Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 Certification Program to Accelerate Wi-Fi 6 CPE Development

On September 16, nonprofit group Wi-Fi Alliance announced that the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 program certification program had officially launched. Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 supports advanced security protocols, Wi-Fi CERTIFIED WPA3, and advanced capabilities including Multiple User, Multiple Input, Multiple Output (MU-MIMO), Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA), and Target Wake Time (TWT) for improved battery life in Wi-Fi devices; 160 MHz channels for increased bandwidth with low latency; 1024-QAM for increased throughput by encoding more data in the same amount of spectrum; and transmit beamforming to enable higher data rates. The Wi-Fi 6 certification program will enable Wi-Fi device makers and service providers to speed up development of Wi-Fi 6 devices that meet the IEEE 802.11 ax standard.

A number of Wi-Fi 6 chipsets and devices have been announced by industry players including Broadcom, Intel, Qualcomm, Quantenna, Marvell in the chipset market and ARRIS, ASUS, Cisco, D-Link, Netgear, Ruckus, etc. in the Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) market. At present, select Wi-Fi networking products from vendors including Broadcom, Intel, Marvell, Qualcomm, and Ruckus support Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6. Qualcomm’s recently announced Networking Pro 1200 platforms joined the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 list.

High efficiency Wi-Fi networks have been an essential requirement in today’s broadband homes. The increasing number of connected devices per household, together with the adoption of video streaming, cloud gaming, and Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality (AR/VR) applications, drives the efficiency and reliability of Wi-Fi networks. In addition to high Wi-Fi expectations in residential networks, increasing traffic per users in Wi-Fi devices is also driving cellular offloading, high density Wi-Fi deployments for the enterprise and service provider segments. Wi-Fi 6 standard can achieve a 25% increased data rate compared to 802.11ac (Wi-Fi 5) standard and it is now set to gain momentum.

Most of the Wi-Fi 6 devices are now available in the retail market from multiple vendors, including ASUS, D-Link, Huawei, Netgear, and TP-Link in the residential product segment and Aruba, new H3C, and Ruckus Networks in the enterprise segment. In the residential product segment, Wi-Fi 6 devices are mainly available through the retail segment at present, while service providers are currently looking into Wi-Fi 6 deployment. The retail price of the Wi-Fi 6 routers available today can cost up to US$200 and above. Unless device makers bring down these prices to an affordable range for most consumers, the adoption rate could be limited.

Most of the Wi-Fi 6 chipsets and devices available today support 2x2 or 4x4 MIMO configurations with up to 8 spatial streams while products targeting high-end market support 8x8 MIMO configurations and up to 12 spatial streams. Devices supporting lower MIMO configurations can be cost efficient in some cases. For example, a tri-band Wi-Fi mesh system can cost at least 30% more than a dual-band mesh system for the same coverage area. Although a tri-band system supports faster speed compared to a dual-band system, vendors and service providers can choose to develop dual- or tri-band systems depending on the requirements of different markets and consumer demands in order to achieve the right price points.

Broadband homes that already have gigabit speed broadband access can be well-positioned to upgrade to Wi-Fi 6 devices, which support theoretical data speed up to 10 Gbps. However, many broadband homes that get less than gigabit broadband access might find it less beneficial to invest in Wi-Fi 6 CPE. It is important for service providers to increase gigabit broadband coverage to accelerate the Wi-Fi 6 adoption in the residential market. While developing Wi-Fi 6 for products for providing better efficiency, it is beneficial to add features such as voice assisted platforms to communicate with entertainment systems in the home, software solutions to manage smart home applications, and cloud based residential Wi-Fi network management and device level control abilities for broadband users. In addition, both device makers and service providers need to ensure consumer awareness of Wi-Fi 6 products to accelerate the deployment and maximize the potential of the new Wi-Fi standard. The launch of the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 program and the right strategy by device makers and service providers to develop and deploy Wi-Fi 6 products will accelerate the Wi-Fi 6 adoption rate. ABI Research expects that more than 50% of Wi-Fi CPE shipped in 2024 will support the Wi-Fi 6 standard.