Wi-Fi 6 is designed to improve speed, increase efficiency and reduce congestion in heavy bandwidth usage scenarios. Should I upgrade? We all love speed, so I say yes. To add more context here, this is not a speed only suggestion. Lower latency and higher security are probably more important reasons for the average user.
The new WiFi Alliance numbering
Wi-Fi 6 is the new Wi-Fi technology term you will be seeing in 2020. Officially the new Wi-Fi 6 is 802.11ax. To make it easier to remember the Wi-Fi alliance has come up with a numbering scheme. The intent will make is clear that Wi-Fi 6 is newer and better then Wi-Fi 5. Older Wi-Fi names you know, and love will get numbers also. 802.11n is Wi-Fi 4 and 802.11ac is Wi-Fi 5.
The new WiFi technology
WPA3
The current standard for Wi-Fi encryption is WPA2. It has some security issues, including the KRACK vulnerability. WPA3 provides a higher level of security. One of its best features is that it makes encrypted public hotspots possible. With WPA2, there’s no way to set up an encrypted access point that doesn’t require a password. Public hotspots are completely vulnerable to snooping. When both user devices and access points have WPA3, they’ll give secure connections to anonymous users.
More Bandwidth on a Wider Channel
Wi-Fi 6 widens the WiFi band from 80 MHz to 160 MHz, doubling the channel width and creating a faster connection from your router to the device. With Wi-Fi 6, you can enjoy 8K movies, large file downloads and uploads, and responsive smart home devices – all without buffering.
Frequency Band
Wi-Fi 6 operates on both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands, with Wi-Fi 6E extending to the 6 GHz band.
Faster speeds
The theoretical maximum speed of Wi-Fi 6 is 10 Gbps, which is about 10x the speed of its predecessor 802.11ac. Real-world considerations such as interference and protocol overhead reduce the actual transfer speed, but Wi-Fi 6 improves performance in other ways as well. It deals better with network congestion when multiple devices are competing on the same frequency. Wi-Fi 6 offers a single-user data rate that is 37% faster than Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac).
Minimize WiFi Conflicts with Your Neighbor
Interference from your neighbors’ wireless networks can cause issues with your wireless signal. BSS (Base Service Station) Color, marks frames from neighboring networks so that your router can ignore them. If you’ve ever lived in an apartment or close to your neighbors, this means that your router just became that much more efficient – no extra work required.
Lower latency
In many cases, latency is more important than throughput speed. Wi-Fi 6 reduces communication latency, improving the performance of real-time applications. The Wi-Fi 6 standard uses OFDMA for increased efficiency. With OFDMA, each packet can deliver multiple payloads to multiple devices simultaneously. This vast improvement in efficiency works for both uploads and downloads.
Longer battery life
Target Wake Time, or TWT, lets devices optimize the time that their Wi-Fi connections “sleep” while waiting to receive data. This is valuable for phones, battery-powered access points, and low-power IoT devices.
Wi-Fi Standards Chart
| Wi-Fi Generation | 802.11 Standard | Year Introduced | Frequency Bands | Maximum Speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wi-Fi 1 | 802.11b | 1999 | 2.4 GHz | 11 Mbps |
| Wi-Fi 2 | 802.11a | 1999 | 5 GHz | 54 Mbps |
| Wi-Fi 3 | 802.11g | 2003 | 2.4 GHz | 54 Mbps |
| Wi-Fi 4 | 802.11n | 2009 | 2.4 GHz / 5 GHz | 600 Mbps |
| Wi-Fi 5 | 802.11ac | 2014 | 5 GHz | 3.5 Gbps |
| Wi-Fi 6 | 802.11ax | 2019 | 2.4 GHz / 5 GHz | 9.6 Gbps |
| Wi-Fi 6E | 802.11ax | 2021 | 6 GHz | 9.6 Gbps |
| Wi-Fi 7 | 802.11be | Expected 2024/2025 | 2.4 GHz / 5 GHz / 6 GHz | 30 Gbps |
Key Points
Wi-Fi 1 (802.11b): Introduced in 1999, it operates on the 2.4 GHz band with a maximum speed of 11 Mbps.
Wi-Fi 2 (802.11a): Also introduced in 1999, it operates on the 5 GHz band with a maximum speed of 54 Mbps.
Wi-Fi 3 (802.11g): Introduced in 2003, it operates on the 2.4 GHz band with a maximum speed of 54 Mbps.
Wi-Fi 4 (802.11n): Introduced in 2009, it operates on both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands with a maximum speed of 600 Mbps.
Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac): Introduced in 2014, it operates on the 5 GHz band with a maximum speed of 3.5 Gbps.
Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax): Introduced in 2019, it operates on both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands with a maximum speed of 9.6 Gbps.
Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax): Introduced in 2021, it extends Wi-Fi 6 to the 6 GHz band.
Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be): Expected around 2024/2025, it will operate on 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz bands with a maximum speed of up to 30 Gbps.