April 2020 in, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) allocated 1,200 megahertz of spectrum for unlicensed used in the 6GHz band. That has been the biggest fleet of spectrum accepted for WiFi since 1989. This Starting of the 6 GHz band a lot more than doubles the quantity of spectrum designed for Wi-Fi, allowing for much less congested airwaves, broader channels, and higher-speed connections and allowing a variety of innovations across industries. Because the FCC choice to open the 6 GHz band, 70 countries with 3.4B folks have approved or have 6 GHz regulations in mind (Source- WiFi-Alliance)

Currently, since organizations increase their usage of bandwidth-hungry video, deal with more and more IoT and client products connecting with their networks and increase their network edge. As a total result, wireless networks have become oversubscribed, throttling application functionality. This frustrates all system users by impacting an individual experience, reduces productivity.

Throughout this post, I’ve tried to cover the fundamentals and the operating guidelines for Wi-Fi 6E in the 6 GHz band.

What’s the “Electronic” in Wifi6Electronic?

The 802.11ax regular (Wi-Fi 6) also operates in the two 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands. For this reason, Wi-Fi within the 6 GHz band will undoubtedly be identified by the real name of WiFi-6Electronic. The WiFi-Alliance chose this naming in order to avoid confusion for 802. 11ax devices that assistance 6 GHz also. The “6” represents the sixth era of Wi-Fi and the “E” represents extended.

WIFI-6Electronic: Increase in amount of channels

The 6 GHz band represents 1200 MHz of spectrum which will be available from 5.925 GHz to 7.125 GHz. Understanding that 2.4 GHz band only had 11 channels, with the brand new spectrum, Wi-Fi shall get access to 59 20-MHz channels, 29 40-MHz channels, 14 80-MHz channels, and 7 160-MHz channels. Along with 2.5GHz and 4GHz, this not merely represents a complete large amount of channels, but plenty of wide channels to use on high speeds furthermore.

Benefit of an enormous spectrum

Wi-Fi has had an extremely less quantity of spectrum always. Typically, Wi-Fi had just 80 MHz of spectrum in the two 2.4 GHz band and 500 MHz in the 5 GHz band. DFS channel occupy the right section of the 500MHz on 5GHz band.

This left not a lot of contiguous spectrum. It had been made by it difficult to acquire or allow 80 MHz or 160 MHz channel width, however the maximum Wi-Fi information speeds can only just be achieved with one of these channel widths.

With the 59 20-MHz channels, Wi-Fi 6E will remove congestion problems effectively. At the very least for the near future, there will be a minumum of one 20 MHz channel available without congestion always. Because of the contiguous spectrum and the 14 80-MHz channels or the 7 160-MHz channels to pick from, a radio will be able to look for a channel available, totally free of congestion. This permits the technology to provide the highest speeds.

Background on Wi-Fi Specifications

Two main groups have the effect of shaping Wi-Fi’s evolution. The Wi-Fi Alliance and IEEE. The IEEE 802.11 defines the technical specs of the wireless LAN regular. The WiFi-Alliance targets certification of Wi-Fi gadgets for interoperability and compliance, and also the marketing of Wi-Fi technology

Over time, various classifications of WiFi systems were given various naming conventions by the Wi-Fi Alliance. Than “802 rather.11b”, it’s simply “WiFi 1.” Similar to how cellular phone companies make reference to 3G and 5G as different system speeds despite the fact that the term is nearly always only a marketing device. This classification is meant to help with making it easier for customers to understand – rather than understanding a complete alphabet soup, users may just search for “WiFi 4” or even 6” as what they want “WiFi.

The IEEE 802.11ax regular for higher efficiency (or He or she) addresses MAC and PHY layer procedure in the two 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz and 6 GHz bands.

IEEE Guidelines for WIFI-6Electronic

HE (High Efficiency) just operation in the 6 G

Probably the most important choices created by the IEEE 802.11ax group will be that it disallows old generation Wi-Fi devices within the 6 GHz band. That is very important since it implies that only high performance 802.11ax devices shall be capable to operate within this band.

Generally, upcoming Wi-Fi requirements have offered backward compatibility with earlier standards always. This is a boon to clients in addition to vendors, since network products doesn’t have to be totally overhauled at each brand new standard. The flip aspect to the is it will be a way to obtain congestion on the protocol, since legacy tools is discussing the available spectrum with the newer devices furthermore. In the 6 GHz however, just new high efficiency products will be permitted to operate .

With all the analogy of street transport to spell it out Wi-Fi, the two 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz band may be compared to congested roads where both slower and fast automobiles travel, as the 6 GHz band may be the equivalent of a fresh, huge highway that only allows the fastest vehicles.

Quick Passive Scanning

With 1200 MHz of spectrum and 59 new 20 MHz channels, a station with a dwell period of 100 ms per channel would require almost 6 seconds to perform a passive scan of the complete band. The typical implements a fresh efficient process for customers to find nearby access factors (APs). In Wi-Fi 6E, an activity called quick passive scanning has been used to concentrate on a reduced group of channels called favored scanning channels (PSC) . For 6 GHz-only procedure, a particular subset of channels will undoubtedly be identified as favored scanning channels (PSC) where in fact the major channel of a broad channel BSS should reside, limiting the channels litigant requirements to scan to find a 6 GHz-just AP. PSCs are usually spaced 80 MHz apart, therefore a client would just need to scan 15 channels

Out of band discovery

Dual-band or even tri-band APs operating within the 6 GHz band and also in a lesser band (2.4 GHz or 5 GHz) will undoubtedly be discoverable by scanning the low bands. In the low band, APs includes information regarding the 6 GHz BSS in a lower life expectancy neighbour record in beacons and probe reaction frames. Your client will go in to the lower bands first, discover the AP and proceed to the 6 GHz band presently there. This will decrease the probe requests which are delivered by stations just looking for APs because it will never be allowed unless this is a PSC channel.

Wi-Fi 6E Channelization

The 802.11ax regular defines channel allocations for the 6 GHz band. This allocation determines the guts frequencies for 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz, and 160 MHz channels on the whole 6 GHz band. Nevertheless, regulatory domains specs take precedence on the IEEE specification and channels which are dropping on frequencies or overlapping on frequencies that aren’t backed in a regulatory domain can’t be used.

AFC and Avoiding Incumbent Customers

The FCC defines two forms of gadget classifications with completely different transmit power rules. The target is to avoid potential interference with existing 6 GHz incumbents here. Several lessons of APs are increasingly being defined to adjust to the U-NII bands and circumstances where they’ll be operating. The standard energy (SP) AP and the reduced strength indoor (LPI) AP and incredibly low energy (VLP) AP. The reduced power APs, because the title implies, have reduced strength levels being that they are only used indoors.

The outdoor, or regular power APs, have a significant possible of interfering with existing 6 GHz users in the geographic area. Set satellite services (FSS) found in the broadcast and wire industries might curently have a license for the channels used. Therefore, any brand new unlicensed customers (Wi-Fi) must ensure they don’t impact the existing services. The answer to the is to develop a real solution to coordinate the spectrum use in order to avoid interference issues. The basic concept will be a new wireless gadget (access stage) will consult with a registered database to verify its operation won’t impact a registered consumer. For 6 GHz procedure, this is named an Automated Frequency Coordination (AFC) provider.

Standard power APs need to use an AFC services to safeguard incumbent 6 GHz procedures from RF interference.

Summary

As users connect increasingly more devices, current wireless airspace can be highly congested, creating source contention and degrading overall performance. Migrating to Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6e will undoubtedly be crucial for infrastructure to meet up ever increasing demands customers and devices are putting on your wireless systems. WLAN in 6 GHz is really a bit different from some other bands, and the IEEE attempted to leverage the lack of legacy products in the band.

Hopefully, this given information is useful, and piqued your interest.

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Reference:

[1] https://www.wi-fi.org/downloads-registered-guest/Wi-Fi%2BSpectrum%2BNeeds%2BStudy_0.pdf/33364

[2] https://www.broadcom.com/info/wifi6e

[3] https://www.broadcom.com/company/news/product-releases/52926

[4] http://dynamicspectrumalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/DSA-Event-Handout_Final.php

[5] https://www.wi-fi.org/news-events/newsroom/wi-fi-alliance-brings-wi-fi-6-into-6-ghz

[6] https://www.qualcomm.com/news/releases/2020/02/25/qualcomm-highlights-technology-leadership-industry-readies-wi-fi-6e

[7] https://www.litepoint.com/uwb

[8] https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-opens-6-ghz-band-wi-fi-and-other-unlicensed-uses-0

[9] https://www.wi-fi.org/value-of-wi-fi