Welcome to the latest WiFi Ninjas Podcast!

Today we have a pleasure discussing WiFi 6e and future of WiFi with Gabe Desjardins, Director of Product Marketing, Wireless Connectivity Division at Broadcom.

Here is what we have discussed:

• 6GHz Spectrum & Channels 
  • US = 1200MHz of additional spectrum
    • 59 x 20MHz channels
    • 29 x 40MHz channels
    • 14 x 80MHz channels
    • 7 x 160MHz channels
  • EU = 500Mhz of additional spectrum
    • 24 x 20MHz channels
    • 12 x 40MHz channels
    • 6 x 80MHz channels
    • 3 x 160MHz channels
  • Issues with the SNR and 160?
  • Why are the EU getting less than half the US? 
  • Broadcom have been advocating 160MHz channels. Is this really a viable option? 
  • More channels = more time to scan the channels = could lead to problems for devices to roam, how will this work? Will we scan 100 channels? 
  • Channel numbering scheme? Starting at 1 again in 6GHz (8-bit field 59 x channels barely fits the 8-bit field)

• What else operate in the 6GHz frequency band? 
  • Any DFS? 
  • TV & Radio?
  • Emergency Services / Public safety? (UNII6 & UNII8) 

• Indoor and outdoor power constraints? 
  • Low power indoor (27dBm in 160MHz channels, 24dBm in 80Mhz channel) permitted across whole 6GHz band. 
  • Constant EIRP of 30dBm – so even if we double the channel width we keep the same SNR.
  • 5dBm per MHz?
    • No longer lose SNR when we bond channels together
    • Power is independent of the bandwidth (PSD) – ensures the same net EIRP
  • Fixed indoor AP
  • Outdoor mobile AP (Phones & Cars etc) 
  • Very low power (14dBm EIRP) (AR & VR) (In car AP, game controllers)  

• 6GHz Chipsets & Radios 
  • APs – Multi-bands
    • Tri radio APs? 2.4 + 5 + 6?
    • Quad radio APs? 
  • Will we have antennas that sit natively at the bottom end of 6GHz and can also access the upper channels in 5?
  • When are we likely to see APs & clients with 6GHz chipsets in them?
  • Broadcom launches world’s first WiFi 6E 6GHz chips (Jan 2020)
    • Intended for enterprise APs and residential networks
    • 4×4 dual band 160MHz support
    • 2×2 tri-band
    • 2×2 dual-band with ARM CPU
  • 15 billion WiFi devices that are currently on the market that are not 6GHz capable 
  • Timeline for 6GHz client penetration prediction? 

• Access/ Edge Switches
  • Currently 1Gbps & 30Watt PoE on average
  • With all this additional spectrum and radio chains their will be new PoE & bandwidth requirements for access switches. What do you think these are realistically likely to be? 

• WiFi 7
  • 320MHz wide channels? (would be only 3 x non overlapping)
  • What speed would that potentially give us?
  • Even more consideration for PoE budget & bandwidth for access switches.
  • Do you think it’s a good idea to add 802.11ax into 6GHz or have IEEE missed an opportunity to redefine the 802.11 protocol within a brand new spectrum that doesn’t have any backward compatibility to deal with?

Thanks a and tons of love!

WiFi Ninjas xx