A brief discussion on the technological innovation and market prospects of Wi-Fi 6E

石榴姐

A brief discussion on the technological innovation and market prospects of Wi-Fi 6E [Copy link]

In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the entire world came to a standstill in both daily life and economic activities. However, the innovation of Wi-Fi wireless communication technology was not interrupted by the pandemic. Due to the impact of the pandemic, many people changed their original lifestyles, working and studying at home, and remote video chatting. Because of isolation, watching a large amount of video streaming and online games have also made people more dependent on Wi-Fi.

Wi-Fi 6 (IEEE 802.11ax) communication technology was launched in 2018. By 2021, Wi-Fi 6 has become the mainstream standard in the market. According to Omdia's estimates (Figure 1), by 2022, the shipment volume of Wi-Fi 6 main chips will approach 500 million. Wi-Fi 5 will continue to be the main Wi-Fi specification for mid- and low-end products, while Wi-Fi 4 will steadily expand into emerging applications and markets such as the Internet of Things (IoT), smart home, and automation.

Figure 1: WLAN IC shipments by technology (2018-2024)

In the beautiful atmosphere that Wi-Fi 6 has a bright future, experts from IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) and Wi-Fi Alliance (Wi-Fi Alliance) proposed new Wi-Fi technical specifications, which pushed the Wi-Fi spectrum from the original 2.4GHz and 5GHz to 6GHz in one fell swoop. More spectrum, wider bandwidth and higher frequency make Wi-Fi more flexible and imaginative in practical applications, and also bring new impact and innovation to the entire communications market.

At the end of 2018, in order to simplify the complex naming of Wi-Fi standards, the Wi-Fi Alliance officially changed the name of the original 802.11ax to Wi-Fi 6. At the same time, it retroactively changed the existing 802.11ac to Wi-Fi 5 and 802.11n to Wi-Fi 4 (Figure 2).

Figure 2: New Wi-Fi standard naming

In January 2020, the Wi-Fi Alliance officially announced the opening of the 6GHz (5925MHz – 7125MHz) band and gave it a new name Wi-Fi 6E. In April of the same year, the US FCC (Federal Communications Commission) also voted to open the 6GHz spectrum as an unlicensed band for Wi-Fi use. Wi-Fi has officially entered the "tri-band" era. In addition to the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands used by Wi-Fi 6 and previous generations of Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi 6E can also operate in the 6GHz band.

What advantages does the 6GHz band bring to Wi-Fi? In the world of wireless communications, spectrum is the most important and valuable thing. The larger the frequency band, the greater the data throughput that can be transmitted, which also means faster transmission speed and better efficiency. According to the W-Fi Alliance's plan, Wi-Fi 6E opens 14 additional 80MHz channels and 7 additional 160MHz channels. These additional channels do not overlap with each other. The new frequency bands and channels can help reduce congestion in existing Wi-Fi bands, especially in areas where multiple wireless networks with different frequency bands and the same frequency band are operating simultaneously, such as large public facilities and crowded places, such as schools, large shopping malls, stadiums, shopping streets, performance halls, etc.

Figure 3 is a list of unlicensed open frequency bands and channels allowed for Wi-Fi use.

Figure 3: Unlicensed spectrum used by Wi-Fi

As mentioned above, most of the existing Wi-Fi technologies operate in the two open frequency bands of 2.4GHz and 5GHz. Since they are open frequency bands, many wireless technologies also operate in these frequency bands, especially 2.4GHz. In addition to Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Zigbee and even household appliances such as home cordless phones and microwave ovens are all squeezed into the narrow 2.4GHz frequency band. Because of this, the 5GHz frequency band will be more widely used in Wi-Fi technology and become the standard configuration of Wi-Fi devices. Compared with 2.4GHz, the 5GHz frequency band is 10 times more than 2.4GHz (70MHz vs 700MHz). In order to make the 5GHz frequency band more efficient and avoid frequency band congestion and interference, the 5GHz frequency band is divided into two separate sub-bands U-NII 1-2a (low frequency band) and U-NII 2-2a (low frequency band) by using related hardware such as external front-end RF amplifiers (PA or FEM), filters, duplexers and software (Mesh, Indoor Roaming). The Wi-Fi tri-band wireless network architecture consisting of 2c-3 (high frequency band) and 2.4GHz is also a common configuration for mid-to-high-end Wi-Fi devices (as shown in Figure 4).

Figure 4: Wi-Fi 2.4GHz and 5GHz usage and summary

The unlicensed frequency bands used by Wi-Fi 6E are expanded from U-NII 1-3 of the original Wi-Fi 5 to U-NII 1-8, among which the newly added 6GHz frequency band is U-NII 5-8. Figure 5 shows the frequency distribution and power limit of U-NII 5-8:

Figure 5: New spectrum for Wi-Fi 6E and EIRP specifications

The extended frequency band of Wi-Fi 6E is from 5925MHz to 7125MHz, with a total bandwidth of 1.2GHz, which is nearly twice the bandwidth of 5GHz (U-NII1 U-NII3). According to the current spectrum planning, the US FCC will open all 1.2GHz bands, while Europe will only open U-NII 5 (5925MHz – 6425MHz).

One thing that needs special attention is that the 6GHz frequency band opened by Wi-Fi only supports the technical specifications of Wi-Fi 6 and is not backward compatible!

Figure 6: Wi-Fi 6E usage and summary

As the Wi-Fi 6E specifications are finalized, Wi-Fi network system solution providers will also upgrade the current Wi-Fi tri-band architecture from 2.4G + 5G (low band) + 5G (high band) to 2.4G + 5G (U-NII 1-3) + 6G (U-NII 5-8) (Figure 7).

The larger bandwidth supported by Wi-Fi 6E brings unlimited imagination to network communication equipment manufacturers, especially for enterprise-level and public hotspots (Wi-Fi hotspots); Wi-Fi 6 can solve the technical bottlenecks encountered by Wi-Fi 5, such as network congestion and uneven distribution of upload and download schedules. Since enterprise-level Wi-Fi access points and hotspots must be able to support a large number of users to connect at the same time and have perfect management of bandwidth and security, efficient connection and network service mechanisms can allow each Wi-Fi AP to connect and manage more users, allowing each user to enjoy a better user experience and reduce the number of Wi-Fi AP deployments based on the same coverage area. On the other hand, using the newly opened frequency band of Wi-Fi 6E with 1.2GHz bandwidth and less interference, some network equipment manufacturers have begun to plan to use this frequency band as a "backhaul network" between APs. Wi-Fi 6 has clear definitions and instructions for mesh or distributed Wi-Fi network architectures in the specifications. Using the new frequency band defined by Wi-Fi 6E as AP The backhaul network between APs allows each AP to have a more stable and faster dedicated network or channel to connect to each other, thereby achieving a fully seamless connection and indoor roaming full coverage indoor environment.

Figure 7: Wi-Fi 6 invented a three-band architecture

Figure 8 is a list of countries around the world that have recognized and are evaluating the Wi-Fi 6E extended frequency band. So far, the American and European countries have been given priority. Interested readers can visit the official website of the Wi-Fi Alliance to obtain the latest information.

Wi-Fi Alliance official website

https://www.wi-fi.org/countries-enabling-wi-fi-6e

Figure 8: Wi-Fi 6E global adoption

To date, Wi-Fi 6E products are not mature enough to be shipped in large quantities on the market. It is expected that commercial products supporting Wi-Fi 6E specifications will be officially released in the fourth quarter of 2021. As one of the world's top wireless RF solution providers, Qorvo will certainly not be absent from this fierce competition. Qorvo provides a complete solution for Wi-Fi 6E, while taking into account the advantages of low power consumption and small packaging, allowing network equipment manufacturers to have more room and flexibility in product development.

fuliabgting

It helps.