Wi-Fi 6E brings the benefits of 6 GHz spectrum to consumers, device manufacturers, and service providers as the band is made available around the world. Wi-Fi Alliance certification helps ensure users received a secure, reliable, and interoperable experience with Wi-Fi 6E devices.
When compared to both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi operation in 6 GHz will deliver faster connectivity speeds and improved capacity.
Following the decision by the U.S. Federal Communication Commission to open 1,200 MHz of 6 GHz spectrum for Wi-Fi use, other countries including the UK, Europe, Chile, and South Korea have also approved or are planning to make 6 GHz available for Wi-Fi. Other countries including Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Peru, Taiwan, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Myanmar, and Jordan are initiating efforts to open 6 GHz for unlicensed operation.
Multiple product vendors are already announcing Wi-Fi 6E devices that make use of superwide 160 MHz channels and uncongested bandwidth in 6 GHz to deliver multigigabit, low latency Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi Certified provides a standards-based approach for product vendors to introduce secure and interoperable Wi-Fi 6E products in different geographies.
“Wi-Fi 6E will see rapid adoption in 2021 with more than 338 million devices entering the market, and nearly 30 percent of all Wi-Fi 6 device shipments supporting 6 GHz by 2022,” said Phil Solis, research director at IDC. “This year, we expect to see new Wi-Fi 6E chipsets from several companies, and a variety of new Wi-Fi 6E smartphones, PCs, and laptops in the first quarter of 2021 followed by TVs and VR product announcements midyear.”
Wi-Fi 6E certification requires WPA3 security that continually evolves to address market needs. WPA3 has recently been updated to support more robust password generation, mitigate additional attacks, and further protect and maintain privacy on Wi-Fi networks.
Wi-Fi 6E extends into the 6 GHz band the capabilities of Wi-Fi Certified 6, including orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA), target wake time (TWT), and multi-user multiple input, multiple output (MU-MIMO). These features all benefit from the additional 6 GHz spectrum capacity and the availability of up to seven superwide 160 MHz channels to move more data and deliver high-bandwidth Wi-Fi 6E applications including unified communications, AR/VR, and holographic video.
Wi-Fi 6E delivers lower latency to satisfy industrial IoT and enterprise environment requirements. Wi-Fi 6E brings additional capacity, speed, and latency for critical activities such as telecommuting, telepresence, and distance learning.
