Meet the 6th Generation of WiFi

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WiFi 6(802.11ax) is designed to improve speed, increase efficiency and reduce congestion in heavy bandwidth usage scenarios

What is WiFi 6? (also known as 802.11ax)

WiFi 6 is the next generation standard in WiFi technology. WiFi 6 also known as “AX WiFi" or "802.11ax WiFi” builds and improves on the current 802.11ac WiFi standard. WiFi 6 was originally built in response to the growing number of devices in the world. If you own a VR device, multiple smart home devices, or simply have a large number of devices in your household, then a WiFi 6 router might just be the best WiFi router for you. In this guide, we’ll go over Wi-Fi 6 routers and break down how they’re faster, increase efficiency, and are better at transferring data than previous generations.

Explosively Fast WiFi up to 9.6 Gbps

Ultra-Smooth Streaming
802.11ax 1024-QAM  4× Longer Symbol  160 MHz Channel 9.6 Gbps
802.11ac 256-QAM 6.9 Gbps

WiFi 6 uses both 1024-QAM to provide a signal packed with more data (giving you more efficiency) and a 160 MHz Channel to provide a wider channel to make your WiFi faster. Experience stutter-free VR or enjoy stunningly vivid 4K and even 8K streaming.

4x More Capacity for More Devices

Ideal for Crowded Networks
802.11ax 8x8 DL/UL MU-MIMO  OFDMA  BSS Color 4X
802.11ac MU-MIMO

WiFi 6 uses 8x8 uplink/downlink, MU-MIMO, OFDMA, and BSS Color to provide up to 4x larger capacity and to handle more devices. Come home to a virtually flawless smart home experience or throw house parties with a network built  to handle all your guests and their devices.

PHY Number of data
subcarriers
Coding rate Bits/symbol Time per OFDM
symbol (0.4μs GI)
  1SS 4SS 8SS
802.11ac 234 (80 MHz) × 5/6 × log2(256) ÷ 3.6 µs = 433.3 Mbps 1.74 Gbps NA
802.11ax 1960 (160 MHz) × 5/6 × log2(1024) ÷ 13.6 µs = 1.2 Gbps 4.8 Gbps 9.6 Gbps

Pack More Data ­
With 1024-QAM

25% faster than 256-QAM

With 1024-QAM, each symbol carries 10 bits rather than 8 bits, improving raw speeds by 25% compared to 802.11ac 256-QAM. Watch Netflix at home or live stream Twitch Broadcasts from your home computer – with 1024-QAM, streaming just got that much better.

bits/symbol
bits/symbol
speed improvement
Frequency f
Frequency f
11ac: 256 Subcarriers in 3.6 μs (0.4 μs GI)
11ax: 1024 Subcarriers in 13.6 μs (0.8 μs GI)
  802.11ac (WiFi 5) 802.11ax (WiFi 6)
Number of Data Subcarriers 234 980
Symbol Duration(μs) 3.6 (3.2 symbol + 0.4 GI) 13.6 (12.8 symbol + 0.8 GI)
Valid Data Subcarriers Rate 65 72.05882
Improvement   1.108597
* One Symbol, 80 MHz Channel

More Speed and

Greater Stability

4x Longer OFDM Symbol

OFDM is a symbol that transmits data. It divides its data among smaller sub carriers for more stability and wider coverage. AX WiFi uses a 4x longer OFDM symbol to create 4x more sub carriers. Because of this, WiFi 6’s longer OFDM symbol provides increased coverage and makes it 11% faster. Enjoy rock solid coverage from your garage to the second story and get ultra-fast connections for all your smart home, mobile, gaming and desktop devices in between.

More Bandwidth on a Wider Channel

160 MHz Channel Width

WiFi 6 expands the WiFi band from 80 MHz to 160 MHz, doubling the channel width and creating a faster connection from your router to the device. With WiFi 6, you can enjoy 8K movies, large file downloads and uploads, and responsive smart home devices – all without buffering.

160 MHz
80 MHz

Increased Efficiency with OFDMA

Make Latency A Thing of The Past

The WiFi 6 standard uses OFDMA for increased efficiency. Imagine your WiFi connection as a series of delivery trucks delivering data packets to your devices. With 802.11ac WiFi, each delivery truck or “packet” could only deliver one parcel to one device at a time. But with OFDMA, each truck can deliver multiple parcels to multiple devices simultaneously. This vast improvement in efficiency works for both uploads and downloads.

Figure below shows the working scenario of only one antenna.
  • Waiting
    Client 2
    Waiting
    Data Transmitted

    802.11ac | without OFDMA

  • Client 1
    Client 2
    Client 3
    Data Transmitted

    802.11ax | OFDMA

Connect to

More Devices Simultaneously

With 8 x 8 MU-MIMO

With traditional MU-MIMO, multiple users can access the router simultaneously without any noticeable decreases in bandwidth quality– up to a point. However, with 8 x 8 MU-MIMO, more than 8 streams are available for users to choose from. And whereas 802.11ac MU-MIMO only works for downloads, 8 x 8 MU-MIMO works with both uploads and downloads. This means that whether you’re streaming, downloading, torrenting, playing VR/AR, MMO’s or RPG’s; with WiFi 6’s 8 streams, there’s more than enough bandwidth for everyone.

Minimize WiFi Conflicts with Your Neighbor

With WiFi 6’s BSS Color

Interference from your neighbors' wireless networks can cause issues with your wireless signal. BSS (Base Service Station) Color, marks frames from neighboring networks so that your router can ignore them. If you’ve ever lived in an apartment or close to your neighbors, this means that your router just became that much more efficient – no extra work required.

Signals interfered overlapped
Client
Client
Without BSS Color
Less signal interference
Client
Client
BSS Color Working...
Transmitting
Sleep State
Sleep State
Waiting
Waiting
Transmitting

Reduce Power Consumption

With Target Wake Time

Target Wake Time (TWT) allows devices to negotiate when and how often they will wake up to send or receive data, increasing device sleep time and substantially improving battery life for mobile and IoT devices.

TP-Link Best Selling Wi-Fi 6 Products