In today’s post we will talk about Wi-Fi 6 and
why is this important because,
eventually you will be using Wi-Fi 6 and we are
already seeing some new devices having Wi-Fi 6 but before we talk about Wi-Fi 6
let's talk about the Wi-Fi that we have these days.
For example most of us now have dual band devices
for eg the Wi-Fi AC that's the five gigahertz band generally used for faster
connection
Now the Wi-Fi certification agency has renamed the
Wi-Fi AC to Wi-Fi five and
the Wi-Fi AX which is the new one, they have
named it to 6 and yes it makes it very simple.
The older Wi-Fi that we still use is not
technically WiFi AC or 5.
If you have noticed, we were using Wi-Fi N and
moving to the Wi-Fi AC was very fast but I said you know that the Wi-Fi AC is
actually pretty old.
It was announced in 2013 and we started getting
devices later on
I've been using Wi-Fi AC from 2015 onwards but
now we are going to get the latest upgrade.
Less Lag
Already we have the Wi-Fi 6 routers available in
the market, but let me talk about why this Wi-Fi 6 is important and what are
some of the changes that we can expect and the big thing is that currently if
you have Wi-Fi 5 and you have a lot of devices for example, on my network we
generally have anywhere around 20 to 25 connected devices at once because you
don't realize these days so many devices are connected for example My camera has
Wi-Fi, My watch has Wi-Fi, Laptop has Wi-Fi of course. Multiple small
devices,there are verified tablets Alexa, Google Home, TV as you can see now we
have a lot more devices that are actually connecting to our router and actually
after a certain point you know a router simply is not able to handle stuff and
hence things slow down.
This happens even on very high end devices and yes
happens a lot more on the budget range and according to the upgrade
specifications, now the Wi-Fi 6 will technically handle a lot more devices and
it will be also faster in communication for example, if you don't know, the
older Wi-Fi, let's say if you have four devices then this is how it used to
actually work it used to give a connection to First Device and then go to
Second and then go to third one and then goes to the fourth one as you can see
it takes a lot of time and that lag is obvious.
Fortunately we started seeing mobile Wi-Fi AC and
stuff and things improved but still you know even the highest end Wi-Fi AC
routers they were limited to just four devices so that means the router can
only communicate simultaneously to just about four devices continuously.
In the Wi-Fi 6 this has been increased it
supports upto eight devices.
So that means it can communicate simultaneously
to a lot more devices hence the lag that you see sometimes when multiple
devices are connected should not happen or it should happen a lot less with the
Wi-Fi signal
Multiple Device Connection
Another thing is that it also has both of DMA and
to give you an idea this will help the router to actually manage the Wi-Fi is
subdivided with channels.
It can divide it much better and plan the traffic
a lot better that way it can handle a lot more devices compared to the current
Wi-Fi 5. So theoretically the Wi-Fi 6 routers will be able to handle a lot more
devices simultaneously compared to the older one
Increased Speed
Apart from this we also see improvements in the
speed.
For example let's talk about the theoretical
speed and I'm going to talk about Wi-Fi 5 that is Wi-Fi AC.
Theoretically the flat seven speed on that was
about 3.5 gigabytes, we'd never get this speed.
But now with the Wi-Fi 6, the theoretical maximum
speed is about 9.6 GBPS and so thats more than double so if you're running
simultaneously a lot of devices, for example you're playing on Xbox, you're downloading
some stuff with laptop, you're streaming some stuff and it all will be a lot
better with Wi-Fi 6.
Compatibility
This Wi-Fi 6 is new, so you need a new router for
that as well as the devices that you have should support Wi-Fi 6 but the good
thing is that Wi-Fi 6 is backward compatible with all the existing Wi-Fi for
example if you buy a new Wi-Fi 6 router it will work perfectly with your
existing Wi-Fi N or the Wi-Fi AC equipment that you have in your house
So you don't have to worry about it, it's always
backward compatible.
Specifications
I know, all of us love some stats,
So the new Wi-Fi 6 routers will be about 37 %
faster compared to the old and also they will have improved range as well as they
will get better battery life.
Also with the new Wi-Fi 6 WPA3 is actually
mandatory, you know currently the security standard that you use for current
WiFi is WPA2, yes some of the new Wi-Fi AC routers also support WPA 3 but with
WiFi 6 it will be 100% so it will also increase the security of your network
WiFi 6E
Now there is this new thing just announced ,that
is the Wi-Fi 6E, so what does this E stands for?
E stands for Enhanced, very rough idea about this
for example is if we know the Wi-Fi N used to run on 2.4 gigahertz and the
Wi-Fi AC use the 5 gigahertz band
Now with this Wi-Fi 6E that is enhanced by adding
the 6 gigahertz option, so now you have way more bandwidth so in future the
devices that will have Wi-Fi 6E can also use the new 6 gigahertz standard.
Now again we won't find every device supporting
that, but some of the higher-end devices will have that so that's the big
difference between the Wi-Fi AC that you're using and the WiFi 6.
Conclusion
Currently you don't have any routers with the
Wi-Fi 6E but already we are seeing a lot of equipment with Wi-Fi 6. Routers are
already available in the market.
If you are buying something new high-end and you
will be using it for the next couple of years check if that supports Wi-Fi 6
because the Wi-Fi 6 is going to be there everywhere and once you have that your
Internet connectivity that you have will be a lot better and stable.
Personally for me, I am currently using Google
home and it's just Wi-Fi AC that's Wi-Fi 5.
So I will wait for some time before upgrading to
the Wi-Fi 6
Although currently my router and some of the smart phones do support Wi-Fi 6 but I'll wait for about end of this year and see and then only move to new router. But again for you, my advice will be, if you are thinking of buying some new stuff, new electronic gadgets, particularly the higher-end. Then check if it does support WiFi 6 because this is going to be broadly very important in the next couple of years.
So that was all for todays post, Hope you guys
found it helpful and informative. Thanks for reading and do connect with us on
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