When Wi-Fi 6 enters the home, car and other industry markets, modules become the key players!

"What's the Wi-Fi password here?" In recent years, I believe many people will ask this question when they go to restaurants and coffee shops.

That’s right! Wi-Fi has long become one of the most basic “physiological” needs in people’s lives and work. The latest Wi-Fi 6 is even considered an innovative wireless technology on par with 5G.

So, what are the unique advantages of Wi-Fi 6? Faced with some special industry scenarios that previous generations of Wi-Fi technology standards could not meet, can Wi-Fi 6 be up to the task? What is the relationship between Wi-Fi 6 and 5G in the future? The author will interpret these questions one by one.

A different sixth generation: Wi-Fi 6 has multiple high-tech features and three major advantages

Looking back at the history of Wi-Fi technology development, from 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n, 802.11ac to the latest 802.11ax, the development of six generations of Wi-Fi technology standards has gone through more than 20 years. On October 4, 2018, the Wi-Fi Alliance officially announced that the new generation of Wi-Fi technology version 802.11ax will be named Wi-Fi 6, and the previous two generations 802.11n and 802.11ac will be named Wi-Fi 4 and Wi-Fi 5 respectively.

With the upgrading of technology, Wi-Fi networks are now ubiquitous, whether in homes or businesses. According to statistics from the Wi-Fi Alliance, more than half of all data transmitted over the Internet is transmitted using Wi-Fi.

Although the previous generation of Wi-Fi 5 can already meet the needs of most home and enterprise scenarios, with the advent of the era of the Internet of Everything, the massive networking of smart terminals, the emergence of ultra-high bandwidth services such as VR/AR, and the popularization of new technologies such as cloud and AI have put forward unprecedented higher demands on Wi-Fi. In particular, the industrial control and automotive industries have more stringent requirements on the performance of Wi-Fi networks, such as capacity, transmission rate, latency, power consumption, and coverage.

For these "picky" scenarios, Wi-Fi 6 not only continues to be compatible with 2.4GHz and 5GHz operating frequency bands, but also introduces many innovative 5G-related core technologies such as OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access), 1024-QAM channel coding, BSS coloring, TWT technology (target wake-up time), spatial multiplexing, etc., and improves the MU-MIMO (uplink and downlink multi-user multiple input and multiple output) function, so that Wi-Fi 6 has four major advantages: high speed, improved capacity, reduced latency and low power consumption.

For example: OFDMA can effectively improve network utilization efficiency and reduce latency; spatial multiplexing technology can greatly improve the anti-interference ability of Wi-Fi 6; TWT technology can greatly reduce device power consumption; the full version of MU-MIMO technology can support up to 8 terminals for data upload and download at the same time, while increasing network capacity, it can also allow each device to obtain higher speeds when multiple devices are connected at the same time; what is amazing is that Wi-Fi 6 has a maximum speed of up to 9.6Gbps, a 4-fold increase in access volume, and can reduce power consumption by 30% compared to Wi-Fi 5.

High demand in the industry market: modules promote large-scale commercialization

The qualitative leap in network capacity, transmission rate, latency, power consumption, etc., has made it possible for Wi-Fi 6 to move towards the high-end demand areas of the industry market. In order to achieve large-scale commercial implementation, Wi-Fi 6 not only needs the support of chips, routers and other links, but also mature Wi-Fi 6 module products to support the networking functions of terminals.

In order to meet the needs of industrial control and automotive industries for Wi-Fi 6 modules, some module manufacturers in the industry have launched Wi-Fi 6 module products. For example, as a global leading supplier of IoT modules, Quectel Communications recently officially launched the industrial-grade module FG50X series and the automotive-grade module AF50T.

In addition to being suitable for traditional network communications (routers, CPE), high-definition video (OTT boxes, smart TVs), smart home appliances and other consumer-grade scenarios, the industrial-grade FG50X series Wi-Fi 6 modules use the Qualcomm FastConnectTM 6800 mobile connection subsystem, which can provide a faster, more secure and stable Wi-Fi experience with a maximum data transmission rate of up to 1774.5Mbps. Because it supports WPA3 encryption mode, the encryption level is improved, thereby greatly improving the security of Wi-Fi connections, so it is fully capable of various industrial application scenarios such as industrial control.

In response to the stringent requirements of automotive standards, the AF50T module is based on Qualcomm Technologies' most advanced automotive Wi-Fi 6 chip QCA6696, and is manufactured in strict accordance with the IATF 16949:2016 automotive industry quality management system standard. It fully complies with automotive quality processes such as APQP and PPAP, and perfectly meets the automotive industry's stringent requirements for electronic products. The maximum data transmission rate can reach 1774.5Mbps, which can fully meet the needs of in-vehicle entertainment, on-board diagnostics and other functions in the Internet of Vehicles scenario.

How to deeply understand the Wi-Fi 6 module needs of specific industry customers such as home, industrial control and automotive industries? It is not okay to get in the car and then pierce the ears! It is necessary to have long-term technical accumulation in the Wi-Fi module market, as well as a deep understanding and accurate insight into the needs of industry market users, in order to provide industry users with better IoT module technology, products and solution support. As a global leading IoT module supplier, Quectel already has mature Wi-Fi 4 and Wi-Fi 5 modules FC20/FC21, FC30/FC31 and AF20 in the Wi-Fi field, and has many years of service experience in the consumer, industrial and automotive module fields.

Integration and complementation with 5G: a design coexistence mechanism needs to be introduced

Since Wi-Fi 6 adopts many 5G-related core technologies and is infinitely close to 5G in terms of performance such as network peak rate, Wi-Fi 6 is often compared with 5G.

In my opinion, as two major technologies that enable the Internet of Everything, although their target businesses partially overlap, due to differences in deployment scenarios, different authorized frequency bands, costs, etc., Wi-Fi 6 and 5G are not in an antagonistic competitive relationship with each other, but have strong complementarity.

In simple terms, 5G is mainly used outdoors, while Wi-Fi 6 is mainly used indoors. In indoor scenarios, Wi-Fi 6 has higher cost-effectiveness, stronger penetration capability, lower power consumption, etc., and can also be deployed in fixed or low-mobility scenarios; in outdoor scenarios, 5G has more obvious mobility advantages and a wider coverage range.

Therefore, with the penetration and integration of technologies, Wi-Fi 6 and 5G will show a general trend of mutual integration and complementary advantages in the future. For industrial control and Internet of Vehicles, this requires the seamless integration of Wi-Fi 6 modules in unlicensed frequency bands and 5G modules in licensed frequency bands, and module manufacturers need to introduce a design coexistence mechanism during the research and development process.

Quectel's latest industrial-grade module FG50X series can be used in conjunction with the 5G module RG500Q to form a reliable 5G+Wi-Fi 6 high-speed application solution for MiFi and CPE, and provide the best Wi-Fi and cellular coexistence mechanism; the automotive-grade module AF50T can also be used in conjunction with Quectel AG520R LTE-A+C-V2X module and AG550Q 5G+C-V2X module to provide reliable LTE-A/5G+Wi-Fi/BT application solutions for the automotive field, meeting the needs of in-vehicle information processing such as in-vehicle hotspots, data uploading, and vehicle monitoring. In addition, AF50T can provide unique software and hardware mechanisms to effectively deal with channel interference and achieve perfect coexistence with AG520R and AG550Q modules.

I believe that with the continuous evolution of 5G standards and the continuous upgrading of Wi-Fi technology in the future, the two technologies will collide to create more innovative sparks in technology, products, solutions and applications!