What is Wi-Fi 6E?

Covid19 has taught us all lately how critical to our well being is the state of our network, the quality of our connectivity, and its ability to scale. The current reality speeds up the need that was already clear to the regulators before, that significant capacity enhancements are due. Even before this new reality came to be, Cisco published in their Annual Internet Report (2018 - 2023) figures that show very clearly the urgent need for more capacity. Here are a few of the figures that demonstrate the clear need in the market: “Broadband-speed improvements result in increased consumption and use of high-bandwidth content and applications. The global average broadband speed continues to grow and will more than double from 2018 to 2023, from 45.9 Mbps to 110.4 Mbps. The table below shows the projected broadband speeds from 2018 to 2023. Several factors influence the fixed broadband-speed forecast, including the deployment and adoption of Fiber-To-The-Home (FTTH), high-speed DSL, and cable broadband adoption, as well as overall broadband penetration. Among the countries covered by this study, Japan, South Korea, and Sweden lead in terms of broadband speed largely because of their wide deployment of FTTH.”

Projected broadband speeds from 2018 to 2023

“Video and other applications continue to be of enormous demand in today’s home, but there will be significant bandwidth demands with the application requirements of the future, even beyond the forecast period of 2023. In the figure below, a scenario with video applications of the future is explored; today’s bandwidth needs are a sliver of the future needs.”

“Current and historical speeds are based on data from Ookla’s Speedtest.net. Forward projections for mobile data speeds are based on third-party forecasts for the relative proportions of 2G, 3G, 3.5G, and 4G among mobile connections through 2023. The figure below shows the Global mobile average speeds by device type: Smartphone and tablet speeds accelerate due to 5G.

In the figure below Cisco show the anticipated number of devices as they are expected to grow worldwide. As the number of devices served per home grows so does the need for bandwidth of course.

By 2022, Wi-Fi and mobile devices will account for 79 percent of Internet traffic.

Source: Cisco Annual Internet Report (2018–2023) White Paper

Wi-Fi 6E will utilize the 6GHz frequencies as they will be released by the regulators. The expected allocations for FCC and EU are as seen below:

Total available spectrum of the Wi-Fi networks will increase with the European allocation of 6GHz band by more than double, and in the countries adopting the US standard by much more than that - allowing for 14 additional 80 MHz channels and 7 additional 160 MHz channels. Imagine traffic experience shifting from a 2-lanes road to an 8-lanes mega highway. Wi-Fi 6E allocates channels that do not overlap with each other, which will help reduce congestion significantly, particularly in areas where lots of networks are operating. An additional important aspect is that the discussed 6GHz includes more contiguous spectrum - this would enable future generations of Wi-Fi such as the 802.11be to utilize broader channel bandwidth (e.g. 320MHz) for the future 10Gbps+ networks.

Wi-Fi carries far more internet traffic than any other wireless technology and has survived pretty well, until now, despite an available frequency range of less than 800 MHz (70 MHz in the 2.4GHz band, 700 MHz in the 5GHz band). The unlicensed spectrum in the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands has driven Wi-Fi growth. This unlicensed spectrum is now shared by so many devices (including non-Wi-Fi equipment using Bluetooth, Zigbee and others) and has had to make compromises since it coexists with many users.

Opening up the 6GHz band for unlicensed Wi-Fi use would free up more than 1,200 MHz of additional bandwidth for next-gen Wi-Fi 6E devices with antennas and chipsets capable of tapping into the extra spectrum.

The Wi-Fi Alliance did a study which showed that the 800 MHz spectrum would not be able to handle expected traffic by 2020; this will need to grow by 1.12GHz by 2025. The Wi-Fi Alliance determined that a solution would be making available a continuous spectrum to enable as high as seven 160 MHz-wide channels (or future 320 MHz). The 6GHz band and its 1,200 MHz of contiguous spectrum can fulfill the needed growth requirements.

This additional unlicensed spectrum would address the two main problems that users face now in 2020:

• Traffic congestion: The low number of Wi-Fi channels available today forces many users to share available bandwidth and creates congestion.
• Restricted 80 MHz and 160 MHz channel availability: Today the limited amount of adjacent spectrum makes it difficult to enable 80 MHz or 160 MHz channels; however, high data throughput can only happen when wide channels are available.

The introduction of the 6GHz band for Wi-Fi use will enable immediate gratification for all Wi-Fi 6 users. Having adequate spectrum to safely deploy 80 MHz or 160 MHz-wide channels and the installation and network configuration, where none had existed before, will alleviate concerns of backward compatibility. The 6GHz frequency band would thus become the saving grace for Wi-Fi 6 users. There will be rejoicing when high throughput rates and congestion-free network access are instantly achieved.

It is a long known fact that Wi-Fi offload is a key enabler for the business case of mobile networks (as Wi-Fi APs are cheaper than cellular base-stations and makes network densification viable), as well as a vital tool of capacity offload of the mobile network (especially for mobile devices that connect from indoors or at dense public venues). In fact as indicated by Cisco’s VNI the dependency of each cellular generation on Wi-Fi offload grows constantly and this remains the case with the coming 5G network.

Source: Cisco Annual Internet Report (2018–2023) White Paper

The relevant target KPIs that were defined by the 3GPP for the 5th cellular generation are met (or exceeded on some of them) quite nicely by the Wi-Fi 6th generation technology as indicated by the spider web diagram:

Source: 5G Networks: The Role of Wi-Fi and Unlicensed Technologies

Furthermore, Wi-Fi 6E is the right tool to enable 5G mmWave access to the home; millimeter wave 5G will not penetrate the home reliably because of the physical propagation characteristics of these frequencies through obstructions such as walls, tree leaves and the human body. Also, frequencies such as 28GHz and 39GHz suffer from higher sensitivity to weather conditions and decay faster when propagating through air, not to mention solid buildings. Thus, the deployment model would likely mandate an outdoor cellular 5G unit, and some technology to distribute the service to the indoors, considering the targeted ~2Gbps service Wi-Fi 6E makes a perfect match for the target service and solution costs.

Even in the lower frequency 10 GHz spectrum 5G coverage can only exist inside of untreated glass windows, but not really inside of a building. As a result, most buildings will need in-building cellular aids for reliable in-building coverage. Enter Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E.

Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E will alleviate high traffic by reducing congestion in 5G that would create delays and/or slow signal reception. 5G may actually offload nearly ¾ of its traffic to Wi-Fi by 2022. There will be huge growth in connections and devices, especially in Machine-to-Machine (M2M) connections. 5G and Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E will extend the world’s Internet community to areas never connected before.

Many feel that 5G will replace wireless Wide Area Networks (WANs) that span a large geographic area across cities, states, or countries. They can be private to connect parts of a business or they can be more public to connect smaller networks together. Wi-Fi 6E complements this as a proper offload and densification tool, as 5G mmWave ODU to IDU distribution tool, as well as a strong backhaul solution to inter-connect the 5G base units.

Some may think that using 5G technology to interconnect the external 5G-mmWave ODU to the indoor unit. However, the costs of such a 5G link are far higher than those of a Wi-Fi solution.

Simply put, cellular technologies relied on the affordability and capacity of Wi-Fi technology to enable their business-case at a growing dependency with each generation. Wi-Fi 6, and specifically Wi-Fi 6E, are the right tool to enable the performance expectations and business case of 5G networks.

Band = a wide section of spectrum, meaning a wide range of frequencies as a whole is referred to as a “band”. Conventionally an easier industry term to the frequency band in GHz rather than specifying exact frequencies. For example 5.925 GHz to 6.425 GHz could be referred to as “6GHz BAND”.

Sub Band = a subsection of the band which needs to be designated separately due to different regulations per sub section.

IEEE

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering and is the body that sets the standards which most of the regulators (including US and Europe) rely on.

Wi-Fi Alliance

Consortium that certifies vendors after testing them for compliance with Wi-Fi related standards.

FCC

The regulating authority in US

ETSI

The regulating authority in Europe

3GPP

The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) unites [Seven] telecommunications standard development organisations that cover cellular telecommunications technologies, including radio access, core network and service capabilities, which provide a complete system description for mobile telecommunications.