What is Wi-Fi 6E?

Prepare your networks for what's next with the reliability, capacity and speed of Wi-Fi 6E. It provides exceptional wireless experiences for customers and employees, creates smarter interaction and workspaces, and secures all connections with WPA3. Experience a connection similar to the wired connection on your wireless network.

The 6E network delivers that "wired-like" experience that collaboration tools require for a seamless, inclusive and secure experience. Unlike Wi-Fi 6, Wi-Fi 6E is not a standard. It is an extension of the Wi-Fi 6 standard to the 6 GHz spectrum that allows faster speeds, lower latency and more security to the network.

What is Wi-Fi 6E?

Wireless signals are transmitted in specific spectrum ranges without a license, as permitted by law. The last three generations of wireless technology have used two signal bands. The first, the 2.4 GHz band, is full of interference from many devices, such as baby monitors, microwave ovens.... The 5 GHz band has also already become congested with legacy Wi-Fi devices and networks. Wi-Fi 6E eliminates the multi-protocol complexities of the past by limiting access to only Wi-Fi 6 and newer protocols in the 6 GHz band. Wi-Fi 6 provides a scheduled and deterministic MAC and supports network segmentation, exceptional QoE and optimized latency of less than 2 ms in one direction. The combination of Wi-Fi 6 protocol with Wi-Fi 6E spectrum will allow Wi-Fi 6 capabilities to increase in a new environment.  

What are the main benefits of Wi-Fi 6E?

1. Increased capacity: the additional spectrum of Wi-Fi 6E offers more non-overlapping channels. It can support a dense IT and Internet of Things (IoT) environment without performance degradation.
2. Less interference: one of the biggest advantages is that by using the 6 GHz band, Wi-Fi 6E devices will not share spectrum with Wi-Fi 4 (802.11n) or Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) devices.
3. It will improve efficiency and performance, as all Wi-Fi 6E devices use highly efficient Wi-Fi 6 radios and will not be slowed down by older devices running at lower data rates.
4. Higher performance: another advantage is that Wi-Fi 6 at 6 GHz supports more 80 MHz and 160 MHz wide channels. This will mean that users will be able to send and receive at the highest possible speeds on these wider channels. One result: improved performance for high-bandwidth applications such as augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) and real-time immersive gaming.

Comparison between Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 6

While WiFi 6 could simultaneously use the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands, the former with more range but lower speed and the latter with more speed but lower range, WiFi 6E adds 6 GHz band to the WiFi 6 standard, being able to reach 7.125 GHz, covering the entire spectrum of that band. It should be made clear that to take advantage of WiFi 6E as a standard, it is necessary that both the router and its connected devices support WiFi 6E.

One of the keys to WiFi 6E or IEEE 802.11ax-2021 is that it does not improve speed per se, but rather improves the congestion level of a network.

The connection spectrum is improved from the 500 MHz of WiFi 5 to a maximum of 1,200 MHz, and the possibility of configuring up to 14 additional 80 MHz channels or 7 channels of 160 MHz is added.

Currently, it was only possible to configure up to 2 channels on 160 MHz. This translates into less congestion for the connection and more capacity to host simultaneously connected devices.

The latency of the standard is also reduced compared to WiFi 6 thanks to OFDMA technology.

Does this mean that if your device does not have WiFi 6E but your router does, you will not be able to connect to the Internet? No, since the standard allows to continue using the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands. The consequence is that you will not be able to take advantage of the aforementioned maximum benefits of this standard. You'll have to take a close look to see if the next time you buy a device it comes with WiFi 6E built in.