Is Wi-Fi 6E really going to be here soon?

[RMerlin]

Ed note. This discussion was moved from another thread.

6 GHz Wi-Fi 6/ Wi-Fi 6e will be out and all the current AX devices will be outdated in 2 years.

At the rate manufacturers are moving (how many new devices currently ship with 802.11ax clients?), I wouldn't bet on Wifi 6E clients becoming available anytime soon. Heck, we still see 2.4 GHz-only devices being sold in 2020...

Personally, I suspect that Wifi 6E will never have any meaningful impact on the market. It would have needed to be part of the initial Wifi 6 draft to have any chance of success. By the time you might see Wifi 6E clients, the world will be looking at Wifi 7...

They probably should have waited to include it in the Wifi 7 standard instead if they wanted for it to ever gain any real market traction.

 

[thiggins]

Edit: On the other hand once 6GHz routers start rolling out, to really take advantage of the extra speed they'll have to have at least link aggregation or multi-gig ports.

6E is not focused on increasing speed, other than to make 160 MHz operation more practical (no need to use DFS, more adjacent channels).

Most devices will continue to be 2 stream, with top link rates (MCS 11) available only close to the AP. Range will be somewhat reduced from 5 GHz, too.

Until the corporate guys start to rip-and-replace of all their Gigabit infrastructure, I wouldn't worry about Gigabit Ethernet being too much of a hindrance for most home users.

Personally, I suspect that Wifi 6E will never have any meaningful impact on the market. It

It's hard to say. There's a big incentive to move to 6 GHz to gain relatively uncluttered airspace (at least for awhile). The greenfield/no legacy allowed/AX only aspect holds the potential for having all AP traffic scheduled, to reduce contention. Networks will still need to content for airtime if they share the same channel, though.

You have to wonder how many times people will upgrade their smartphones in a 2 year timeframe. But Apple doesn't seem to have any trouble getting its customers to suck up the latest shiny toy they trot out.

 

[AndreiV]

At the rate manufacturers are moving (how many new devices currently ship with 802.11ax clients?), I wouldn't bet on Wifi 6E clients becoming available anytime soon. Heck, we still see 2.4 GHz-only devices being sold in 2020...

Well Broadcom are investing in it already .

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/broadcom-announces-wi-fi-6e-mobile-device.61799/#post-551036

 

[RMerlin]

It's hard to say. There's a big incentive to move to 6 GHz to gain relatively uncluttered airspace (at least for awhile). The greenfield/no legacy allowed/AX only aspect holds the potential for having all AP traffic scheduled, to reduce contention. Networks will still need to content for airtime if they share the same channel, though.

I don't deny that the technology itself is appealing. The main problems that I can see:

1) how long until we start getting AP controllers that support it (I only know of one from Broadcom so far)
2) how long until we start getting STA controllers that support it (we just got our first today I believe?)
3) how long until the FCC and other regulatory bodies validate it
4) how long until manufacturers start using it in new products (assuming existing products can't be upgraded and/or would require at the very least recertification)

When it comes to Broadcom announcing new AP controllers, in the past it generally took about 12-18 months for actual products to reach the market (thinking about the BCM43684 for instance, announced in August 2017, products only reached the market during Q3/Q4 2018).

What could possibly help here is if existing controllers are already capable of Wifi 6E. That seems to be the case for the BCM43684 for instance, which apparently can support the 6 GHz band. Which means it would probably just require some changes to existing routers (filter/amp and software levels) to support it. In theory...

 

[thiggins]

If the band is approved, you'll see 6E routers in time for the 2020 holiday selling season. Smartphones will probably follow quickly, like they did with AX, and probably on 5G models.

There will be no firmware upgrades for devices or routers/APs to enable 6E. The RF front ends need to be changed, even if the Wi-Fi SoCs support 6 GHz.

 

[pege63]

If the band is approved, you'll see 6E routers in time for the 2020 holiday selling season. Smartphones will probably follow quickly, like they did with AX, and probably on 5G models.

There will be no firmware upgrades for devices or routers/APs to enable 6E. The RF front ends need to be changed, even if the Wi-Fi SoCs support 6 GHz.

The 5G models i see so far has NO AX support they have AC.

 

[coxhaus]

I think it will take 6 GHz channels to get all this new stuff really rolling. People love technology. People are already starting to forget about WiFi 6. Everything now is WiFi 6E. See how fast it changes. It was only a few months ago we were talking about WiFi 6.

 

[thiggins]

The 5G models i see so far has NO AX support they have AC.

True. Perhaps they were anticipating 6E.

 

[lRTKlHerzog]

The ROG Rapture GT-AXE11000 gaming router opens the Wi-Fi 6E frontier

6GHz Wi-Fi spectrum is coming with Wi-Fi 6E, and the ROG Rapture GT-AXE11000 is the first router that can take advantage.

rog.asus.com

 

[JagoUK]

Well on the Asus beta thread they said 5ghz 160mhz is too difficult and sounds like they have abandoned it.
In fact I chose to return my XT8s because of that statement and risk they would not fix the backhaul issue by enabling 80+80 or shifting backhaul to channels 36-64.

I think 6E will be more popular behind the scenes. Allowing homes to have a wireless mesh network without interfering with client devices.

I really liked my XT8s but could not accept the backhaul being limited to 80mhz forever.

As soon as the XT8 with wifi6e is here I will be all over that if it remains <£400

 

[L&LD]

I hope you're right. But I don't see WiFi 6E being implemented correctly and costing anywhere near reasonable when launched.

 

[JagoUK]

I hope you're right. But I don't see WiFi 6E being implemented correctly and costing anywhere near reasonable when launched.

It all depends what you intend to use it for. Commercial or Personal.

To me I want streaming 4k UHD available around my house.
So far the most intense bandwidth I have come across is is around 120mbps (4k UHD @ 60mhz).
So taking this to its peak, i'd have 5 family members pulling approx 600mbps across the wireless fronthaul.

Wifi6e means the backhaul can handle this with ease with no interference with clients and plenty of headroom for any other bandwidth intensive applications.

When I had the XT8's I only connected an AX200 at 2.4gbs for testing. 1.2gbs was fine for all of my devices to stream whatever I wanted.

 

[L&LD]

I still don't think it matters, commercial or personal use. It is going to be a pretty penny once it drops.

 

[Fatawan]

Qualcomm is in https://www.qualcomm.com/wi-fi-6e/product-list#network-products

My favorite little filter company, Akoustis, had this to say at the end of August:

"Last week, we announced the introduction of our new 6.5 gigahertz WiFi 6E XBAW filter, which when paired with our existing 5.5 gigahertz filter, introduced in June, creates the industry's first and only tandem ultra-wideband BAW-based filter solution for WiFi 6E.

This morning, I am happy to begin our call by announcing that we have already received our first order for our new tandem BAW filter solution for WiFi 6E. These two XBAW filter solutions cover both unlicensed WiFi 6E bands between 5.1 and 7.1 gigahertz with superior coexistence performance compared to alternative filter technologies.

WiFi 6E is the next revolution in WiFi technology with two key bands, specifically 665 megahertz of spectrum centered around 5.5 gigahertz and 1.2 gigahertz of spectrum centered around 6.5 gigahertz. This new spectrum was allotted by the FCC in late April of this year. We have shipped early samples of our new 5.5 gigahertz filter to multiple SoC and OEMs and have already received positive feedback. Our 6.5 gigahertz filter solution is expected to sample this quarter.


Interest in our WiFi 6E filters has recently grown dramatically as our solution offers superior coexistence capability compared to any alternative WiFi 6E filter solution we have seen in the market, without compromising adjacent channel integrity. This will allow OEMs to deliver CPE devices that can utilize the entire spectrum offering increased bandwidth and improved performance. By having the industry's only 5.5 and 6.5 gigahertz tandem BAW-based filter solution, we expect that WiFi 6E will become one of our primary revenue growth drivers moving forward.... we have received our first order from a Tier 1 enterprise OEM for both tandem WiFi 6E filters and we are driving as quickly as we can to deliver qualifiable production-ready 5.5 and 6.5 gigahertz WiFi 6E filters by the end of calendar 2020. We expect commercial production in revenue growth to start by mid calendar 2021. In our discussions with OEMs, ODMs and SoC vendors while developing these two filters, interest and demand has been growing dramatically. Some OEMs are choosing to develop custom solutions for a WiFi 6E. As a result, during the June quarter, we announced a development agreement in purchase order for custom WiFi 6E filters from a Tier 1 OEM for multiple filters for 5 and 6 gigahertz spectrum. Whereas activity in WiFi 6 remained strong, the interest and demand for WiFi 6E filter solutions is intense as many OEMs and ODMs have quickly shifted new product design to address WiFi 6E. "

 

[Fatawan]

https://techblogwriter.co.uk/qualcomm-wi-fi-6e/ In this podcast, QCOM says their AP chipset solution is ahead of schedule and they expect their customers to have devices ready when the spectrum officially becomes available(I couldn't find the exact date).

 

[Enthusiast]

Wifi6e should be available in the USA next year, but for the rest of the world it depend for each country.