The Wi-Fi Alliance has announced that Wi-Fi 6E - support for Wi-Fi operation in the 6 GHz band - is gathering momentum, with the new spectrum satisfying growing demand for higher-bandwidth services and more immersive experiences.
Since its introduction in 2021, Wi-Fi 6E has gained traction as the de-facto industry standard in products, and in the healthcare, education, as well as sports and entertainment environments, the alliance said.
Wi-Fi is expected to contribute nearly US$5 T to the global economy by 2025, and countries making the full 1,200 MHz band available for Wi-Fi will see greater socioeconomic benefits, the alliance said. Wi-Fi 6E will also play a major role in innovations such as Extended Reality (XR)* and holographic collaboration solutions.
Wi-Fi 6E momentum can be seen through:
A growing Wi-Fi 6E ecosystem
More than 660 Wi-Fi 6E devices have been Wi-Fi CERTIFIED by Wi-Fi Alliance. The Wi-Fi 6E ecosystem includes a wide variety of smart TVs, smart phones, enterprise and residential access points (APs), and laptops. APs are now available to support faster speeds, smoother streaming, and more reliable connections for enterprises and gamers alike. There are APs from NETGEAR delivering gigabit speeds and low latency for gamers, from Extreme Networks providing outdoor venue support with WPA3 security, and from Aruba bringing optimised campus and classroom experiences coupled with Wi-Fi Location capabilities.
Cisco has introduced Wi-Fi 6E APs enabling greater capacity for 4K and 8K videoconferencing, greater bandwidth for XR, and enhanced industrial IoT capabilities. Mesh systems like the Google Nest Wi-Fi Pro and Eero Pro 6E are also seeing high-bandwidth, Wi-Fi 6E upgrades.
Marquee devices with Wi-Fi 6E support – including the Apple iPad Pro, Google Pixel 7 and 7 Pro, and Samsung Neo QLED 8K TVs – will transform Wi-Fi experiences for users around the world. Devices like the Meta Quest Pro will help optimize VR, offer opportunity for deeper collaboration, and give users early access to the metaverse.
Large-scale networks and service provider support
A series of large-scale deployments coupled with strong global service provider momentum demonstrate Wi-Fi 6E’s readiness in various environments.
Regulatory advances
Some of the latest countries to allow Wi-Fi access in 6 GHz spectrum include Bahrain, Kenya, and New Zealand, and Wi-Fi Alliance maintains an up-to-date list of the countries enabling Wi-Fi 6E. Users are demanding superior Wi-Fi, and countries and regions making all 1,200 MHz of spectrum available are helping ensure people can experience the full benefits of Wi-Fi 6E. Making the full 1,200 MHz of spectrum available, rather than only opening the lower portion (500 MHz) of the band to Wi-Fi, is critical to giving people the most opportunity to experience the full Wi-Fi 6E benefits from new products or large-scale deployments.
“Aruba is seeing continued, strong demand for our Wi-Fi 6E solutions across all sectors of our customer base and tremendous progress on regulatory fronts internationally...The first live demonstration of an end-to-end Automatic Frequency Coordination system, in which we participated with the Communications and Information Technology Commission of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Federated Wireless, bodes well for the future of standard power operation in the 6 GHz band,” said Stuart Strickland, Wireless CTO and Fellow at Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company
“The momentum for Wi-Fi 6E is unmistakable. Riding on the ever-growing need for faster wireless broadband in the last few years, Broadcom has shipped over 1.3 billion Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E products to date. As we look forward, 6 GHz Wi-Fi is a must for global Internet service providers seeking to deliver multi-gigabit broadband to their subscribers. Enterprises are also future-proofing their networks to enhance productivity and deliver next generation wireless services. It is, therefore, imperative for regulators to enable the entire 6 GHz band to keep pace with this demand,” commented Vijay Nagarajan, VP of Marketing, Wireless Communications and Connectivity Division, Broadcom.
“The ever-increasing demand for better and faster Wi-Fi connectivity in various industry verticals such as MDU (multi-dwelling units) and education, and the rapid adoption of Wi-Fi 6E by device manufacturers to meet this need via the newly opened 6 GHz band is driving a healthy demand for Wi-Fi 6E APs. Ruckus Networks Wi-Fi 6E Wi-Fi APs enable these industries to capitalise on this 6 GHz opportunity and take advantage of the dramatic capacity and performance increase and reduced interference in this newly opened spectrum,” said Bart Giordano, SVP and GM of Ruckus Networks, CommScope
"Wi-Fi 6E raises the bar for wireless connectivity by offering 6 GHz connectivity for the first time. The availability of the 6 GHz spectrum superhighway for Wi-Fi is already driving a renaissance of innovation for new applications and services that require more bandwidth and less latency. This includes everything from immersive education platforms, to healthcare Internet of Things (IoT) devices critical for patient monitoring, or real-time supply chain and inventory tracking for manufacturers. This also enables enterprises to begin future-proofing their wireless networks today, as Wi-Fi 7 and all future generations of Wi-Fi will be built upon the 6 GHz spectrum foundation launched with Wi-Fi 6E,” added David Coleman, Director of Wireless in the Office of the CTO, Extreme Networks.
“The clean spectrum offered by Wi-Fi 6E improves user experiences for teleconferencing, video and audio streaming, webcams and cameras used for live-feeds, due to Wi-Fi 6E’s lower latency. Many of our customers are integrating Infineon Wi-Fi 6E products to take advantage of these benefits. Edge artificial intelligence (AI) applications also require real-time blending of data sources requiring low-latency Wi-Fi. We collaborated with partners like NVIDIA to support our Wi-Fi 6E portfolio with the NVIDIA Jetson edge AI platform, reducing time-to-market for our customers,” stated Sivaram Trikutam, VP, Wi-Fi Product Line, Infineon.
“Great Wi-Fi is essential for our converged connectivity needs at home, at work, at school, and on-the-go. Access to exclusive 6 GHz channels with Wi-Fi 6E enables improved entertainment, collaboration, and productivity experiences. Since early 2021, Intel and Intel Killer Wi-Fi 6E solutions have been shipping across numerous desktop PC motherboards, gaming PCs, and Intel vPro and Evo laptops. The Wi-Fi 6E ecosystem has seen impressive growth and we are looking forward to its continued momentum in the years to come,” said Eric A. McLaughlin, VP Client Computing Group & GM Wireless Solutions Group, Intel.
“The past few years have accelerated long-term consumer demand for faster, more reliable connectivity – a trend Wi-Fi 6E is perfectly suited to address solutions at all levels, including the enterprise. In anticipation this shift, we’ve been able to help our customers around the world deliver Wi-Fi 6E to the 6 GHz band for groundbreaking performance across multiple infrastructures enables smartphones, PC’s, augmented reality devices, access points, and routers that maximise spectrum utilisation,” said Rahul Patel, Senior VP and GM, Connectivity, Cloud and Networking, Qualcomm Technologies.
*XR comprises augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR), and virtual reality (VR). XR technologies merge the virtual and real worlds and/or create fully immersive experiences.
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