Understanding WiFi 6 Features for Wave 1 and Wave 2

The rollout of Wi-Fi 6 will consist of two waves of features, continuing the release approach of Wi-Fi 5 or 802.11ac. These features are rolled out incrementally, so IT teams need to confirm which specific features their devices support. However, the features required for each wave of Wi-Fi 6 are not clear.

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To confirm which Wi-Fi 6 features a device supports, one approach is to ask the vendor to determine if the device supports Wave 1 or Wave 2. Unfortunately, things are usually not that simple. Each wave (also called a release) has mandatory and optional elements. Therefore, wave references are of little use.

Another issue is that the Wi-Fi Alliance, the certification body for Wi-Fi, refuses to disclose which features fall into the mandatory or optional categories. According to the Wi-Fi Alliance, this information is only provided to member organizations and not directly to organizations that purchase Wi-Fi products. In addition, the Wi-Fi Alliance does not mention waves in its official certification.

Wi-Fi 6 Wave 1

In September 2019, the Wi-Fi Alliance announced the certification of Wi-Fi 6. This version introduces a range of features to enhance capacity, significantly improve performance in dense environments, and increase battery efficiency.

Mandatory features. The fundamental technology upgrade for Wi-Fi 6 is the use of orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) technology, which divides a single access point channel into smaller units so an AP can connect with multiple clients at once. OFDMA for both uplink and downlink traffic is apparently a core mandatory feature for Wave 1 devices, according to vendor members of the Wi-Fi Alliance.

Downlink Multi-User Multiple Input Multiple Output (MU-MIMO) is required for APs that support four or more spatial streams. MU-MIMO enables the AP to send data streams to multiple devices simultaneously.

Another feature is target wake time (TWT), which enables the AP to put the client to sleep for a period of time. TWT is required for the AP but optional for the client.

Optional features. Optional Wi-Fi 6 features for Wave 1 include: 8×8 streams and 1024 quadrature amplitude modulation, and 256-QAM. These modulation technologies can improve throughput in environments with high bandwidth.

Wi-Fi 6 Wave 2

While Wave 2 is not finalized at this time, it is expected to include additional capabilities and features.

Expected features. Wave 2 will likely include uplink MU-MIMO capabilities, as Wave 1 provided downlink MU-MIMO for specific APs. Wave 2 should also include spatial reuse, leveraging basic service set (BSS) coloring to improve performance in dense AP environments. While the frame structure required for BSS coloring was defined in Wave 1, the full functionality will not be available until Wave 2 products are available.

Wi-Fi 6 is already a reality. The Wi-Fi Alliance has certified more than 100 products, the largest number of which are phones. Phone manufacturers are interested in Wi-Fi 6's TWT feature because it will greatly improve battery efficiency.

Since only very few Wi-Fi 6 features are considered mandatory, this places an additional burden on potential customers during the product purchasing cycle. Customers will need to familiarize themselves with the specific technical features of Wi-Fi 6 that are important to their environment. In this regard, hopefully some large Wi-Fi customers can put pressure on vendors to reveal the true capabilities of Wave 1 and Wave 2 Wi-Fi 6 products.