Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E: The key to the Internet of Things

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Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E: The key to the Internet of Things [Copy link]

According to Wi-Fi Alliance, the Internet of Things (IoT) is expanding at an exponential rate, revolutionizing the digital environment and creating a new connected world on a global scale. According to forecasts, by 2025, there will be 55.7 billion connected devices worldwide, 75% of which will be connected to an IoT platform.

This unprecedented connectivity is providing businesses with the opportunity to work smarter and more efficiently, while transforming industries such as manufacturing through autonomous operations and machine learning. Globally, it is driving innovation in the form of “smart cities” and enabling healthcare providers to more effectively monitor and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

If we want to connect everything from home appliances to traffic lights, we need strong and reliable connectivity. Wi-Fi will play a key role in providing this connectivity in industrial IoT scenarios, providing high-performance, low-latency connections that can help reliably support a variety of use cases.

Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E: The secret to success

The Internet of Things spans many use cases with different connectivity needs, requiring high bandwidth and low power, low latency capabilities. While these needs have been difficult to meet with a single technology in the past, Wi-Fi 6 provides a solution.

Wi-Fi 6 delivers higher performance, lower latency, and faster data rates, complementing the deployment of 5G networks by ensuring connectivity indoors, in public places and smart buildings, as well as in underserved areas where 5G is much less efficient. With technologies such as Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA), Wi-Fi 6 can better meet the diverse needs of IoT devices.

Wi-Fi 6E then extends these great benefits to the 6 GHz band, significantly increasing available bandwidth. Wi-Fi 6E takes full advantage of this increased bandwidth, less congested spectrum, and up to 7 ultra-wide 6 GHz channels to support potential innovations such as AR/VR, 8K streaming, and more.

Wi-Fi 6E also offers power consumption improvements such as Target Wake Time (TWT) to provide more support for highly congested IoT networks, greatly improving efficiency and battery life while connecting many different battery-powered devices and sensors to the network.

The expansion of Wi-Fi into the 6 GHz band is also critical to supporting industrial IoT devices around the world, as it will provide much-needed additional spectrum for Wi-Fi use. However, not every country is taking full advantage of this opportunity, which will only occur when the full 1,200 MHz of unlicensed spectrum at 6 GHz is made available for Wi-Fi use. Regulators need to act if we are to meet the growing connectivity demands of the exponentially growing number of IoT devices around the world.

Additionally, with the rapid growth of IoT, there is a heightened focus on security, so new certification programs supporting Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E will not only help accelerate technology adoption, but also provide strong WPA3 security and global interoperability assurance to ensure IoT devices remain securely connected.

In addition, we have Wi-Fi HaLow, which operates in the sub-1 GHz spectrum, providing longer range, low-power connectivity for applications such as sensor networks and wearables. This technology has a longer range than many other IoT technologies, and its ability to penetrate walls or other obstacles is also an important consideration for development.

Together, Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E will enable IoT vendors to bring secure and interoperable products to market that deliver the best experience for their customers.

The future of IoT will change the way society operates, according to the Wi-Fi Alliance. In turn, it creates a need for connectivity. Enhancements to Wi-Fi will provide critical connectivity for this space, but regulators must recognize the current pressures on Wi-Fi and provide more spectrum so that Wi-Fi can continue to deliver tremendous IoT innovation.

Qorvo has leading solutions for these markets. For example, in the smart home sector, Qorvo provides the following options:

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