It is difficult to overstate the importance of reliable wireless connectivity in a work-from-anywhere world. Organizations must support more wireless users, devices and applications than ever, and analysts say total Wi-Fi traffic is doubling every three years. However, legacy infrastructure based on older Wi-Fi standards cannot adequately support changing network usage patterns.
Before the pandemic, most corporate Wi-Fi networks were based on older standards that were adequate for basic connectivity needs. Covid changed everything, however. Reliance on Wi-Fi networks skyrocketed once remote networking and videoconferencing supplanted in-person work and meetings. Video has been a particular challenge. Remote workers depend on video applications for virtual meetings, video conferencing, team collaboration, training sessions, and more. Video’s real-time connectivity and bandwidth requirements consume a huge amount of network resources and can create intolerable congestion and delays.
Upgrading to Wi-Fi 6 can address today’s demands. It is a significant improvement over previous standards, offering faster speeds, lower latency, increased capacity and more dependable connectivity. Here’s a closer look at six key benefits an upgrade can deliver:
1. Increased Capacity
Capacity planning has become a central focus of Wi-Fi network design. It involves calculating the number of devices that can be concurrently supported based on bandwidth requirements and other utilization characteristics. Wi-Fi 6 allows organizations to connect more devices simultaneously without compromising performance. It utilizes advanced technologies such as orthogonal frequency division multiple access (ODMFA), which can break a Wi-Fi channel into hundreds or even thousands of subchannels. This allows up to 18 client devices to send data simultaneously without creating signal contention or congestion.
2. Faster Data Transfers
Wi-Fi 6 delivers theoretical data transfer speeds of nearly 10Gbps, about three times faster than Wi-Fi 5. Real-world transfers may not be quite that fast due to factors such as distance, interference and device density, but Wi-Fi 6 generally delivers throughput that is 40 percent to 70 percent higher than Wi-Fi 5. These speeds ensure smoother video streaming while supporting faster file transfers and improved application performance.
3. Lower Latency
Wi-Fi 6 reduces latency by 75 percent compared to previous standards, which is crucial for real-time applications such as voice and video conferencing. One way it accomplishes this is through the use of multi-user, multiple-input, multiple-output (MU-MIMO) technology, which enables more efficient use of available bandwidth by allowing multiple data streams to travel across different physical paths.
4. Improved Energy Efficiency
Wi-Fi 6 features various power-saving mechanisms that enhance the battery life of connected devices. The Target Wake Time (TWT) feature allows devices to spend more time in sleep mode, conserving energy. This feature is particularly beneficial for IoT devices that need to transmit small packets of data infrequently. Additionally, the Basic Service Set (BSS) Coloring feature reduces unnecessary device wakeups and transmissions caused by interference, which conserves power and optimizes battery life.
5. Enhanced Security
Wi-Fi 6 introduces several security improvements, including support for WPA3, the latest wireless security protocol. It provides increased cryptographic strength (192-bit), stronger password protection and more robust authentication. WPA3 also supports Opportunistic Wireless Encryption (OWE), a standard that encrypts every connection between a device and an access point with a unique key without additional credentials. Even if hackers manage to intercept data packets, they won’t be able to decrypt the master key.
6. Future-Proofing
Upgrading to Wi-Fi 6 ensures organizations can support growing numbers of connected devices and emerging technologies for years to come. It also creates a logical path for eventually upgrading to the Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7 standards. Backward compatibility with legacy devices ensures you can continue to connect and communicate with devices that use older standards.
A Wi-Fi upgrade will deliver a host of operational, efficiency and security benefits, but it may require modifying or replacing some network elements to support increased data rates and new features. Give us a call to learn more about making the move to Wi-Fi 6.
