Coming next year is the next generation wireless standard. Faster than 802.11ac, it will provide better performance in areas that get congested – Whether that’s in a stadium full of thousands of people, or in your home full of various devices.
Wi-Fi Has Version Numbers Now
The terminology 802.11ac might not mean much to you, and we wouldn’t blame you for getting confused between the different versions. But not only will 2019 see the introduction of a new Wi-Fi, it will also see version numbers replacing these easily interchangeable ones.
So instead of 802.11ac you’ll have Wi-Fi 5. Much more user friendly!
The versions of Wi-Fi you’ll be seeing are:
802.11n will be Wi-Fi 4, released in 2009.
802.11ac will be Wi-Fi 5, released in 2014.
The new version, Wi-Fi 6, is due to be released in 2019 – It’s technical name will be 802.11ax.
Hopefully, these new version numbers will be seen in software so that it’s clear how new and fast the network you are connecting to is. The Wi-Fi Alliance (yes there is a Wi-Fi Alliance!) are encouraging this so you may start to see these numbers on your smartphone, laptop or tablet soon enough!
You’re pretty unlikely to come across the older versions of Wi-Fi nowadays as they are not widely in use, but if you were to officially brand them using the new version numbers they would be:
Wi-Fi 1 – 802.11b, (1999)
Wi-Fi 2 – 802.11a (1999)
Wi-Fi 3 – 802.11g (2003)
Faster Wi-Fi
Obviously, with each new Wi-Fi standard comes a faster connection and thus data transfer speed. So if you’re using Wi-Fi 6 instead of Wi-Fi 5, based on the use of a router with one deivce, you would be seeing a maximum speed increase of 40%.
This is done through more efficient data encoding which results in higher throughput. It’s the same radio waves but more data is being packed into it. The chips that encode and decode the signals can handle the extra work because they keep getting more powerful.
Generally, most Wi-Fi is on a 5GHz network as it gets less interference, but 2.4GHz is better at getting trough solid objects so it’s good to know the new standard will increase speeds on these networks too.
Longer Battery Life
Perhaps one of the most exciting new features, especially for those of us that constantly have a phone in one hand, is the new “target wake time” (TWT) feature.
Basically, the access point talks to your device (e.g. your smartphone) and tells it precisely when to wake up its Wi-Fi radio and when to put it to sleep, making sure it’s only ‘awake’ to receive the next transmission. A this will mean that the Wi-Fi radio can be in ‘asleep’ mode more, this then in turn conserves power and thus means that your smartphone, laptop, tablet and any other Wi-Fi enables device should have longer battery life.
Recently we keep coming back to the “Internet of Things” and this blog is no different – These typically low-powered devices that connect via Wi-Fi will also benefit from the TWT feature.
Better Performance in Crowded Areas
As I’m sure you are well aware, Wi-Fi tends to get clogged up when you’re in a busy place with everyone trying to use one of their Wi-FI enabled devices. Think stadium, hotel or even a busy office with employees each having multiple devices connecting to the Wi-Fi. The likelihood is that it will be running pretty slow.
Thankfully, this is something else that the new Wi-Fi 6 (or 802.11ax for the old schoolers), will help with, by incorporating new technologies. Intel are shouting from the rooftops about how each user’s average speed will improve by ‘at least 4 times’ in congested areas with loads of connected devices, with Wi-Fi 6.
Great in public places and perhaps even greater if you live in an apartment building, or even a home with lots of people and lots of devices.
But How Does Wi-Fi 6 Battle This Congestion?
Good question, that I bet you’re wondering. There are various features that make up “11ax,” now Wi-Fi 6, but to be honest you don’t really need to know all the ins and outs.
In simple terms: A new Wi-Fi 6 access point with a Wi-Fi 6 device is going to work better.
And here’s the technical bit: It all comes down to OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access). The new Wi-Fi 6 will be able to divide a wireless channel into a large number of subchannels, which can then each carry data intended for a different device. Basically, the Wi-Fi access point can talk to more devices at once.
Here comes another acronymn – The new riderless standard also has improved MIMO—Multiple In/Multiple Out. This allows the access point to talk to multiple devices at once using multiple antennas. While this is something Wi-Fi 5 could do, in that the access point was able to talk to devices at the same time, what it couldn’t do was allow those devices to respond at the same time. An improved version of multi-user or MU-MIMO that lets devices respond to the wireless access point at the same time is seen in Wi-Fi 6.
Another way it will improve performance in congested areas is ‘spatial frequency re-use’. Wireless access points may be transmitting on the same channel in close proximity to one another. Usually, the radio listens and waits for a clear signal before replying. With Wi-Fi 6, wireless access points near each other can be configured to have different Basic Service Set (BSS) “colors.” This “color” is just a number between 0 and 7. If a device is checking whether the channel is all clear and listens in, it may notice a transmission with a weak signal and a different “color.” It can then ignore this signal and transmit anyway without waiting.
What To Look For
I’m sure some of you are itching to know what to look for when it comes to buying a new device and how to make sure it is Wi-Fi 6 certified. Thankfully, you won’t need to be wracking your brain whether it’s 802.11ac or 802.11ax that you’re looking for. The device manufacturer can label it with the latest standard of by stating it has “Wi-Fi 6” or “Wi-Fi 5.”
Devices that have gone through the Wi-Fi Alliance’s certification process will also start to have a “Wi-Fi 6 Certified” logo which will be really helpful.
These Wi-Fi 6 routers should hopefully support WPA3 for easier secure connections to Wi-Fi networks, too, but WPA3 support is not required.
We’ve heard the what and the how, so when?
The final standard isn’t actually finished yet so even though there are manufacturers who have announced that their router, for example, will incorporate some Wi-Fi 6 technologies, they can’t supprot the final standard yet.
Similarly, you won’t yet find any Wi-Fi 6 client devices, either.
The Wi-Fi Alliance expects the standard to be finalized and hardware to be released sometime next year.
To be honest, it’s not something you really have to even think about. When it’s finalised, new routers, smartphones, laptops, tablets and other Wi-Fi enables devices will just have it built in as standard.
Just remember that as with any Wi-Fi technology, to gain the advantages of the latest generation both the sender and the receiver need to support it.
So it’s no good having a smartphone that supports Wi-Fi 6 if the router or access point it’s connected to doesn’t. Similarly, if you have a Wi-Fi 6 router, but your laptop only supports Wi-Fi 5 then it will only operate in Wi-Fi 5, but could operate in Wi-Fi 6 if your enabled smartphone was also connected.
Version Numbers are Great But Aren’t Mandatory
What we think is great is the change in version numbers. It’s just a lot simpler for all, and makes the world of Wi-Fi easier for ‘normal’ people to understand. Unfortunately, the Wi-Fi Alliance can’t force companies to use these new version numbers, but we’re hoping many will get on board and start using Wi-Fi 5 and Wi-Fi 6 to label their devices really soon.
With thanks to https://www.howtogeek.com/368332/wi-fi-6-what%E2%80%99s-different-and-why-it-matters/
