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Wi-Fi

Last Updated: 2022-12-05
Wi-Fi 4 Wi-Fi 5 Wi-Fi 6 / 6E Wi-Fi 7
Launch 2007 2013 2019 / 2021 2024
IEEE Standard 802.11n 802.11ac 802.11ax 802.11be
Max rate 1.2 Gbps 3.5 Gbps 9.6 Gbps 46 Gbps
Bands 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz 5GHz 2.4 and 5 GHz / 6 GHz 1-7.25 GHz
Security WPA 2 WPA 2 WPA 3 WPA 3
Channel size (MHz) 20, 40 20,40,80, 80+80, 160 20,40,80, 80+80, 160 Up to 320
Modulation 64-QAM, OFDM 256-QAM, OFDM 1024-QAM, OFDMA 4096-QAM, OFDMA
MIMO 4x4 MIMO 4x4 MIMO, DL MU-MIMO 8x8 UL/DL MU-MIMO 16x16 MU-MIMO

Wi-Fi 6 vs Wi-Fi 5

The current generation is Wifi 5, or IEEE 802.11ac. The next generation is Wifi 6, or IEEE 802.11ax.

  • Wifi 6 is faster than Wifi 5, but may not be that obvious.
  • The true difference is that Wifi 6 can support more devices
    • MU-MIMO, or "multi-user, multiple input, multiple output", is upgraded from 4 devices to 8 devices
    • OFDMA, or "Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access", allows one transmission to deliver data to multiple devices at once.
  • Improve battery life, especially for low-power, IoT devices.
  • Better security: WPA3

Wi-Fi 6 vs Wi-Fi 6E

  • Wi-Fi 6: 2.4GHz and 5GHz
  • Wi-Fi 6E: add 6GHz band, providing 5x more channels (14 80MHz channels and 7 160MHz channels)

Usage

You would need BOTH Wifi 6 routers AND Wifi 6 devices to take full advantages of it.

Devices: Some motherboards have Wifi chips built-in, otherwise you can buy a PCIe Wifi card or USB Wifi Adaptor.