The Wi-Fi Alliance is the organization responsible for standardizing all Wi-Fi network protocols, promoting Wi-Fi technology and certifying all products that manufacturers launch to the market, whether routers, repeaters, Wi-Fi network cards etc. The Wi-Fi Alliance has announced the new Wi-Fi 6E standard , which basically what this standard does is identify the products that can work in the 6GHz band . We tell you all the details below.
The 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequency band we currently have
Currently in Wi-Fi wireless networks with the Wi-Fi 6 standard, we can use both the typical 2.4GHz band that we have been using for years, as well as the 5GHz band , both the “low” channels that are in the range of 5.1-5.3GHz, as well as the “high” channels found at approximately 5.5GHz-5.7GHz.
In the 2.4GHz band we cannot achieve a high speed since we have very few channels available, in addition, wireless networks interfere with each other much easier, because the signal is not attenuated as much with obstacles as it does with the band of 5GHz In the 5GHz band we have more channels , which will allow us to use larger channel widths, and therefore provide a higher real wireless speed.
In the following graphic, you can see how we can use a total of two Wi-Fi networks with 160MHz channel widths each without interfering with each other, one of them is on the UNII-1 and UNII-2 channels, and the other is in the Extended UNII-2. Thanks to the possibility of using such wide channel widths, with Wi-Fi 6 (Wi-Fi AX) we can achieve speeds of up to 4,804Mbps with four antennas in MU-MIMO 4T4R configuration.
The new frequency band at 6GHz
The Wi-Fi Alliance has announced the new Wi-Fi 6E standard that will indicate to users that a certain product is compatible with the new 6GHz frequency band. This frequency band is also without a license, and will soon be available to regulators around the world, once this happens, devices with Wi-Fi 6E will be able to use this additional frequency band to improve wireless performance, since Not only can we have two “nearby” Wi-Fi networks with 160MHz of channel width without interfering, but many more.
Once the 6GHz band is available, the first devices (routers, access points and smartphones) will be available very soon, followed by the typical access points oriented to the professional market. Thanks to this new frequency band in 6GHz, and the possibility of using large channel widths, we can use augmented reality and virtual reality through the Wi-Fi wireless network itself, since these contents demand a large bandwidth.
This new Wi-Fi 6E certification is still an “advertisement” for consumers, since seeing the Wi-Fi Alliance’s own seal, they will know that a specific device is compatible with that frequency band, but what Which is the standard in itself is still the popular Wi-Fi 6 (Wi-Fi AX).
New Wi-Fi channels in the 6GHz band
This new frequency band addresses the shortage of the Wi-Fi spectrum we had so far. It provides contiguous spectrum blocks to have up to 14 additional channels of 80MHz channel width, and a total of 7 additional channels of 160MHz channel width.
Thanks to this, we will have less interference with neighboring networks that overlap with ours, and, in addition, the most important thing is that it will allow us to configure our router with 160MHz of channel width to achieve twice the speed without doubling the number of antennas, something ideal to achieve high Wi-Fi speeds in smartphones, which usually have only two internal antennas due to the size of the devices.
Advantages of the new Wi-Fi 6E standard
The advantage of the new Wi-Fi 6E standard is that it will allow us to have additional channels, especially the additional 7 channels of 160MHz channel width is the most important feature. If you are going to stream content in 4K resolution with a high bitrate, or use augmented reality or virtual reality, having this channel width will be essential for the user experience to be optimal.
Soon we will begin to see new equipment (routers, APs, Wi-Fi cards) that are compatible with this new standard, that is, they can broadcast in the 6GHz band to take advantage of these new channels.
