6GHz Wi-Fi technology moving towards room-by-room Gigabit Wi-Fi
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Distributed Wi-Fi setups like this NETGEAR Orbi will be heading towards the Gigabit Wi-Fi goal on the 6GHz waveband
ARRIS: How 6 GHz Wi-Fi will revolutionise the connected home | Wi-Fi Now
My Comments
ARRIS who make home-network equipment for the American market, are pushing the idea that the 6 GHz Wi-Fi network is a major evolution for the home network.
This is coming about due to various national government departments who have oversight over radiocommunications use within their jurisdiction working on regulatory instruments to open up unlicensed low-power indoor use of the 6 GHz radio waveband. Such regulation is expected to be passed by the FCC in the US by mid-year 2020 and OFCOM in the UK by 2021 with other jurisdictions to follow suit over the next few years.
It will open up seven new 160MHz channels for the Wi-Fi 6 technology with the feasibility to open up a Gigabit Wi-Fi network. This is expected to lead to the evolution of the self-configuring distributed Wi-Fi setup with a Gigabit Wi-Fi backbone plus each access point offering a 160MHz Wi-Fi 6 channel alongside support for low-power narrower-bandwidth 2.4GHz and 5GHz channels for legacy equipment.
There will be the implementation of Wi-Fi EasyMesh and Wi-Fi EasyConnect standards to permit secure setup and an open-frame heterogenous distributed-wireless network.
One limitation I do see confronting this ideal that Arris put forward is the short-wavelength Wi-Fi backbone which can be a hindrance with certain building materials and construction approaches like double-brick walls. There will also be the requirement to run many access points to make sure the average home is covered properly. Here, the wired backbone whether “new wires” like Ethernet or “no new wires” like HomePlug AV2 powerline or MoCA TV-antenna coaxial still has toe be considered for a multiple-access-point network.
ARRIS was even positioning for the evolution of the distributed Wi-Fi network to have each room with its own access-point node capable of yielding Gigabit bandwidth. They also put forward ideas like having these access points mounted on the ceiling. But I would also prefer the idea of a normally-sessile endpoint device like a network printer, Amazon-Echo-style smart speaker or a smart TV being its own access point that is part of the distributed Wi-Fi network. It then avoids the need to equip a room with an extra access point if you are intending to have this kind of device in that room.
The use of Wi-Fi 6 technologies will also be about working with environments that are congested as far as Wi-Fi wireless networking is concerned. These environments like multiple-premises buildings, airports or hotels are likely to have many Wi-Fi devices operating on many Wi-Fi networks which with prior technologies leads to poor performance especially on the throughput and latency side.
It may have to take a few years for the Wi-Fi wireless network to hit the Gigabit throughput mark as the 6 GHz band opens up and more access-point and client devices come on the market.
