What is Wi-Fi 6E, how is it different from Wi-Fi 6, and do I need it?

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Our collective live More movies and TV shows than ever, playing more online games, making more video calls, all these activities are putting serious strain on our Wi-Fi networks.we know the latest Wi-Fi 6 standard Offers a range of benefits, including faster, more reliable access, but how does Wi-Fi 6E fit in?

“Wi-Fi 6E is the name for Wi-Fi 6 devices operating in the 6-GHz band, a new unlicensed spectrum that is Wi-Fi availability dates,” explained Kevin Robinson, the company’s senior vice president of marketing Wi-Fi Alliance.

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Wi-Fi 6E explained

So far, our Wi-Fi operates on two frequency bands: 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. The Wi-Fi 6 standard employs various features to increase the efficiency and data throughput of wireless networks and reduce latency in both frequency bands.

“Wi-Fi 6E extends the capacity, efficiency, range and performance benefits of Wi-Fi 6 to the 6 GHz band,” Robinson said. “With up to seven additional ultra-wide 160-MHz channels, Wi-Fi 6E devices deliver higher network performance and support more Wi-Fi users simultaneously, even in very dense and crowded environments. “

Each band is a frequency block. The 2.4 GHz band includes 11 channels, each 20 megahertz (MHz) wide. The 5-GHz band has 45 channels, but they can be fused to create 40-MHz or 80-MHz channels, allowing them to transmit more data at once. The 6-GHz band supports 60 channels up to 160 MHz wide.

That’s a huge extra capacity. Think of it as going from a single-track highway (2.4 GHz) to a three-lane highway (5 GHz) to a six-lane highway (6 GHz). The analogy also applies to reporting. Higher frequencies are more difficult to penetrate solid walls and floors, so monorail 2.4-GHz roads are further away than 5-GHz highways, which are further away than 6-GHz highways.

Rebranding Standard

Traditionally, Wi-Fi standards have been confusing. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) established Wi-Fi standards that are certified by the Wi-Fi Alliance, which currently has 866 member companies, including Apple, Facebook, Google, Intel, Microsoft, Qualcomm, Samsung, Sony, and more.

The Wi-Fi Alliance (rightly) realized that the standard called IEEE 802.11ax might be easier to grasp if it were rebranded as Wi-Fi 6. This move retroactively made the IEEE 802.11ac standard Wi-Fi 5, and IEEE 802.11 became Wi-Fi 5. Fi 4, and so on. Each of these standards is an umbrella term for a series of new features and improvements.

As an example, Wi-Fi 4 introduced MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) technology to allow multiple simultaneous transmissions between devices. The second wave of Wi-Fi 5 products introduced MU-MIMO, (MU stands for Multi-User), which enables multiple devices to connect simultaneously to send and receive data. Wi-Fi 6 improves on MU-MIMO and introduces OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access), enabling a single transmission to deliver data to multiple devices at once.

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