WiFi 6 Or WiFi 6e: Which One Should Businesses Opt For?

Although WiFi 6 now accounts for the majority of sales of home WiFi routers, a new wireless data standard is on the rise. The WiFi Alliance launched the WiFi 6E in 2020. Given the name, WiFi 6E appears to be a little advancement over WiFi 6. Perhaps you’re now wondering how the two stack up against each other. The primary attributes that set the two apart are discussed here. Let’s read.

If your company’s wireless infrastructure currently relies on 802.11ac as its wireless standard, you are probably considering upgrading soon. After all, that standard was released almost an entire decade ago, back in 2013, and the world has changed a lot since then. For those unaware, the IEEE recently changed the naming convention that we have grown accustomed to since 802.11 was introduced in 1997. Without going back too far, 802.11g is now known as WiFi 3, 802.11n is WiFi 4 and 802.11ac is WiFi 5. That would mean that WiFi 6 is the next successor and would precede WiFi 7. Well, not quite. WiFi 6 debuted in 2019, and then late last year, WiFi 6e was released as a technical extension of the WiFi 6 standard. So, what’s the difference and if you’re upgrading, which standard should you embrace?Â

Know the Difference Between WiFi 6 and WiFi 6e

Both have improved security

Both standards have a lot in common, and from a security point of view, there is very little difference. Both standards utilize WPA3, which was released in 2018. Keep in mind that WiFi 5 uses WPA2 by default, dating back to 2004. One distinguishing improvement of WPA3 over its predecessor is that it is far more impervious to dictionary attacks. For those who protect their wireless connections with a pre-shared key (PSK), WPA and WPA2 allow hackers to throw thousands of passwords from a precompiled list until they get a hit. Networks that used the minimum number of characters and didn’t follow basic practice complexity requirements were susceptible to attack.Â

WPA3 prevents this by replacing PSK authentication with a new technology called Simultaneous Authentication of Equals (SAE). Unlike PSK, SAE doesn’t send the passphrase between WiFi devices during the exchange, limiting each device to one password guess for each authentication cycle. This significantly expands the amount of time required for a dictionary attack. Of course, better technology is meaningless if you still insist on using passphrases such as â€œpassword123â€ or â€œqwerty.â€ For those currently using WPA2 Enterprise, WPA extends the length of the encryption key from 128 bits to 192 for greater security.

Another great feature of both standards is the utilization of something called Opportunistic Wireless Encryption (OWE). Providing wireless access to unknown customers or guests has always been a challenge. Using PSK to encrypt the connection meant you had to somehow convey the passphrase to them, which is never easy. However, while convenient, open access opened your wireless environment up to man-in-the-middle attacks. Here an attacker intercepts the four-way handshake process of an unencrypted connection to trick users into connecting to a rogue wireless router. Open wireless sessions are also susceptible to packet sniffing. OWE gives you the best of both worlds. It offers the convenience of an open wireless connection while still encrypting session traffic using a secret key that the end-user doesn’t have to know.Â

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Both offer better performance than WiFi 5

Regarding speed, performance and efficiency, WiFi 6 and WiFi 6e offer significant improvements over WiFi 5. For one thing, WiFi 5 only supported the 5 GHz, so devices that only supported 2.4 GHz had to connect using WiFi 4. While 5 GHz offers greater bandwidth than 2.4 GHz, it services a smaller coverage area, so distant devices still require 2.4 GHz to connect. WiFi 6 and 6e support both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz, offering your client devices the flexibility to choose the better option. Some other ways WiFi 6 and WiFi 6e are superior to WiFi 5 include the following.Â

Both have a maximum throughput of 9.6 GB versus only 3.5 for WiFi 5.
Both have Target Wake Time (TWT) capable that allows devices to determine when they will normally wake up to send and receive data. This reduces power consumption and expands the battery life of wireless devices.Â
While WiFi 5 only allowed a single user per channel, the newer alternatives allow up to 30 users in a single channel.
Both support up to 8 MU-MIMO beams simultaneously, while WiFi 5 only supports four, thus allowing for more devices to connect simultaneously.

In the end, more devices can connect to your access points with faster speeds and greater bandwidth regardless of which standard you choose to upgrade to. So, what’s the point of WiFi 6e then?

The big differentiator that only WiFi 6e has

While both standards support 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz, WiFi 6e does one better. It’s the only wireless standard that supports the new 6 GHz frequency band. Thus, WiFi 6e devices can operate within their exclusive area, thus bypassing the other two overutilized bands. This allows them to operate without interference from noisy legacy devices that still rely on legacy protocols. Because WiFi has been dedicated to wireless devices, you don’t have to worry about interference from other devices such as microwaves. Think of WiFi 6e as the commuter or toll lane on the Interstate that gives commuters a dedicated lane to bypass everyone else clogging up the highway during rush hour. In this case, you only need a wireless client that supports WiFi 6e.Â

The new 6GHz band was created for today’s wireless workloads. It offers 59 additional 20 MHz channels and 29 additional 40 MHz channels. The multi-gigabit low latency connections it supports make it ideal for 4K and 8K streaming so that virtual reality applications and high-definition video conferencing sessions run optimally. While 6 GHz still can’t reach as far as 2.4 GHz, WiFi 6e access points come equipped with three radios to accommodate all three frequencies, allowing distant devices to connect still using 2.4 GHz if need be. While WiFi 6 supports WPA3 and OWE, these security protocols are mandated for all certified devices operating in the 6 GHz frequency, so minimum-security levels are guaranteed.

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The one caveat

There is one small downside to WiFi 6e, but it is only temporary. Although multiple WiFi 6e access points are available on the market today, few clients support the new protocol that is still just months old. But that will change quickly, and since WiFi 6e infrastructure devices are backward compatible with WiFi 6, WiFi 5 and even older devices, you can support your current wireless fleet while preparing for the inevitable future ahead.Â

Conclusion

While upgrading your wireless infrastructure to the WiFi 6 standard will offer you improved security and performance for your wireless environment, taking the full leap to WiFi 6e, which offers 1,200 MHz of new spectrum, will maximize your upgrade intentions. The exclusivity of the 6 GHz frequency band and mandated security make WiFi 6e the logical choice for anyone looking to transition from their current WiFi 5 environments.

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