Issue 623 •19January–1February 2022 51FIVEREASONSYOUSHOULDUPGRADETOWi-Fi 6
1
Connectmoredevices
without bottlenecks
Ofcom’slatestsurveyofBritish
broadband(www.snipca.com/40466)
calcula tedtheUK’saveragedownload
speedtobe50.4Mbps.At thatrate,you
coulddownloadanalbumin20seconds,
andahigh-definitionfilminl essthan
fiveminutes.
Thoseti mesarealreadyimpressive,and
upgradingtoW i-Fi6probabl ywouldn’t
reduce thembecauseWi-Fi5already
supportsatheoreticalmaximumof
3,500Mbps(3.5Gbps),andevenWi-Fi4
supports600Mbps.Sowhysplashouton
Wi-Fi6anditsmaximumof9,608Mbps
(9.6Gbps)?
Well,its houldeaseanybottlen ecks
inyourhome.Imaginethateverydevice
onyournetworkisconnectedtot he
routerbyapipe,andthatratherthan
workingwithdata,theysendandreceive
water. Itdoesn’tmatterhowwideyour
pipesarebetweenyourdevicesan dthe
router:ifthepipein sidetherouteris
toonarrow,theflowofi ncomingwater
willbe reduced, andeverythi ngon
yournetworkwillsuffer. Upgrading
toaWi-Fi6routerislikewideni ngthe
pipewithintheroutersothere’smoreto
shar ebetweenea chdevic ethat’s
connectedtoi t.
Thisshouldmeaneverythi ngonyour
networkwillrunatm aximum speed.
WithWi-Fi6,then,youshouldnoticean
overallimprovementintheperforman ceof
yournetwork–particularlyifyouuseit
fordata-intensiveactivities likestreaming
high-definitionvide o,playingonlinegames,vide ochatsandcarryi ngoutlarge
downlo ads.2
ReduceWi-Fiinterference
betweendevices
Wi-Fi6doesn’tonlymovedatamore
quickly,italsohandlesitmoreefficiently.
Forexample,aWi-Fi 6 routercan
sub-divideyournetworksignal,soitcan
communicatewithmultipledevices
simultaneously.Betteryet,theroutercan
detectwhereeachdeviceislocated.So,if
it’sservicingasmartspeakerinthenext
roomandastreamtoasmartTVonthe
floorabove,itwilldirectthespeaker’s
datastreamhorizontallyandtheTV
signalvertically,andapplyanydiagonal
adjustmentsthatarerequired.
Thisprocess,calledbeamforming,
reducestheamountofdataheading
offinotherdirections,andpotentially
reducesinterference.Youshouldfinda
beamformingcontrolinyourrouter’s
administrationscreens.Tomakesurethisisenabledinour
NetgearRAX 70 routerweopenedthe
Advancedtabinthecontrolpanel,then
clickedAdvancedSetup,followedby
WirelessSettings.Nextwescrolledtothe
bottomofthescreenwherewemadesure
the‘EnableTxBeamforming’boxwas
ticked(seescreenshotabove).
Thedataitselfisencodedmore
efficiently,solessofitneedstobe
sentandreceived.Thisprocessissimilar
towhenyoucompress(or‘zip’)afile
beforeattachingittoanemail.Datais
alsoassignedadistinct‘colour’.This
colour-codingisn’tphysical,soyou
won’tseepinkandbluestreamsflowing
acrossyourhome,butitisusedbythe
Wi-Fi6standardtodifferentiatedata
onabusynetwork.
Imagineapostalworkeristaskedwith
deliveringhalfadozenletters,eachone
sealedwithina6insquareenvelope.Ifall
theenvelopesarewhite,theonlywayto
ensureeachonereachesthecorrect
recipientwouldbetocarrythemoneata
timefromthepostoffice(router)tothe
letterbox(devic e)beforeret urningforthe
nextletter.That’seffectivelywhat
happensonn on-Wi-Fi6networks,where
thedataisn’tcolour-coded.
Butift he6insquareenvelopeswere
eachadifferen tcolou r, thepostalworker
couldcarry them allato nce.Ther ed
envelopecouldbepostedthroughthered
letterbox,theblueonethroughtheblue
box,andsoo n,withoutthepostie
retu rningtobasebetweeneachone,and
thejobwouldbec omplet edmorequickly.
By‘colouring’data,Wi-Fi6cando
muchthesamething,byc arryi ngand
differen tiati ngseveralstreams
simultaneous ly,andprocessingthem in
parallel.AsyoucanseefromIntel’s
illus trationle ft,eachdevicewillreceive
Wi-Fi6breaksdatainto‘coloured’chunks, so they canbeprocessedfaster chunksofda taassoonastheybecome
Wi-Fi6
STANDARDWi-Fi
Switch on
beamforming
within your
router’s
‘Advanced’
settingsWI-FI 6
WHYYOUMUST
UPGRADETO