Wi-Fi 6 release date, news and rumors.

Wi-Fi 6 release date, news and rumors.
First of all: what is Wi-Fi 6? In short, this is next-generation wireless technology, formerly known as 802.11ax, until the Wi-Fi Alliance decides to rename it more succinctly. Wi-Fi 6 replaces 802.11ac (now called Wi-Fi 5), which is used by most routers today. The general idea of ​​this reclose is to make the name of the standard easy to understand. So instead of bombarding you with a meaningless string of numbers and letters, you get something akin to 3G, 4G, and 5G phones. Other than a new naming convention, what does Wi-Fi 6 offer the consumer? As you'd expect, you'll get faster wireless performance, which is well earned, but more specifically, it's designed to deliver much better Wi-Fi performance in crowded environments, with integrated hardware. Other advantages in terms of efficiency. Want to learn more about this incoming wireless standard and what it could mean for your home or office? Read on for all the details, as well as the latest news and speculation about this exciting step forward for Wi-Fi...

Cut to the hunt

Wi-Fi 6 It's not just about faster speeds, but better performance in congested Wi-Fi environments (Image credit: Netgear) (Image credit: Netgear)

Wi-Fi 6 release date

According to the Wi-Fi Alliance, the nonprofit head of the wireless world, Wi-Fi 6 will be released "later in 2019." Obviously, it will probably be towards the end of the year (assuming there is no serious slippage). A certification program was announced in January to ensure that Wi-Fi 6 branded devices meet specified standards. This system is expected to be released in the third quarter of 2019. At this point, you may be thinking "wait a minute: don't Wi-Fi 6 routers already exist (although most of them still have the mention 802.11ax)?" ? " And you would be right: there is, of course, but with reservations. Some routers that support Wi-Fi 6 and are already on the market include the Netgear Nighthawk AX8 and AX4, TP-Link's Archer AX6000, and Asus RT-AX88U (Asus even offers a Wi-Fi 6 mesh router coming up). Keep in mind, though, that these early devices are based on the Wi-Fi 6 standard project, which hasn't been finalized yet (and won't be finalized later this year). Note that these routers may bypass some of the features that Wi-Fi 6 certified devices must remove, depending on whether the specifications that manufacturers must meet have changed significantly since the new standard was officially released. From what we've heard, the potential differences will be minor, but we won't know the details before the official release of Wi-Fi 6. Also, even if you have a router that supports Wi-Fi 6 (draft), you'll still need 6 client devices. Wi-Fi enabled devices on the other end of the connection to take advantage of the new Wi-Fi standard. And early adopter material is even thinner on the ground, at least now; An example is the Samsung Galaxy S10 smartphone. That said, a number of Wi-Fi 6-capable laptops from all the major vendors have been announced at CES, and some of them should be coming soon (we're expecting Alienware laptops soon for starters). After the official release of Wi-Fi 6 at the end of 2019, by 2020 an increasingly rapid expansion of supporting routers and client hardware can be expected, all of which will be certified to the Wi-Fi standard. Fi 6 fully finished.

Asus RT-AX88U The Asus RT-AX88U router is one of the first candidates for Wi-Fi 6 (Credit: Asus)

Wi-Fi 6 devices and prices.

To give you an idea of ​​the cost of Wi-Fi 6 compatible devices, let's take a quick look at some of the router prices listed above, which were produced in accordance with the Wi-Fi 6 standard. The TP-Link Archer AX6000 it currently weighs around $300 or $350, and the Asus RT-AX88U is priced between $300 and $325 (around AU$470). Netgear's Nighthawk AX8 is around €280 or €300 (around AU$435), while the Nighthawk AX4 is around €200 or €200 (around AU$290), which is as cheap as it gets. It is currently Of course, we will see more Wi-Fi 6 routers compatible with wallets come into play over time. For Wi-Fi 6 client devices, the Samsung Galaxy S10 is currently starting at an exorbitant price of €799 (€899) or US$899 (AUD 1,349).

Intel Slide on Wi-Fi 6 Intel's vision on Wi-Fi 6 in a nutshell, although the chip giant still calls it here on 802.11ax (Intel credit)

Wi-Fi 6 specification and performance

Wi-Fi 6 works on 2,4 GHz and 5 GHz frequencies (and there are more frequency bands in the future), unlike Wi-Fi 5, which is only 5 GHz, and will be faster than its predecessor, as you expected. What kind of speed boost we'll ultimately get isn't entirely clear (and will vary in different scenarios anyway). In theory, Wi-Fi 6 increases top speeds by 37% compared to Wi-Fi 5 (with a single device). Although you probably won't realize all of this gain, it's a bit like the "puzzle of a rope attached to the bumper of a moving car" scenario: You can see a substantial portion and some very revealing elevation. in terms of gross income. Unlike previous versions of Wi-Fi standards, however, this new offering isn't just focused on speeding up. Wi-Fi 6 is instead aimed at improving performance in crowded environments where there are many wireless devices, such as an apartment building or a public place like a stadium. Or even at home, if multiple family members may have multiple mobile devices and personal computers. It will also help ease the connectivity strain caused by the increasing number of connected IoT (Internet of Things) devices and smart home devices. Wi-Fi 6 uses several technologies to accomplish all of this, including a key player in the form of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA). This allows more people to simultaneously use the same wireless channel for much more efficient operation, not to mention better bitrate and latency (meaning a more responsive connection). Wi-Fi 6 also uses MU-MIMO, which has already been integrated with Wi-Fi 5 hardware, and allows you to simultaneously transfer more data (and simultaneously manage multiple client devices). In Wi-Fi 6, the technology has been enhanced to double the number of spatial streams that can be transmitted from a previous maximum of four, to potentially cover eight devices (also adds uplink support) - Upstream Streams - as well as the downlink. So yeah, there's a bit of jargon involved here, along with other nifty tricks, including better beamforming for better remote speeds, and using 1024-QAM (as opposed to 256-QAM on Wi-Fi 5). for better speed. Adding to the acronyms and weird technicalities, Wi-Fi 6 promises to quadruple (or even more) the average throughput per user in congested wireless environments, where many devices are online. This is a pretty amazing improvement in high-traffic areas and is backed by the promise of increased network efficiency by a factor of four as well. With the release of more and more hardware components, especially due to the increasing number of smart home devices, connected devices, and IoT devices in general, these improvements will be essential to our future in Wi-Fi. If we were stuck on Wi-Fi 5, we'd be stuck in wireless mire. Wi-Fi 6 has another advantage in terms of efficiency: it offers better battery life for client devices. This is accomplished through a technology called Target Wake Time (TWT), which essentially allows the router and the client to talk to each other to determine when the client device needs to wake up to transmit (or receive) data. This means the client hardware won't have to constantly listen for wireless signals, which will reduce battery usage. This will be particularly useful for IoT devices that only communicate sporadically online, such as gadgets, but to a lesser extent phones, tablets, and laptops. The overall Wi-Fi 6 network efficiency improvements (multiplied by four) that we've already mentioned should also help with battery life, which would also help reduce power consumption.

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