6GHz Spectrum Is Open to Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi 6 Will Boost

As Federal Communications Commission decided to open the 6GHz spectrum, 6GHz band will be introduced into Wi-Fi applications; there will be enough spectrums to deploy 80MHz and 160MHz channels for high-throughput and non-congestion network access. Data from Dell’Oro shows shipments of Wi-Fi 6 chips accounted for 10 % of total shipments in 2019 and will reach about 90% by 2023. With the extensive deployment of 5G, Wi-Fi 6 is expected to be rapidly popularized in the next 2-3 years.

Compared with previous generations of Wi-Fi, the transmission speed of Wi-Fi 6 has been greatly improved, which is 827 times higher than Wi-Fi 1. The 6GHz spectrum enables Wi-Fi 6 to implement 59 20MHz channels, 29 40MHz channels, 14 80MHz channels and 7 160MHz channels. With the TWT technique, the wireless router only starts to connect when it receives a transmission command, so terminal power consumption can be reduced by more than 30%, and endurance is also expected to be extended.

Wi-Fi hotspots are increasingly being used in places such as shopping malls, stadiums and transport hubs. With the opening of the 6GHz spectrum and the extensive deployment of 5G networks, Wi-Fi is also promising in smart homes, smart TVs and vehicle-mounted devices. Currently, car manufacturers have explicitly required applying the Wi-Fi 6 standard to cars to reduce the use of wiring harnesses.

Wi-Fi 6 and 5G complement each other. Wi-Fi 6 is suitable for indoor use while 5G is suitable for outdoor use. 5G requires high investment in earlier stages, so it is difficult to achieve wide and complete coverage in a short time. As a cost-effective solution, Wi-Fi 6 can make up for such problems as poor penetration, low coverage, high power consumption in the indoor use of 5G.

On the other hand, Wi-Fi 6 provides a 5G-like indoor platform. It will stimulate the development of smart cities, Internet of Things, VR/AR and other applications, and help the development of smart cities.

As a result, apart from the 5G module series, SIMCom has launched a high-performance low-power Wi-Fi 6 module W80, to develop 5G+Wi-Fi 6 scenarios.

W80 has the following features:

A. Support Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) features and technical features;

B. Compatible with previous versions of IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac;

C. Support low-power remote Bluetooth;

D. Transmission speed is up to 1.775 Gbps;

E. Small size: 24*17mm;

F. Low power consumption

As a short-range wireless connection technology with mature security and stability, Wi-Fi 6 provides a solution for the Internet of Things in security, capacity, latency, power saving and other aspects. In the future, with the explosion of 5G-supported Internet of Things, driven by technologies such as smart phones, wearable devices, smart homes, smart cars and AR/VR devices, Wi-Fi 6 will penetrate the market forcefully.

For more info, please visit the official website of SIMCom: www.simcom.com.