Wireless Technology has covers a long journey. Its started from Traditional Wireless standard called 801.11 and then reached to their multiple destination like 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac. These every standards have advance feature incorporated to Security, reachability or user experience. But with the increasing of WiFi demand and Usage of Internet these standards are not meeting the user requirements. So there are another version or standard introduced of Wireless called WFI-6 or 802.11.ax.
What is Wi-Fi 6
The Wi-Fi Alliance fully ratified Wi-Fi 6 in 2020. It is also called IEEE 802.11ax standard. it is 6th Generation and It builds the Wi-Fi past generations like 802.11ac very strong and increase strength while adding flexibility and scalability. IEEE 802.11ax provide fast Speed, Security, more feature which we will discuss in this blog.
Wi-Fi 6 works with both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz, which are the current standard frequencies. It can also work with 1GHz and 6GHz bands. Wi-Fi 6 will offer Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) rather than Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM).
Why Wi-Fi 6 required
Wi-Fi 6 was required to address the fast growing requirement for speed & reliable wireless connectivity with advanced security basis of increasing the Wi-Fi users. Wi-Fi 5 (also known as 802.11ac) was invented in 2013 and outdated as per today requirement.
One of the major requirements to invent Wi-Fi 6 to address the network congestion issues. WI-FI 6 MU-MIMO (Multi-User Multiple Input Multiple Output) that allows multiple users/devices to transmit and receive data at the same time which helps to reduce network congestion, delay and improving overall network performance.
Another requirement is to growing demand for high-bandwidth for some applications such as streaming video and gaming. Wi-Fi 6 can achieve speeds of up to 9.6 Gbps, almost three times faster than WiFi-5.
WI-FI user was having Battery drainage issue with WI-FI devices during WI-FI roaming or using wireless Network. Wi-Fi 6 has a feature to address this issue. WI-FI 6 uses a technology called Target Wake Time (TWT) that enables devices to communicate with the network only when necessary.
Why WIFi-6 is Faster
As we know how Technology is growing and everybody wants speed and expecting to complete a thing faster. Initially we studied that Wi-Fi is not reliable network for live streaming applications, but now a day everybody has mobile handset, Tablets, Laptop etc, and do not want to stick with PC with Cable. So, in that case Wi-Fi has to be upgraded for fast services.
So, Wifi-6 has 9.6 Gbps. That’s up from 3.5 Gbps on WiFi-5.
WIFI-6 introduced new technologies like, MU-MIMO, OFDMA, OBSS, Beamforming which makes WIFI-6 faster.
MU-MIMO
Multi User-Multiple input multiple output employs the concept of multiple simultaneous signals to provide independent channels for each user. MU-MIMO works along with OFDMA to help enable a significant increase in capacity with the ability to support more devices. With this technology multiple users can communicate at same time with multiple antennas. Earlier only can device can communicate at a time. It provides user a fast Wi-Fi Speed and also improved performance.
OFDMA
Orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA)used in WIFI-6. OFDMA multiplexes multiple users on the same channel at the same time, increasing network efficiency and reliability while providing lower latency for both uplink and downlink traffic. Means, multiple users to simultaneously transmit data over the same frequency band by dividing the frequency band into multiple sub-carriers. Each sub-carrier is then assigned to a different user or device, which can transmit data simultaneously without interfering with each other WIFI-5 was using OFDM.
Difference between OFDM and OFDMA
Purpose: OFDM is a modulation technique to transmit data over a wireless channel by dividing the frequency band into multiple sub-carriers.
But, OFDMA is a multiple access scheme that builds upon OFDM by allowing multiple users to simultaneously access the same frequency band.
Multiple Access: OFDM does not support multiple access, so only one user can transmit data at a time.
But, OFDMA supports multiple access, So, multiple users can transmit data simultaneously over the same frequency band.
Efficiency: OFDM is less efficient and lower overall throughput.
But, OFDMA is more efficient and higher overall throughput.
Use Cases: OFDM is used Wi-Fi, Digital TV broadcasting, and 4G LTE.
But, OFDMA is used Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) and 5G cellular networks.
Interference: OFDM can cause interference from other devices transmitting on the same frequency band.
But, OFDMA can reduces interference by allowing to use different sub-carriers.
Overlapping Basic Service Sets (OBSS)
WIFI-6 offers an important feature for co-channel-interference (CCI) mitigation via Basic Service Set (BSS) colour techniques. By these techniques technical team dynamically report received signal strength indication (RSSI) of Overlapping BSS (OBSS) interference. This reporting allows organizations to see where the interference originates and better diagnose performance issues.
OBSS help to identify rouge AP Interference from your neighbours’ wireless networks by mark them with Color, so that your router can ignore them which is really helps to identify, troubleshoot and ignore rouge APs and Single interference.
Beamforming
Standard Wi-Fi routers broadcast a wireless signal in all directions. Beamforming enables more direct targeting of specific devices, resulting in potentially faster connection speeds.
Key Features of WI-FI 6
1024 QAM (Faster than 256-QAM): It is modulation technique which help to transmit digital signal over Radio Frequency Channels. It uses 1024 different amplitude and phase combinations With WIFI-6 denser modulation using 1024 quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) which adds two more bits per symbol as well as increased tone density and results in a speed burst of more than 35 percent. With 1024-QAM, each symbol carries 10 bits rather than 8 bits.
Battery Life with TWT: Target wake time (TWT)is a feature which help to increase Wi-FiMobile and IOT devices battery Life by reducing less Power consumption during non-transmitting time. TWT helps devices conserve battery power by coordinating sleep cycles with the local access point. So instead of connecting multiple times a minute, the devices can be set to wake and transmit less frequently and still maintain a connection when needed.
Wi-Fi Protected Access 3 (WPA3): It is available in Wi-Fi 6 and is mandatory for Wi-Fi 6E. WPA3 requires Protected Management Frames (PMF) negotiation which is an additional layer of protection from de-authentication and disassociation attacks. WPA3 is a improved version of WPA2 including authentication, encryption, and network protection.
160 MHz Channel Width: WIFI-6 (802.11ax) provide a wider channel bandwidth of 160MHz which is double in size from 802.11ac (WIFI-5). In 802.11ac it was 80MHz. But as with WIFI-6 we get high speed and using wider channel provide means there are fewer channel available which can cause interference and congestion. So to mitigate this WIFI-6 uses OFDMA and MU-MIMO technology.
Key Benefits of Wi-Fi 6
Faster speeds: Wi-Fi 6 can deliver speeds up to 9.6 Gbps as compare to 802.11ac.
Better performance: Wi-Fi 6 uses a feature called Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) that enables multiple devices to simultaneously connect to the network.
Improved power efficiency: Wi-Fi 6 uses a feature called Target Wake Time (TWT) which improve device battery life by allows devices to conserve power by scheduling when they communicate with the router.
Increased range: Wi-Fi 6 uses a feature called Basic Service Set (BSS) Colouring that reduces interference from neighbouring Wi-Fi networks.
Enhanced security: Wi-Fi 6 includes several new security features, including WPA3 encryption and Protected Management Frames (PMF)
support of IoT and mobile devices: IOT devices, VR and OT environment requires high speed and performance over WI-FI and WI-FI 6 is perfect for them.
8X8 spatial streams: Wi-Fi 6 router capable of 8×8 spatial streams mean one can service more devices simultaneously and achieve more general efficiency.
Conclusion
Overall, Wi-Fi 6 is a wireless technology which really going to change the wireless network Behaviour. Before Wi-Fi 6, we are considering WI-FI as not reliable, slow, congested and un-secured, but now with Wi-Fi 6 we are introduced with new technologies like OFDMA, TWT, OBSS, 1024-QAM, WPA3 etc.
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FAQ
Q: What is WI-FI 6?
A: The Wi-Fi Alliance fully ratified Wi-Fi 6 in 2020. It is also called IEEE 802.11ax standard. it is 6th Generation and It builds the Wi-Fi past generations like 802.11ac very strong and increase strength while adding flexibility and scalability. IEEE 802.11ax provide fast Speed, Security, more feature which we will discuss in this blog.
Wi-Fi 6 works with both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz, which are the current standard frequencies. It can also work with 1GHz and 6GHz bands. Wi-Fi 6 will offer Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) rather than Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM)
Q: How much speed WI-FI can deliver?
A: WIFI-6 can deliver up to 9.6 Gbps.
Q: Can we use WIFI-6 on any device?
A: No, we need WIFI-6 compatible Mobile, Laptop and other Wi-Fi devices.
Q: How WIFI-6 save power and increase battery Life?
A: WIFI-6 has a feature called Target Wake Time (TWT) which help to save power and battery life of device by scheduling the time of communication or syncing with router.
Q: Which authentication protocol used by Wi-Fi 6
A: WIFI-6 use WPA-3 which is more secure than WPA-2 as WPA 3 works with PMF.
