Hey there! Our wireless world is increasingly complex, with new WiFi standards and technical concepts that can leave your head spinning. My goal here is to clear up all that confusion, providing you a comprehensive yet friendly overview of the different WiFi types available now and what speeds the future may bring.
Whether you‘re a home user looking to upgrade your network or a business leader trying to chart a connectivity strategy, understanding this landscape is key to making sound decisions. We‘ll cut through the acronyms and marketing hype, so you can build high-performance wireless infrastructure tailored to your needs and budget.
Ready? Let‘s get started!
The Short Version: Major WiFi Standards Summarized
Before diving deeper, here‘s the 30 second overview of WiFi generations covered in this guide:
WiFi 5 (802.11ac) – Up to 1 Gbps speeds on 5GHz frequency. Mainstream adoption. Great for typical homes and small businesses.
WiFi 6 (802.11ax) – Faster and more efficient data transmission. Best suited for congested, high-density environments like corporate offices, medical centers, universities, and convention spaces.
WiFi 6E – An augmentation of WiFi 6 that utilizes newly available 6 GHz frequency spectrum for less interference and more capacity.
WiFi 7 (802.11be) – An emerging future standard promising over 20 Gbps speeds. Initial WiFi 7 draft expected completion in 2024.
Pretty straightforward, right? Now let‘s unpack what exactly these standards mean, their real-life performance, and how to choose what‘s best for your environment.
WiFi Radio Bands: Where Signals Reside
WiFi transmissions utilize designated radio frequency (RF) bands between 1 GHz to 6 GHz across much of the world. Different bands provide unique properties:
2.4 GHz Band
In use since the advent of WiFi in 1997, this frequency band offers wide coverage areas and penetration through walls and obstacles. However, only three non-overlapping wireless channels exist in 2.4 GHz leading to congestion issues in neighborhoods and apartment buildings. It remains helpful extending range in homes though.
5 GHz Band
By moving up the spectrum, the 5 GHz bands enable faster data rates while minimizing interference with 20+ available channels. The downside is shorter range, making it most suitable when devices are nearer to the WiFi router or access point.
6 GHz Band
This constitutes new, "clean" spectrum opened up by global regulators specifically for unlicensed WiFi usage. By only recently becoming available, 6 GHz provides a wide uncongested channel for next-gen devices to speed ahead. WiFi 6E takes advantage of this band.
Now that we‘ve covered where these wireless signals reside, let‘s explore the types of WiFi leveraging this spectrum and their distinguishing capabilities.
WiFi 5 – Bringing “Gigabit WiFi” to the Masses
Introduced in 2014 under the name 802.11ac, WiFi 5 set a new bar delivering over 1 Gigabit per second (Gbps) connectivity. That kind of speed was a gamechanger from earlier 80s and 90s WiFi standards struggled to stream HD video.
Beyond raw speed, WiFi 5 also expanded network capacity for handling many devices simultaneously – critical in our era of phones, tablets, computers, TVs, appliances and more.
Key Improvements with WiFi 5:
- Operates on wide 5GHz channels reducing interference.
- Leverages technologies like beamforming to concentrate signals.
- Spatial streaming sends data over multiple pathways simultaneously.
- Multi-user (MU) MIMO allows serving several clients at once.
These innovations enabled WiFi 5 to deliver on the promise of fast, reliable whole-home and small business coverage. It displaced older WiFi 4 gear rapidly. By 2019, over 75% of WiFi device shipments utilized WiFi 5.
Today, WiFi 5 remains an excellent choice for homes, apartments and small commercial locations. Actual throughput exceeds 600 Mbps for typical usage, keeping 4K streaming and large downloads humming. Installation is also plug-and-play for anyone comfortable configuring a smartphone.
However, WiFi 5 networks still face capacity constraints in extremely dense environments with 30+ high-demand users in close proximity. This drove the industry to develop the next evolution – WiFi 6.
WiFi 5 Suitable For:
- Homes
- Small businesses
- Retail shops
Recommended WiFi 5 Products
| Linksys Velop AX4200 Mesh System | Tri-band modular mesh provides blanket WiFi 5 coverage for homes/apartments. |
| NETGEAR Nighthawk Pro Gaming XR300 | Fast WiFi 5 gaming router keeping multiplayer smooth even with data-heavy titles. |
So WiFi 5 delivered big improvements, but the world always demands more speed. Next came WiFi 6 pushing boundaries even further.
WiFi 6 and 6E – Built for Speed AND Efficiency
Emerging in 2019, the WiFi 6 standard (known formally as 802.11ax) constitutes the newest top-tier networking technology today. It constitutes an evolution from WiFi 5, bringing faster headline speeds up to ~3 Gbps. However even more meaningful are underlying efficiency gains allowing better service even with many users.
Major Improvements with WiFi 6:
- Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) modulation packs more data in available spectrum.
- Up to 1024 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) encoding increases throughput per transmission.
WiFi 6 also introduces Target Wakeup Time (TWT) helping mobile devices maximize sleep vs active cycles – saving battery life!
Add these innovations up across an enterprise facility filled with people, and you see WiFi 6‘s true power – enabling fast, reliable wireless at scale.
The recently introduced WiFi 6E amendment complements WiFi 6 by adding access to the wide open 6 GHz band described earlier. This provides a massive 1,200 MHz of additional interference-free bandwidth for blazing WiFi speeds.
WiFi 6/6E Adoption Considerations
While WiFi 6 marks major progress on paper, realize gains depend greatly on client device capabilities – not just your shiny new router. To reap full benefits in speed and capacity, most of your network endpoints need WiFi 6 or WiFi 6E wireless chips too.
This client-side hardware upgrade cycle is a primary reason that enterprise and IT managers are taking phased approaches to WiFi 6 planning. As of 2022, surveys show only around 35% of devices on corporate networks supported advanced 802.11ax WiFi. That percentage grows daily though as companies issue new laptops, tablets, phones and sensors.
For home users with mostly modern mobile gear, WiFi 6 brings advantages today and provides future headroom as device needs grow. The same goes for many small business environments too.
Let‘s look at suitable applications:
WiFi 6 Ideal For:
- Corporate campuses
- Universities
- Hospitals/medical centers
- Stadiums and event venues
- High-density commercial buildings
And some top-rated recommendations:
WiFi 6 Products to Consider
| ASUS ZenWiFi AX6600 Tri-band Mesh System | Next-gen WiFi 6 brings faster speeds and 4X capacity to whole home wireless. |
| Aruba 530 Series Campus Access Points | Robust WiFi 6 APs designed specifically for high density enterprise buildings. |
| TP-Link Deco X90 WiFi 6 Mesh System | Cost-effective way to spread speedy AX6600 coverage across 5,000 sq ft spaces. |
WiFi 6 marks a big step providing the wireless foundation for technologies like 8K video streaming, virtual reality, smart cities and more over the coming decade.
And next up is WiFi 7 gearing up to push limits even further…
WiFi 7 – The Blazing Fast Future
Work is accelerating on WiFi 7, the upcoming generation also known as 802.11be. Expected to hit release in 2024, it will again enhance speeds, capacity, latency and reliability.
How WiFi 7 Boosts Performance
- Faster 320 MHz channel width – doubling WiFi 6‘s capacity
- Multi-link operations to combine channels
- 4K Quadature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) packing more data per waveform
- Enhanced multi-user (MU) MIMO allowing more simultaneous clients
Add up these wireless innovations and WiFi 7 technology will push maximum speeds past 40 Gbps! Now that‘s fast enough for 8K video, VR collaboration, and next-gen immersive applications on the horizon.
WiFi 7 also brings improved power efficiency. That leads to longer battery life crucial for phones, tablets, sensors and IoT endpoints.
When Does WiFi 7 Arrive?
Chipsets meeting official Wi-Fi Alliance certification aren‘t expected until late 2023 at the earliest. However, several leading manufacturers already offer routers and access points advertising "WiFi 7 readiness". These products ship with hardware technically capable of supporting the upcoming standard – only needing firmware/software updates down the road.
Purchasing pre-certified gear does entail some risk of compatibility issues. However, the leading consumer and enterprise WiFi vendors engineer solutions that should smoothly upgrade over time.
Here are two WiFi 7 pre-standard solutions worth considering:
| ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AXE16000 | Gaming router with latest hardware ready for WiFi 7 upgrades. |
| Extreme Networks AP510i Access Point | Enterprise-grade WiFi 7-capable AP managing 100+ devices per radio. |
The bottom line? While WiFi 7 promises blistering future speed, most homes and businesses will achieve excellent wireless performance through newer WiFi 5 and WiFi 6 gear over the next five years. Take time assessing your unique needs before investing.
I hope this all-encompassing guide to modern WiFi demystifies the differences across standards – empowering your connectivity decisions ahead. Please drop any questions below!
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