeing how engineers will tackle these limits in the fullness of time though!

What makes 5Ghz especially fast?

As well as providing more bandwidth per hop than 3x2Mb/s 802.11ac airwaves, 5Ghz is uncongested and so will have less noise. As the 802.11ac standard uses a 20MHz channel size (common in 3x2Mb/s Wi-Fi), that'd mean 11ax would use smaller channels which means it can operate at close to maximum speeds with less interference from other users' equipment as well! H.265 on the other hand utilises a slice of 40MHz between channels, so it obviously can't use more bandwidth than that… yet there are ways to fix its advantage over H.264 (which is less than 80% efficient).

Once 16-carrier modulation is achieved with 60GHz beamforming and LWF2M digital signal processing in 2018 or 2019 then you'll be able to transfer data 10x faster over tiny RF slices between channels than if it was transmitted over a 20MHz channel. This of course won't be in the next 5-10 years, but then 802.11ac isn't either! (With a chip selection like this one would stand little chance against Qualcomm for example!)