Blog post written by Brian Wollak, Senior Wireless Architect/ Wi-Fi Evangelist. You can follow him on Twitter @LukeStellar
I will speculate there are 100’s of self-help books that start out with assessing oneself and having a vision of where you want to be, then creating a plan around that vision. Self-help guru Tony Robbins is all about creating an “extraordinary life.”
I think the Wi-Fi industry and the global regulatory commissions have been to one of these self-help conferences. They know exactly how creating “extraordinary” Wi-Fi will benefit consumers, businesses, analytics, IoT, and AR/VR to name a few.
I. Federal Communications Commission (FCC): Wi-Fi plans
The vision is Wi-Fi 6E which was recently coined by the Wi-Fi Alliance and is being spearheaded by the FCC to open blocks of the 6GHz spectrum. It is certain other regulatory bodies around the world will follow suite once approved by the FCC.
The FCC plans to open 1.2 GHz of the 6GHz spectrum which means there will be more lanes available on the Wi-Fi super-highway.
This allows seven more lanes of 160 MHz and 14 more lanes of 80 MHz vroom, vroom as they say. Not only will there be more lanes but unlike 5 GHz, there will not be DFS requirements (Dynamic Frequency Selection).
What does that mean?
The lanes should be clearer and offer higher throughput with less interference.
None of the constrains of 5Ghz will apply. Just a wide-open lane with plenty of room to stretch, well at least for now. If we know anything about technology, we know that the speeds of today will be quickly surpassed in the future.
But for now, the vision is Wi-Fi 6E in the very near future and it promises higher speeds, less latency, and less interference. Which translates to supporting more users by adding additional capacity.
II. Wi-Fi 6E expectations
It is expected that we will see consumers benefit first, then business. Consumers can expect better high-definition streaming experiences and enhanced VR/AR. We can also expect new smartphones to support Wi-Fi 6E.
Business can expect better location services, IoT and analytics which has a direct correlation to top line growth. In the end the entire industry will benefit from Wi-Fi 6E.
That is why here at Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise we stand ready to support our customers and the industry by preparing for Wi-Fi 6E.
