CV_Spring_2021

A lthough it seems 2020 was a lost year because COVID-19’s spread forced so many businesses to hunker down, it was a great year for progress in one industry sector – Wi-Fi. Chile, South Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States desig- nated the 6 GHz band for unlicensed use. Several other countries began exploring whether to open the band. The Wi-Fi Alliance, a non-profit organization that promotes Wi-Fi technology and certifies Wi-Fi products, introduced the Wi-Fi 6E branding, and top Wi-Fi innovators announced a variety of new products. In the United States, this is largest spectrum addition since the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) cleared the way for Wi-Fi in 1989. The new spectrum essentially makes four times the amount of space available for routers and other devices. That all has led to a busy start to 2021. And in March, Research- AndMarkets estimated that by 2026 there will be more than 13 billion cumulative devices on networks enabled with Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E, representing a growth rate of around 26 percent between 2020 and 2026. The research firm also predicted there will be around 3.5 billion devices shipped in 2026 alone, with an annual opportu- nity worth $17.5 billion. Increasing numbers of connected devices and high bandwidth applications such as high-resolution video streaming, gaming, AR/VR, and large media file transfers are what’s driving demand for more efficient Wi-Fi networks, said ReserchandMarkets analysts. Certification on Tap In mid-January, the Wi-Fi Alliance launched its Wi-Fi 6E certification program. It is based on the IEEE 802.11ax standard, which was approved in February and was released in March. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a scholarly society, publisher and standards organization, headquar- tered in the United States. The IEEE standard is designed to operate in license-exempt bands between 1 and 7.125 GHz. The 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands already are used, but the 6 GHz band (5.925-7.125 GHz in the United States) is much wider. In fact, Wi-Fi 6E can use up to 14 additional 80 MHz channels or seven additional super wide 160 MHz channels in 6 GHz for applications such as high-definition video streaming and virtual reality. MOBILE & WIRELESS By Bruce Christian THE SIXTH SENSE TP-Link’s Archer AX73 Dual-Band Gigabit Wi-Fi 6 Router Wi-Fi 6E represent first major update in more than 20 years 28 CHANNEL V ISION | May 2021