Wi-Fi 6E Gaining Momentum, but It's Unclear When It Will Become 'Mainstream'
Use of Wi-Fi has grown to a huge extent, driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, experts said Monday during the virtual Fierce Wireless Wi-Fi Summit. But speakers disagreed how quickly adoption of the 6 GHz band for Wi-Fi, through Wi-Fi 6E, will happen as other bands become more crowded. Commissioners approved an order in April 2020 (see 2004230059) allocating 1,200 MHz in the band for sharing with Wi-Fi and other unlicensed use, and other countries followed the U.S. lead.
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Wi-Fi has “fantastic momentum” with 18 billion devices in use worldwide, said Tiago Rodrigues, Wireless Broadband Alliance president. Wi-Fi delivers half of all IP traffic, he said. Adoption of Wi-Fi 6E, is already widespread, with more than 600 devices certified and more than 55 countries allocating at least part of the band for unlicensed use, he said.
The FCC is leading the world on use of automated frequency coordination (AFC) in 6 GHz, and other countries will follow, Rodrigues said. In November, the FCC authorized 13 AFC providers, though testing is still in progress (see 2211030066). The World Radiocommunication Conference this year has before it an item on harmonization of the upper 6 GHz band, Rodrigues noted. He predicted quick adoption of Wi-Fi 7, the next generation, with pre-standards products already being released.
Wi-Fi 6E is “mainstream,” but only for new devices, said Peter Lane, head-product at Wi-Fi equipment company Eero. “There are a ton of Wi-Fi 5 devices still out there,” he said. For smartphones, tablets and laptop computers, “Wi-Fi 6E is definitely mainstream,” he said, noting his company has been shipping Wi-Fi 6E gear for more than a year.
IoT devices like connected thermostats, kitchen appliances and exercise bikes will “take a lot longer” to move to the new generation of Wi-Fi, Lane said: “We’re going to be supporting legacy devices for quite some time.” Gear-makers worldwide are offering 6E equipment, though their home countries may not yet enable use of the new technology, he said. The amount of spectrum available for 6E and the improved performance mean “it’s hard not to jump to it,” he said.
It’s time to say Wi-Fi 6E is mainstream, said Patrick McGraw, senior market development manager at gear-maker Anritsu. “We have to stay ahead of the technology curves,” he said. The number of devices is “ramping and we’re clearly preparing for the movement to Wi-Fi 7,” he said.
Fiber Extension
New York fiber provider Stealth Communications sees Wi-Fi 6E as the “first chance” for customers to wirelessly extend the 1 Gbps connection they get through fiber, said Joe Plotkin, director-business development. Plotkin says Wi-Fi 6E is “not widespread yet.” Apple just released notebooks containing 6E, he said: “They haven’t really screamed that announcement. I wish they had. I still see that there’s a lot of room for growth.”
The “use case” for 6 GHz is growing as other Wi-Fi bands get crowded, Plotkin said: “It’s going to be adopted -- it’s going to be widespread. It’s just a matter of how quickly we can get there.”
The focus for Wi-Fi has moved from the speed of connections to reliability, said Richard Squire, director-connectivity strategy at European provider Liberty Global. In Europe Wi-Fi 6E still isn’t widespread and some users may move directly to Wi-Fi 7, he predicted: “There’s no doubt that 6 GHz Wi-Fi is going to be mainstream.”
More than 40 countries have adopted unlicensed use of the lower 500 MHz of the band since the FCC acted, said Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Program at New America. In the Americas, most nations are opening the entire 1,200 MHz, as have South Korea and Saudi Arabia, he said. Europe and other major countries authorized only the lower 500 MHz, as they await consensus at the WRC.
Only the U.S. and Canada approved standard-power outdoor use, Calabrese said. That's also under consideration in South Korea, Brazil and Saudi Arabia “and will no doubt spread once the AFC systems are well proven,” he said. The U.S. went first because of its extensive U.S. experience with data-based managed sharing, he said.
“The ability to operate at standard power both indoors and outdoors will amplify the benefits of Wi-Fi 6E,” Calabrese said. Low-power indoor use is limited to 250 mW equivalent isotropic radiated power in an 80 MHz channel, a “fraction” of the 4 Watts allowed in standard-power operation, he said. The job of the AFC is to protect the more than 50,000 incumbent microwave links in place in the U.S. in the 6 GHz band, he said.