Improved network capacity and coverage among Wi-Fi 6 benefits
Built in response to the ever-growing number of connected devices worldwide, Wi-Fi 6, the next generation of Wi-Fi technology, offers more than just improved speed.
Based on the IEEE 802.11ax standard, the latest Wi-Fi iteration was designed to improve capacity, coverage and performance of connected devices, even in challenging environments like stadiums and transportation hubs, which are often burdened by hundreds or thousands of connected devices at one time.
This new capability will benefit consumers, as well as carries and public Wi-Fi operators, and Wi-Fi 6 devices will enhance performance for a variety of users, from individuals or families with smart homes to businesses that are running large-scale, mission critical applications.
Additional key benefits, according to The Wi-Fi Alliance, include higher data rates and “multi-user multiple input, multiple output (MU-MIMO), which allows more data to be transferred at one time, enabling access points (APs) to handle larger numbers of devices simultaneously.”
Another exciting feature of Wi-Fi 6 devices is target wake time (TWT), which allows devices to negotiate when and how often to ‘wake up’ to send or receive data, significantly improving battery life in Wi-Fi devices by increasing the time a device spends asleep. IoT clients could potentially sleep for hours, even days, at a time to dramatically conserve battery life.
While speed is only a fragment of what Wi-Fi 6 has to offer, the 6.1 Gbps increase from Wi-Fi 5 is nothing to scoff at. The 9.6 Gbps speed is more of a theoretical maximum that a user is unlikely to reach; however, that 9.6 Gbps doesn’t have to go to a single device, but can instead be split up across a whole network of devices, resulting in more speed for each device on the network.
Wi-Fi 6 has been gaining momentum is the last few months with Boingo launching a commercial trial and The United States Golf Association (USGA) and Cisco’s joint venture to supply access across the entire course during last month’s championship.
