Wi-Fi 6

High Efficiency Wireless

What is Wi-Fi 6?

Wi-Fi 6 offers the advantage of lower latency per WLAN client compared to older standards. When it comes to Wi-Fi, it is not so much about being faster: Now it is more about increasing the average throughput per Wi-Fi client, especially in high-density environments. Wi-Fi 6 is synonymous with IEEE 802.11ax and Wi-Fi 5 with IEEE 802.11ac. This nomenclature was introduced in 2018 starting with Wi-Fi 4, which stands for the IEEE 802.11n standard, by the Wi-Fi Alliance.

The superiority of Wi-Fi 6

In the LANCOM White Paper 2x2 Wi-Fi 6 vs. 3x3 Wi-Fi 5 you can read about the advantages of a wireless LAN infrastructure based on 2x2 MIMO Wi-Fi 6 access points as opposed to an installation with 3x3 MIMO access points with Wi-Fi 5. This document can help you choose the right WLAN infrastructure according to your needs.

Please feel free to download the whitepaper here!

Applications

Scenarios with large numbers of users

The weaknesses of previous standards were particularly evident in high-density environments with large numbers of Wi-Fi clients. Multiple clients trying to transmit at the same time will cause data transmissions to collide, so the aim is to reduce this. By making more efficient use of the available bandwidths and channels, Wi-Fi 6 brings more stability and reliability to intensively used wireless LANs. The advantage of Wi-Fi 6 over former standards is a reduction in latency time for each Wi-Fi client. The available bandwidths are allocated to each client much more efficiently.

More and more IoT devices

The future will see increasing numbers of IoT devices coming into play, so the available bandwidths need to be managed and allocated even more efficiently. The OFDMA technology described below and the available subcarriers will make a significant contribution here. In environments with a very high density of IoT devices, such as in smart cities, high throughput and low latency have an important role to play. While the data generated by IoT sensors must be forwarded quickly, bandwidth-hungry applications should not be excluded or significantly slowed.

What has changed over the previous standard Wi-Fi 5

Features

The progress from Wi-Fi 5 to Wi-Fi 6 results from the close interaction of some known and some new features:

Multi-User MIMO (MU-MIMO) delivers more efficiency with large data packets now for uploads as well as downloads. Perfect for 4K video conferencing.
OFDMA offers the parallel processing of multiple small data packets in a single stream. With subcarriers as narrow as 2 MHz, the available radio channels are utilized very efficiently to relieve the already crowded spectrum.
QAM-1024 with Wi-Fi 6 provides 25 percent more data throughput than QAM-256 with Wi-Fi 5 due to a higher density modulation per data packet.
Target Wake Time (TWT) extends the battery life of Wi-Fi 6 clients through intelligent wake-up mechanisms.
Basic Service Set (BSS) Coloring maximizes network performance by reducing interference where client density is high.

Technology

8x8 MIMO

Access points with MIMO technology support several independent data links, called spatial streams, for transporting data packets between the transmitter and the receiver. Depending on the number of antennas, an access point can send two, four, or even eight spatial streams at once. Wave 2 of the Wi-Fi 5 standard allowed up to four simultaneous data streams. Wi-Fi 6 now supports up to eight of these widened fast lanes.

Wi-Fi 5, 80 MHz, QAM-256 with up to 4x4 MIMO

Possible download speeds for different transmitter-receiver pairs with Wi-Fi 5
1x1	2x2	3x3	4x4
433.3 Mbps	866.7 Mbps	1300 Mbps	1733.3 Mbps

Wi-Fi 6, 80 MHz, QAM-1024 with up to 8x8 MIMO

Possible download speeds for different transmitter-receiver pairs with Wi-Fi 6
1x1	2x2	3x3	4x4	8x8
600 Mbps	1.2 Gbps	1.8 Gbps	2.4 Gbps	4.8 Gbps

MU-MIMO for downloads and uploads

Wave 2 of the wireless standard Wi-Fi 5 introduced the multi-user MIMO principle (MU-MIMO): By distributing the various spatial streams between several different clients at the same time, rather than serving them one after the other, the efficiency in Wi-Fi has been massively increased—but only for the downlink.

With Wi-Fi 6, MU-MIMO is now available in both directions. This is especially useful in environments with large numbers of Wi-Fi users and bandwidth-hungry real-time applications, as it also improves latency and throughput.

Explanation

With MU-MIMO, the streams can be distributed to multiple clients. For example, an access point with 4x4 MIMO can divide its four spatial streams in parallel between a 2x2 MIMO client and two further 1x1 MIMO clients (such as a notebook or smartphone). This makes the most efficient use of all available spatial streams.

MU-MIMO now works in down- and upload mode — Fig. 1: MU-MIMO (Down- & Uplink)

Transmitter x receiver = number of transmitting x receiving antennas

8x8 MIMO = 8 transmitting x receiving antennas

Assignment of streams between transmitter and receiver(s)
8 streams	8 1x1 smartphones
8 streams	4 2x2 tablets bzw. 2x2 notebooks
8 streams	4 1x1 smartphones + 1 2x2 tablet + 1 2x2 notebook

Comparison between OFDM and OFDMA technology — Fig. 2: Comparison of OFDM vs. OFDMA technology

Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA)

OFDMA offers real advantages for Wi-Fi clients with smaller data packets, e.g. IoT devices. Wi-Fi 5 came with Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) as a method for channel management: During data transmission, the entire frequency range of a Wi-Fi channel is occupied per time interval. The introduction of OFDMA in Wi-Fi 6 brought subcarriers as narrow as 2 MHz, meaning that packets that only contain small amounts of data do not block the entire channel. Several subcarriers share a 20-, 40- or even 80-MHz channel, although if necessary they can be bundled and operated together. This allows Wi-Fi channels to be utilized far more effectively. It's comparable to carpooling: Large numbers of cars with a single occupant will cause heavy traffic, while fewer, multi-occupant cars can travel faster.

Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM)

QAM increases data throughput by increasing the information density during transmission. The following applies: The higher the QAM level, the higher the data throughput. Compared to QAM-256 (8 bits / symbol) with Wi-Fi 5, Wi-Fi 6 introduces QAM-1024 (10 bits / symbol), delivering 25% more throughput than the previous standard.

Transmitted bits per symbol at different QAM levels
Modulation	Bit per symbol	Symbol rate
QAM-16	4	4 bit / rate
QAM-32	5	5 bit / rate
QAM-64	6	6 bit / rate
QAM-256	8	8 bit / rate
QAM-1024	10	10 bit / rate

Difference of QAM-256 and QAM-1024 — Fig. 3: QAM-256 compared to QAM-1024

Wi-Fi infrastructures with and without BSS Coloring and Spatial Re-Use — Fig. 4: without and with BSS Coloring and Spatial Re-Use

Basic Service Set Coloring (BSS Coloring) and Spatial Reuse

The theory:
BSS Coloring with Spatial Re-Use is a mechanism that maximizes network performance while reducing the interference between Wi-Fi devices. Wireless networks offer the access points a limited number of channels. If several neighboring access points use the same channel, they will inevitably interfere with one another. In previous Wi-Fi infrastructures, one device could transmit while all the other Wi-Fi devices on the channel had to wait their turn, even if they were far enough away to allow a parallel data transmission. With Wi-Fi 6, wireless devices are learning to communicate with each other more transparently. This is done with a pseudo-coloring of each SSID. Wi-Fi 6 devices can distinguish these colors, detect “different colored” radios on the same channel, and stop interfering with them.

Here is an example from everyday life:

This technology can be compared with the situation in a restaurant with different groups sitting at different tables. The group at table A is not interested in the conversations of the adjacent table B, so that the people at the next table can talk at a certain volume without the table group A feeling disturbed. Only when a certain threshold/volume is exceeded do the two tables have to discuss their compliance with this threshold; otherwise, one of the groups would have to move to another room.

Longer battery life thanks to Target Wake Time (TWT)

Before Wi-Fi 5 arrived, smartphones, tablets and notebooks had to be ready to receive all the time. If not, arriving data packets would be missed, which was at the expense of the battery charge. With TWT (target wake time), Wi-Fi 6 cuts down on power wastage on the client side, as the access point and client now negotiate exactly when the receiver should wake up to receive the traffic intended for it. For many a smartphone, this will mean less time tied to the charger.

Outlook

With the numbers of end devices growing steadily and the increasing density of IoT devices, the load on the available Wi-Fi frequencies has made communication hardly possible without collisions. For this reason and for almost 15 years of no changes within the spectrum usages, the Wi-Fi industry actively requested the National Regulatory Agencies for new frequencies. The Wi-Fi Alliance generally extends Wi-Fi 6 by the 6-GHz band, calling it “Wi-Fi 6E”. A new era for wireless LAN has begun!

Learn more in our whitepaper

Our Wi-Fi 6 portfolio

New

LANCOM OW-602

Outdoor Wi-Fi 6 access point

Up to 1.7 Gbps, IP67, -30° to +65°C

Ideal for extreme environments
New

LANCOM LX-6200

Business Wi-Fi 6 access point with OFDMA

2x2 MU-MIMO (UL/DL), up to 1.8 Gbps

IoT support via USB and BLE
New

LANCOM LW-600

Value Wi-Fi 6 access point with OFDMA

2x2 MU-MIMO (UL/DL), up to 1.8 Gbps

For medium user densities
New

LANCOM LX-6402

Business Wi-Fi 6 access point with OFDMA

4x4 MU-MIMO (UL/DL), up to 3.6 Gbps

Multi-gigabit Ethernet
New

LANCOM LX-6400

Business Wi-Fi access point with OFDMA

4x4 MU-MIMO (UL/DL), up to 3.6 Gbps

Multi-gigabit Ethernet
New

LANCOM GS-4554XP

54-port multi-Gigabit PoE+ switch (full L3)

12x 2.5G / 36x 1G / 4x 10G / 2x 40G

372 Gbps switch capacity, 1,440 W PoE budget
New

LANCOM GS-4554X

54-port multi-Gigabit switch (full L3)

12x 2.5G / 36x 1G / 4x 10G / 2x 40G

372 Gbps switch capacity
New

LANCOM GS-4530XP

30-port multi-Gigabit PoE+ switch (full L3)

12x 2.5G / 12x 1G / 4x 10G / 2x 40G

324 Gbps switch capacity, 720W PoE budget
New

LANCOM GS-4530X

30-port multi-Gigabit switch (full L3)

12x 2.5G / 12x 1G / 4x 10G / 2x 40G

324 Gbps switch capacity
LANCOM GS-3528XP

28-port multi-Gigabit PoE+ switch (L3 lite)

12x 2.5G / 12x 1G / 4x 10G (370W PoE budget)

164 Gbps throughput
LANCOM GS-3528X

28-port multi-Gigabit switch (L3 lite)

12x 2.5G / 12x 1G / 4x 10G

164 Gbps throughput
LANCOM GS-3510XP

10-port multi-Gigabit PoE+ switch (L3 lite)

4x 2.5G / 4x 1G / 2x SFP+ (fanless, 130W PoE)

68 Gbps throughput

Whitepaper & Resources

Techpaper: Performance comparison Wi-Fi 6

Whitepaper: The new Wi-Fi standard Wi-Fi 6

Whitepaper: 2x2 Wi-Fi 6 vs. 3x3 Wi-Fi 5

Whitepaper: Wi-Fi 6E

Feel free to contact us

First name *

Last name *

Email *

Postal code

City

Phone

Company

Subject *

Your message *

I have read the data privacy policy and agree to the storage and processing of my data by LANCOM Systems GmbH. LANCOM Systems uses this data to contact me, including through automated processing operations such as enrichment, evaluations and measurements, to contact me itself or through third parties and to send me information about products, services and events. I can withdraw my consent at any time, electronically to datenschutz@lancom.de or by letter to:
LANCOM Systems GmbH, Adenauerstr. 20/B2, 52146 Würselen, Germany. *

Your inquiry

You have questions about our products or solutions, or are you looking for a LANCOM sales partner? Then let us know your wishes via contact form or feel free to contact us by phone.

Inside Sales International Team
+49 (0)2405 49936 122