What is WiFi 6 Release 2
At CES 2022, the Wi-Fi Standards Organization officially released Wi-Fi 6 Release 2, which can be understood as V 2.0 of Wi-Fi 6.
One of the features of the new version of the Wi-Fi specification is to enhance the wireless technology for IoT applications, including improving power consumption and solving problems in dense deployments, which are common when deploying IoT networks in places such as shopping malls and libraries.
Wi-Fi 6 addresses these challenges with improved throughput and spectral efficiency. It turns out that it benefits not only consumers, but also smart homes, smart buildings, and smart factories that want to deploy Wi-Fi IoT sensors.
As more and more people start working from home, there has been a major shift in the ratio of downlink to uplink traffic. The downlink is the movement of data from the cloud to the user computer, while the uplink is the opposite direction. Before the pandemic, the ratio of downlink to uplink traffic was 10:1, but as people returned to work after the pandemic subsided, that ratio has dropped to 6:1. The Wi-Fi Alliance, which drives the technology, expects that ratio to approach 2:1 in the next few years.
Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 R2 Features:
- Wi-Fi 6 R2 adds nine new features optimized for enterprise and IoT applications that improve overall device performance on Wi-Fi 6 bands (2.4, 5, and 6 GHz).
- Throughput and Efficiency: Wi-Fi 6 R2 supports such key performance metrics with UL MU MIMO, enabling simultaneous access to multiple devices with greater bandwidth for VR/AR and certain categories of Industrial IoT applications.
- Lower power consumption: Wi-Fi 6 R2 adds several new low power consumption and sleep mode enhancements, such as broadcast TWT, BSS maximum idle period and dynamic MU SMPS (spatial multiplexing power saving) to extend Battery Life.
- Longer range and robustness: Wi-Fi 6 R2 provides longer extended range by using the ER PPDU function that extends the range of IoT devices. This is helpful for configuring equipment such as a home sprinkler system that may be on the edge of the AP range.
- Wi-Fi 6 R2 will not only ensure devices work together, but will also ensure devices have the latest version of Wi-Fi security WPA3.
The main advantage of Wi-Fi for IoT is its native IP interoperability, which allows sensors to connect to the cloud without incurring additional data transfer charges. And since APs are already ubiquitous, there is no need to build new infrastructure. These advantages will enable Wi-Fi technology to play an increasing role in the booming Internet of Things applications.
