Much has been said in the last months of Wifi 6, a new standard for wireless connections. Although the easiest way to “title it” is to say that it will make your Wifi connection faster (which is true), the key is the way in which routers manage the increasingly large number of devices connected to the Internet in our homes.
Why Wifi 6 Because since the Wifi technology was launched in 1999, a total of six versions were released. WiFi 6 (or WiFi 802.11ax, to be more precise) is the sixth generation of this standard for wireless connections.
Launched in 2019 by the WiFi Alliance, one of its most outstanding features is that WiFi 6 can operate in both 2.4 GHz and 5GHz bands in order to take advantage of both.
As a note by the Europa Press agency indicates, this technology stands out from previous versions because it increases its capacity by 400 percent when several devices are connected at the same time. The technology that makes it possible is called OFDMA (Multiple Access by Division of Orthogonal Frequencies).
Beyond the advantage of the connections of several devices, its common speed is higher than the previous version, increasing it by 40 percent (it could reach 9.6 gigabits per second).
Other qualities highlighted by the agency’s report is that it avoids interference by using Color BBS technology (a technique that identifies each of the signals that live in a network so as not to confuse them and hinder the connection). It also allows you to configure schedules so that the devices are not connected to the network all the time and only do so when necessary (improving energy consumption).
The Wifi6 was introduced in 2019, but in January of this year, the Wi-Fi Alliance announced the arrival of a new version of WiFi 6, called WiFi 6E, whose main feature is its ability to use the 6 GHz band.
This makes it possible – the company indicates – that users have 14 additional channels of 80 MHz and 7 additional channels of 160 MHz of channel width that are added to the 2.4 and 5 GHz already existing in WiFi 6 (and that we already mentioned ). This opens a new picture in 4K or virtual or augmented reality broadcasts (in addition to admitting more connected users at the same time).
Finally, this Wifi is also more secure, since in order to receive the WiFi 6E certificate you must have the WPA3 security protocol (security protocol that improves encryption and provides the user with better defenses against cyber-attacks).