Current Wi-Fi Challenges

A Wi-Fi network needs to be designed to address the growing demand for the high volume and diversity of connected devices and services we have gone from less that 10 devices per AP beyond a hundred.
This affects user experience. Help is on the way.In the real world, the problem isn’t how fast Wi-Fi can go, but whether the Wi-Fi network has enough capacity to handle the expanding population of client and IOT devices, as well as numerous users with diverse networking needs.
Today, mobile devices are robust enough to replace more expensive laptops, so Wi-Fi has had to catch up. The issues facing next generation Wi-Fi systems involve degradation to system efficiency due to a growing density of Wi-Fi clients and network traffic with lots of small data frames, such as Voice over Wi-Fi (VoWiFi).
With an ever-growing number of devices using Wi-Fi, along with the emergence of the Internet of Things (IoT), Wi-Fi networks need to do a better job of managing today’s wireless environments, increased data traffic, and a diverse mix of applications and services with differing quality of service (QoS) requirements.

The Next Wi-Fi Standard – 802.11ax Now Called Wi-Fi 6.

Past 802.11 amendments have delivered higher data rates and wider channels but haven’t addressed efficiency challenges in wi-fi networks. Wi-Fi traffic jams are still inevitable. Despite the higher data rates and 40/80/160 MHz channels used by 802.11n/ac radios, multiple factors create traffic congestion in 802.11 networks. The 802.11ax (WIFI 6) amendment focuses on high efficiency with technology to address the inefficient use of the Wi-Fi medium.
The 802.11ax (WIFI 6) family of access points are designed for high performance and high efficiency environments using latest in wifi standards, the latest in ethernet standards, and Aerohive’s proven software defined Wi-Fi architecture.

The 802.11ax (WIFI 6) Vision – More Than Just Speeds And Feeds.

The next Wi-Fi standard, 802.11ax (WIFI 6), is fast approaching IT HAS ARRIVE (New APs and phones /devices are shipping in January 2020- and it’s not just about faster Wi-Fi speeds.
The changes in the 802.11ax (WIFI 6) standard will improve the way Wi-Fi networks work by leveraging technology that substantially improves capacity, provides better coverage, and even reduces congestion, resulting in a far better user experience overall. It’s Wi-Fi for the real world.

The 802.11ax (WIFI 6) standard is designed to increase capacity by up to four times. This will provide benefits in both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands in a variety of environments including enterprises, schools, retail businesses, hotspots, airports, and even the home.

Things You Need To Know About 802.11ax (WIFI 6)

It’s a Wi-Fi paradigm shift: 802.11ax (WIFI 6) is not just about better throughput. The 802.11ax (WIFI 6) standard will substantially improve capacity, provide better coverage, and reduce congestion in Wi-Fi networks.

Installing in early 2020, You won’t need to rip-and-replace your existing Wi-Fi installations: If you expect your next upgrade to last 5+ years, it only makes sense to upgrade with 802.11ax (WIFI 6) technology. Additionally, if your organization still has legacy 802.11a/b/g/n APs deployed, go ahead and consider an enterprise-wide upgrade.

Look forward to a improved backward compatibility: Unlike the 802.11ac standard, 802.11ax (WIFI 6) supports both 2.4 and 5 GHz wireless devices, so 802.11n (and potentially 802.11g and 802.11b) devices will be able to run on 802.11ax (WIFI 6) Wi-Fi networks.

Your smart home is a high-density Wi-Fi environment: The primary use case defined for 802.11ax (WIFI 6) is high-density network environments. But high density doesn’t just mean stadiums, hospitals, and warehouses. Today’s smart homes quickly become “high density” with 20 or more wireless devices connecting to a home Wi-Fi network.

Wi-Fi security will be better. Although the 802.11ax (WIFI 6) standard itself doesn’t specify any new security enhancements or requirements, it does require WPA3 security as a prerequisite. As a result, 802.11ax (WIFI 6) devices will include the latest security design features and capabilities to address modern threats that did not exist just a few years ago when 802.11ac was released.

No qualms about higher data speeds either. 802.11ax (WIFI 6) will support 1024-QAM and new modulation and coding schemes (MCS) that define higher data rates providing a potential 20 percent increase in data throughput over 256-QAM (introduced in 802.11ac). No more Obsessing over spatial reuse.

MU-MIMO enhancements are coming. Several enhancements to MU-MIMO proposed in 802.11ax (WIFI 6) include grouping sounding frames, data frames, and other frames among multiple users to reduce overhead and increase uplink response time.

RU ready for simultaneous multi-user Wi-Fi access? We can help you decide and take you through the steps, just drop us a note.