Wi-Fi 6

Wi-Fi experiences a seismic change in performance and capabilities approximately every five years-and Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) is the latest generation of Wi-Fi.

With Wi-Fi synonymous with connectivity, consumers expect and seek out the best Wi-Fi wherever they are. Wi-Fi 6 has the bandwidth, capacity and capabilities to support the ever-expanding requirements of mobile connectivity:

Ideal for crowded environments with multiple simultaneous users or devices demanding instant immersive connectivity-and necessary for service providers seeking to support higher service-level agreements (SLAs) with more diverse usage profiles.

• Faster network performance-up to four times faster than 802.11.ac
• Greater capacity-for simultaneous support of users and IoT
• Reliability-transitions Wi-Fi from a "best-effort" endeavor to a deterministic wireless technology.
• Enhanced features-power saving

Ideal for crowded environments with multiple simultaneous users or devices demanding instant immersive connectivity-and necessary for service providers seeking to support higher service-level agreements (SLAs) with more diverse usage profiles.

Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6™

Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6™ is an industry certification program designed to ensure Wi-Fi interoperability based on the latest Wi-Fi standard-Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax). Devices are validated against a new set of features that support a range of technical enhancements to optimize spectral efficiency, increase throughput and reduce power consumption. Some of the enhancements related to the Wi-Fi 6 standard include:

OFDMA

Orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) and multi-user multiple-in multiple-out (MU-MIMO) are techniques that increase reliability and efficiency in the unlicensed Wi-Fi spectrum. In contrast to previous generations of Wi-Fi, OFDMA allows Wi-Fi performance to be more deterministic, as devices consistently receive more attention with minimal contention. This helps stabilize Wi-Fi performance, especially in higher density environments.

Uplink OFDMA

Uplink-OFDMA reduces collisions and overhead, and also increases the range of Wi-Fi networks. This is because it solves the problem of asymmetry. Access points (APs) transmit signals farther than mobile devices, meaning AP signals can reach devices but device signals cannot reach APs. Uplink-OFDMA can use narrower channels to transmit farther, thus reducing the problem of asymmetry-which is critical in outdoor environments.

1024-QAM

Wi-Fi 6's 1024-QAM constellation (in contrast to 256-QAM for 802.11ac)-in combination with other Wi-Fi 6 techniques-results in a quadrupling of the data rate versus the previous generation of Wi-Fi.

Target wake time

First introduced in the IEEE 802.11ah standard, target wake time (TWT) enables scheduled sleep and power-on (awake) times, along with pre-negotiated wake times between AP and clients, to enhance the battery life of client devices.