State and local governments are working to develop broadband access and are looking forward to the final stage of the federal infrastructure legislation that will assist them in doing the same.
For government agencies, particularly the ones in cities, an option is wifi 6 deployment, the latest wireless standard that operates well in the urban regions and offers improved data rates at an extended range. It means that more people can get access to high-speed broadband.
But there is a newer standard of wifi for agencies to consider as they expand the municipal networks along with wifi public spaces- wifi 6 E. The new standard runs in a newly released strip of wireless spectrum, which is the 6 gigahertz band and provides tons of benefits that include less interference and faster speeds. But there are some challenges that IT leaders, as well as network administrators, must be aware of. Here you will get to know what is Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E and which one should you choose.
What Exactly is Wifi 6 E?
The Federation Communications Commission in April integrated a proposal that allowed access to a 6GHz band for unlicensed wifi. It enabled the agency to unbound 1200 megahertz of wireless gamut for wifi use, a significant improvement in potential bandwidth.
According to CNET, the 2.4GHz band is among the two allocated for wifi, delivering merely 70MHz of bandwidth. Additionally, to accommodate the increase in the demand for wifi, the FCC is looking to enhance the supply of wifi spectrum with the strongest initiative they have taken so far. It will make the overall 6GHz band accessible for unlicensed use. It will allow the commission to improve the overall number of available spectrum for wifi by a factor of five.
Wifi 6E runs on the 6GHz bands along with 5GHz and 2.4GHz bands, which is supported by wifi 6.
A wireless technical architect working at CDW, Colin Vallance, said that without delving into additional features, more spectrum means more channels, implying that there is less probability of interference with other wifi devices. He added that it is an oversimplification; however, the impact of the additional band will be significant. Contrary to other standards like 802.11ad, which was not much adopted. But the industry is likely to increase the adoption of wifi 6E to harness the greenfield space.
What Is The Difference Between Wifi 6 And Wifi 6E?
Wifi 6 came with tons of new features to enhance wireless performance as opposed to wifi 5. It encompasses orthogonal frequency: division multiplexing access, allowing devices and routers to use bandwidth efficiently. There is also a target wait time that reduces the consumption of power and saves battery life and boosts range and speed.
Netgear, a wireless vendor, pinpointed that wifi 6E has been developed on the aforementioned features and includes backup to seven 160 MHz channels or 14 80MHz channels. The availability of more channels means that there will be more spectrum for wifi service. Additionally, there will be reduced overlap between various networks in more populated regions such as offices or apartment complexes.
CNET further reported that if the 2.4GHz band is a single-land country highway and the 5GHz comes with a three-lane interstate, imagine the 6GHz bans as a seven-lane superhighway. People with 6E devices will have access to this onramp.
An important technical differentiation between the two is that 6E does not need dynamic frequency selection channels. Contrary to 160 MHz channels within the 6GHz wireless band, devices running in 6GHz do not share the spectrum with TV stations or any radar devices. Subsequently, people who are unable to harness the potentials of 160MHz channels due to the kind of location they reside in can benefit from the empty 160MHz channels.
Wifi 6E comes with wifi Protected Access 3 security controls. It is the most sophisticated wifi Alliance security certification. The WPA3 offers the most advanced security as well as authentication protocols. It means that 6GHz wifi traffic has been made more secure, and the networks are difficult to hack.
Potentials Of Wifi 6E
A prominent advantage of wifi 6E is that it has the ability to offer faster speed with better consistency, owing to the number of spectrum wifi 6E devices can access. The most significant difference between the two is that the 6E devices leveraged the 6E spectrum with a maximum of seven extra 160 MHz channels, while the wifi 6 shares the restructured spectrum with two 160 MHz channels.
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