Page 71 - SAMENA Trends - October 2019

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ARTICLE

Six Things You Need to Know

About Wi-Fi 6

With the Internet of Things and the imminent

launch of 5G networks driving more connectivity
across the region and beyond, Wi-Fi as we know
it will simply struggle to cope with the increased
demands that will be placed on it. This is where
Wi-Fi 6 comes into play.

We believe that 2019 is going to be the year that Wi-Fi 6 – the next evolution
of the omnipresent Wi-Fi – will become a must-have for businesses across
the world. With the Internet of Things and the imminent launch of 5G
networks driving more connectivity across the region and beyond, Wi-Fi as
we know it will simply struggle to cope with the increased demands that will
be placed on it. This is where Wi-Fi 6 comes into play. Here are six things
you need to know about Wi-Fi 6.
1. Wi-Fi 6 isn’t as new as you’d think. As a matter of fact, Wi-Fi 6 has been
under development since 2014, after the High Efficiency WLAN Study
Group determined a need for greater spectrum efficiency in 2013. That Faisal Ameer Malik
led to the creation of project 802.11ax in May of the following year, driven Chief Technology Officer - Enterprise
by a standard task group headed by Huawei’s Osama Aboul Magd. Business Group
2. Wi-Fi 6 addresses the pain points of its predecessors. Ever struggled to Huawei Middle East
get a social media post to upload while at a concert or sports event?
Had difficulty downloading an email at a big work conference? Areas of
high connectivity traffic experience poor Wi-Fi service, and Wi-Fi 6 is
specifically designed to improve performance in dense environments. It
does so by using spectrum more efficiently, managing interference, and
making enhancements to protocols such as Medium Access Control years. This will be mostly due to the increased use of
(MAC). technologies such as 4K/8K Ultra HD Video, virtual
3. It wasn’t always called Wi-Fi 6… but that sure is an easier name than and augmented reality across education, enterprise,
802.11ax standard! The name, Wi-Fi 6, was chosen because this is the and industrial activities. Wi-Fi 6 will deliver the
sixth generation of Wi-Fi networking technology, following on from Wi-Fi high-quality network, bandwidth, reliability, and low
5 (802.11ac) and Wi-Fi 4 (802.11n). latency needed to provide an optimal experience in
4. Wi-Fi 6 is more than just an upgrade. While it is an evolution, Wi-Fi 6 isn’t the IoT world.
just a performance upgrade for Wi-Fi 5 – it makes some fundamental 6. The first Wi-Fi 6 products are available now. Huawei
changes to the standard that enables it to perform significantly better. launched Wi-Fi 6 products earlier this year, under
Wi-Fi 6 is designed to deliver superior user experiences for application its new AirEngine Wi-Fi brand. The combination
performance, support more number of users, particularly in bandwidth- of AirEngine and Wi-Fi 6 capabilities delivers the
intensive or latency-sensitive applications. That means fewer dropped connectivity needed to drive digital transformation
video calls, amongst many other benefits. for enterprise services and create an optimal user
5. 90% of enterprises will use Wi-Fi 6 by 2023. According to a report experience with ultra-high performance capacity.
released by Huawei during Mobile World Congress 2019, the uptake of We already can see use cases emerging of Wi-Fi 6
Wi-Fi 6 will be almost complete in the corporate sector in the next four deployment with customers in Middle East market.

71 OCTOBER 2019