4 ms·

So for someone who isn’t following all this. If I replace my seven year old router am I going to get a huge speed boost?

xenospn 7y ago
Just like anything with radio, the answer is "it depends".
basementcat 7y ago
You might get a modest performance improvement. Wifi 6 makes use of multiple antennas to better spatially separate ACKs and other upstream traffic from multiple clients even when the packets temporally overlap. The extra bands may also come in handy but some of them may be attenuated by walls and other building materials.
dboreham 7y ago
Yes. Assuming your upstream connectivity is faster than 100MBits or so.
- Bud 7y ago
  802.11ac is already capable of 400Mb/s or so. So you'd need a link faster than that, plus devices which have Wifi 6 AND can push/pull data that fast and do something with it. For most folks that's a no, so far.
  - ac29 7y ago
    802.11ac is actually capable of over 3Gbps, though 4 stream devices are pretty uncommon. 2 streams @ 80MHz is pretty common though, and that provides 867Mbps (max link rate, actual throughput is of course lower).
  - dboreham 7y ago
    True, but I was speaking in practical terms. To get that 400Mbit you need to be within a few feet of the AP typically. Plus, if there are several concurrently streaming devices on the network you won't achieve the theoretical aggregate maximum throughput. A good rule of thumb in WiFi marketing is to divide whatever throughput the retail box claims by 4 to get the practically achievable throughput. Meanwhile wired networking (the OP's upstream connection) actually delivers the marketed throughput.
ksec 7y ago
Assuming you have client side WiFi 6 equipment, which is still fairly rare on the market.
jotm 7y ago
It can finally replace Gigabit Ethernet... if your devices also support the higher speed. And I mean replace GbE for normal usage (NAS in one room, TV in another, etc), not 3 feet from an overpriced arachnid looking thing on your desk :)

xenospn 7y ago

Just like anything with radio, the answer is "it depends".

basementcat 7y ago

You might get a modest performance improvement. Wifi 6 makes use of multiple antennas to better spatially separate ACKs and other upstream traffic from multiple clients even when the packets temporally overlap. The extra bands may also come in handy but some of them may be attenuated by walls and other building materials.

dboreham 7y ago

Yes. Assuming your upstream connectivity is faster than 100MBits or so.

Bud 7y ago
802.11ac is already capable of 400Mb/s or so. So you'd need a link faster than that, plus devices which have Wifi 6 AND can push/pull data that fast and do something with it. For most folks that's a no, so far.
- ac29 7y ago
  802.11ac is actually capable of over 3Gbps, though 4 stream devices are pretty uncommon. 2 streams @ 80MHz is pretty common though, and that provides 867Mbps (max link rate, actual throughput is of course lower).
- dboreham 7y ago
  True, but I was speaking in practical terms. To get that 400Mbit you need to be within a few feet of the AP typically. Plus, if there are several concurrently streaming devices on the network you won't achieve the theoretical aggregate maximum throughput. A good rule of thumb in WiFi marketing is to divide whatever throughput the retail box claims by 4 to get the practically achievable throughput. Meanwhile wired networking (the OP's upstream connection) actually delivers the marketed throughput.

ksec 7y ago

Assuming you have client side WiFi 6 equipment, which is still fairly rare on the market.

jotm 7y ago

It can finally replace Gigabit Ethernet... if your devices also support the higher speed. And I mean replace GbE for normal usage (NAS in one room, TV in another, etc), not 3 feet from an overpriced arachnid looking thing on your desk :)