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The next generation of Wi-Fi is here. Just like mobile data has advanced from 3G, through to 4G and now 5G, Wi-Fi has evolved, pushing the technology into a new ultra-fast, backwards-compatible realm of greater reliability and capacity. Thankfully, for simplicity’s sake, the technical name of 802.11ax has undergone a rebrand, with the latest generation now known as Wi-Fi 6.
The basic principles haven’t changed. Simply put, Wi-Fi 6 will connect you to the Internet, but it’s now faster and more efficient than ever before. This is great news given that faster internet is constantly growing in demand as more and more smart devices seek to consume vital bandwidth. But it’s not just the immediate speed that Wi-Fi 6 has advanced because it also offers a future-proofing upgrade designed to maintain this speed for years to come.
GTT Wireless has embraced this generational leap forward in technology and now offers an expanded range of IP67 antenna, including support for Wi-Fi 6.
Released in 2019, Wi-Fi 6 has a frequency of 2.4/5 GHz and a maximum link rate of 600-9608 Mbit/s. Yet its most impressive feature may be its speed of 9.6 Gbps. That’s a huge increase from 3.5 Gbps on the previous generation, Wi-Fi 5. Wi-Fi 6 also doubles the channel width of the Wi-Fi band, going from 80MHz to 160MHz, ensuring a faster connection from your router to the device.
This huge increase in the theoretical speed limit is important because it doesn’t necessarily have to go to a single computer and instead can be dispatched across a vast network of connected devices. Wi-Fi 6’s strength lies in upgrading the overall network when a cluster of devices are connected, boosting the speed and reducing congestion. It promises quality connectivity in high traffic locations with hundreds or even thousands of connected devices, ensuring each and every one performs at an optimum level, making it a great choice for many environments, including the Internet of Things (IoT).
Data traffic is constantly growing as more and more devices demand bandwidth. Upon the release of Wi-Fi 5, the average household had five Wi-Fi devices in it. By 2020 the number had doubled to ten. This is predicted to grow to the point where there’ll be three times the number of connected devices on Earth than humans in just 2023. This will take a toll on networks which will slow with each added device. But while Wi-Fi 5 routers may be overwhelmed by the requests of a multitude of devices, Wi-Fi 6 technology is designed to effectively maintain speeds on hectic networks. In fact, it has up to 4 times greater capacity for more devices.
So just how does Wi-Fi 6 do it? Well, the latest generation of wireless technology utilises several new technologies to conclusively solve any issues that may arise with placing many devices on a single network. They allow more devices to communicate with routers at the same time, let routers utilise the same broadcast to send data to multiple devices, and allows devices to schedule check-ins with the routers. All of this ensures a strong connection even as more devices are added to the network.
One such utilised technology is OFDMA, which stands for ‘orthogonal frequency division multiple access.’ This allows the router to get more out of every transmission it sends to a device because a single transmission can now deliver data to several devices at the same time. In high demand situations this will lower latency and increase the efficiency of the network for both uplink and downlink traffic. The longer OFDM symbol of Wi-Fi 6 makes it 11% faster than Wi-Fi 5 and offers greater coverage.
Wi-Fi 6 also employs ‘multi-user, multiple input, multiple output’ – or MU-MIMO – which is already in use in some routers and devices but this is an improved version of it. This technology lets a router communicate with a multitude of devices at the same time instead of sending data to one device, and then another, and then another. With Wi-Fi 5, MU-MIMO allows communication between four devices and a router at a time. Wi-Fi 6 doubles this to eight, making latency issues a thing of the past.
Target Wake Time (TWT) revolutionises power efficiency for Wi-Fi devices by allowing routers to schedule check-in times with devices. This ability to plan out communications with devices reduces the time antennas need to be powered on for to search for and transmit signals. This places less strain on batteries and therefore improves battery life. This also greatly improves low-power ‘Internet of Things’ devices that connect using Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi 6 also utilises Base Service Station (BSS) Colour, which marks frames from other nearby networks so your router can ignore them, ensuring less signal interference.
Beamforming may not be new to Wi-Fi 6 but the generational leap has improved its efficacy and allows for higher speeds. It’s a data transmission method where, instead of sending data in all directions, the router is able to detect the location of the device requesting data and transmit a much more localised data stream in that specific direction.
The Dragonfly Key Exchange, also known as Simultaneous Authentication of Equals (SAE), offers a big improvement for password security for Wi-Fi 6. It’s a method of authentication that helps make passwords harder to crack by using a more advanced way to establish a handshake with the Wi-Fi network. It’s the strongest security option for Wi-Fi yet by pairing this extra blanket of security with a more secure encryption.
By utilising these technological advances, Wi-Fi 6 marks the biggest generational shift in the vital technology yet. With its high standards of speed, connectivity, reliability, interoperability, security, and low battery consumption, Wi-Fi 6 proves itself a necessity in a data-demanding world growing at an exponential rate.
By staying at the forefront of technological advances, GTT Wireless has expanded their range of IP67 NEMA6 antenna to accommodate this exciting development in Wi-Fi 6, putting us in perfect position to support customers with the latest products and technology.
For more information on GTT Wireless outdoor antenna and enclosure solutions, and how your business and customers can benefit, give us a call today on 01572 338011
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