Infotect's Tech Expert Lenin explains what Wi-Fi 6 is!

 

As technology continues to evolve and improve, we are constantly presented with new standards, promising better securities and faster speeds, but what is truly driving these changes and conversations within the industry?

Wi-Fi 6 is the latest and greatest in wireless communications, advertised daily as “the Mesh Network”. There are many reasons why we lead and push for innovations when improving these wireless standards and each one does happen for a reason. The rise of IoT, or the Internet of Things, devices has drastically increased over the years and will continue to do so exponentially. As malicious hackers are constantly trying to find exploits in the source codes and software designed for these environments, there must be preventative measures that are put into place to prevent these attacks from occurring in the future.

What is Wi-Fi 6?

Wi-Fi 6, or more technically known in the industry as the IEEE 802.11ax standard, and more widely known in laymen terms as “The Mesh Network”. Wi-Fi 6 is the most recent succession of the Wi-Fi wireless networking protocol, based on IEEE standards. This new wireless technology is considered a significant upgrade over its wireless predecessors, “IEEE 802.11n [Wi-Fi 4] and IEEE 802.11ac [Wi-Fi 5]” (Sharma).

The Intel chart posted below, outlines the main differences between the most recent generations of wireless communication, over the last 10 years. On the Intel chart, you will notice important Wi-Fi generational information, ranging from the frequencies utilized for each standard, along with the capacities of each maximum link rate, more commonly known as the bandwidth speeds.

 

Why Wi-Fi 6?

Wi-Fi 6 claims to have faster speeds than previous Wi-Fi generations, and rightfully so. In our current era, this is important since there is a higher demand for streaming high-quality videos and/or online gaming. Compared to ten, or even five years ago, most homes today have more Wi-Fi enabled devices than ever before (smartphones, tablets, televisions, cameras, washers, dryers, vacuums, doorbells, refrigerators, septic systems, sprinkler systems, etc.… this list could go on forever), making the need, usage, security, and efficiency of wireless networks more and more crucial to our daily lives. The Wi-Fi 6 standard was built in response to the increase of devices at one point in time for one network, as well as to address the current security concerns with the previous standard.

 

Wi-Fi 6 Technologies

As previously mentioned, Wi-Fi 6 became possible due to many little changes added to the previous standard, that have allowed developers to create an even better wireless experience. Wi-Fi 6 is composed of the following technologies: OBSS (Overlapping Basic Service Sets), TWT (Target Wake Time), QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation), OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access), Beamforming, 8x8 Uplink/Downlink, and MU-MIMO (multi-user, multiple inputs, multiple outputs). To quickly simplify the terms above, a Wi-Fi 6 device can send different signals in the same transmission window, allowing it to have a “check and balance system” on Kunhardt, U98309684 7 various levels, creating a more efficient experience network-wide. Let’s dive into the technologies!

 

How Does it All Work?

Wi-Fi 6 uses both 1024-QAM and 160 MHz Channels to make it faster, compared to the 80 MHz channel utilized by the Wi-Fi 5 standard. By utilizing the 160 MHz channel, it easily doubles the channel width for the IEEE new standard, creating much faster connections from the router to any device connected to it. But Wi-Fi 6 has more benefits than just faster speeds (Wi-Fi 6 speed is about 25% faster compared to Wi-Fi 5). Wi-Fi 6 also suggests improvements in security. The new standard utilizes multiple technologies that make it great & bring it to the next level. The 8x8 uplink/downlink, MU[1]MIMO, OFDMA, TWT, QAM, and BSS Color technologies all combine to provide up to 4x larger capacity to previous max load capabilities and to handle more devices within a household. This means an individual can enjoy streaming movies, downloading games, and smart home devices- with zero to little buffering. Wi-Fi 6’s bigger bandwidth capabilities translate to much better upload and download speeds. This can be considered crucial due to the “higher demands of multi-player games, streaming high-quality video, video conferencing [with larger crowds, and also high-quality downloads]” (What Is Wi-Fi 6? Intel).

Beamforming is another factor that gives Wi-Fi 6 more bang for its buck to its number one mission to bring all its predecessors to shame… SPEED! Beamforming does exactly as it is named. It is “a technique that focuses [the] wireless signal towards a specific receiving device, rather than having the signal spread in all directions from a broadcast antenna” (Teckchandani). This allows the router to detect the location of the wireless device requesting the data & send that information directly to the device, instead of broadcasting it all in different directions, allowing for easier “wireless sniffing” techniques to be utilized.

Blog Written by

- Lenin Kunhardt, Systems Engineer, MCSA

Infotect Design Solutions has over 20 years of experience helping companies achieve their IT success and gaining peace of mind when dealing with technology. If you have more question or would like to hear about our Security Awareness training, please call us at (813)-630-2400 or email us at startfresh@infotectdesign.com

 
 
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