Wi‑Fi 6E
What is Wi‑Fi 6E?

Wi‑Fi 6E enables access to the new 6 GHz band which translates into 1200 MHz of clean spectrum in the US and much of the rest of the world and nearly 500 MHz of clean spectrum in the EU. This represents the single largest allocation of unlicensed spectrum in history and nearly triples the spectrum available for Wi‑Fi. The “E” in Wi‑Fi 6E stands for “Extended” since Wi‑Fi 6E extends the capabilities of Wi‑Fi 6 to the 6 GHz band for more capacity, wider channels, and less interference.

Agricultural scientist inspecting plants.
  • Wi‑Fi 6E explained
  • How does Wi‑Fi 6E work?
  • Why Wi‑Fi 6E?
  • What device types support Wi‑Fi 6E?
  • What device classes support Wi‑Fi 6E?
  • What is the status of 6 GHz-enabled client devices (Wi‑Fi 6E devices)?
  • How do I choose a Wi‑Fi 6E vendor?
  • What is the Wi‑Fi 6E regulatory status?
  • What are the differences in Wi‑Fi 6E in the US and EMEA?
  • Are Wi‑Fi 6E APs available for outdoor/ruggedized environments?
  • Wi‑Fi 6E APs
  • Wi‑Fi 6E expands to the 6 GHz band
Wi‑Fi 6E explained

Wi‑Fi 6E explained

Wi‑Fi 6E expands on the existing Wi‑Fi 6 (802.11ax) standard and allows access to a new 6 GHz band. Wi‑Fi 6E takes the efficiency features from Wi‑Fi 6 like OFDMA, WPA3, and Target Wake Time and extends them to the 6 GHz band to provide more contiguous spectrum and less interference. With Wi‑Fi 6E, enterprises can support new use cases that demand multi-gigabit speeds like high-definition video.

Wi‑Fi 6 versus Wi‑Fi 6E

 
Wi‑Fi 6
Wi‑Fi 6E (6 GHz)

Band

2.4 and 5.0 GHz spectrum.

2.4, 5 and now 6 GHz spectrum (Devices must be 6 GHz enabled).

Features

  • Multi User efficiencies, multi-user input/output (MU-MIMO) to remove bottlenecks.
  • OFDMA to create carpool lanes to piggyback smaller packets like voice data.
  • Target Wake Time (TWT) to allow APs to ping IoT devices at longer intervals & reduce traffic/extend battery life.
  • WPA3 and Enhanced Open to enhance guest access security.

Includes all features in Wi‑Fi 6 plus:

  • More capacity in the 6 GHz band.
  • Wider channels, up to 160 MHz, which are ideal for high-def video and virtual reality.
  • No interference from microwaves, etc. because only 6E-capable devices can use the band.

Benefits

Increased efficiencies to provide greater throughput with the same number of APs, ideal for dense environments and large numbers of IoT devices.

Supports greater capacity and wider channels to support multigigabit traffic, ideal for high-definition video and AR/VR (Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality).

HPE Aruba Networking Access Points

Expand network capacity and boost IT, user, and IoT experiences with enterprise connectivity that’s intelligent, fast, and secure. 

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