WiFi 6: what you need to know for IT requirements
The digital transformation of businesses relies on high-performance, resilient network infrastructures. Wi-Fi 6 is the 6th generation of the Wi-Fi standard, succeeding Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac), and is an advanced standard, introduced in 2019, ideal for wireless connectivity in the most demanding business environments. This sixth generation of Wi-Fi technology not only brings significant gains in data rates, but also meets today's challenges of connection densification and energy efficiency.
What is Wi-Fi 6?
The 802.11ax standard: what you need to know
Wi-Fi 6, also known as 802.11 ax, is the sixth generation of wireless networks that improves the performance, capacity and reliability of wireless connections, particularly in high-density metropolitan areas where we often find Edge datacenters.
This IEEE 802.11ax standard, ratified in February 2021, has been specifically developed to solve network congestion and performance issues in high-density environments.
By simplifying nomenclature and dropping complex alphanumeric codes, a more intuitive sequential numbering scheme has been adopted.
While its predecessors focused primarily on raw throughput increases, Wi-Fi 6 focuses on spectral efficiency, management of multiple simultaneous connections and energy efficiency. This focus responds directly to today's IT challenges and requirements, shaped by the multiplication of terminals with IoT, for example, and the escalation of usage.
Frequencies used and OFDMA modulation
OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access), directly derived from 4G/LTE, simplifies spectrum resource management by splitting up the transmission channel, enabling an OFDMA-compatible router to interface with several devices simultaneously. And that 's how you reduce waiting times!
Imagine a freeway where, instead of allocating all lanes to each vehicle in turn, several vehicles can now drive in parallel.
Latency is reduced by more than half compared with Wi-Fi 5.This is due to wider channels reaching 160 MHz in the 5 GHz band, which implements QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation) at 1024 points, compared with only 256 points for Wi-Fi 5.
Comparison with previous generations
Compared with Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac), Wi-Fi 6 represents a significant advance on several key dimensions. Maximum theoretical throughput reaches 9.6 Gbps, compared with 3.5 Gbps for its predecessor, even if a LAN will not achieve these speeds in practice.chieve In actual deployments, according to an nPerf report from 2024, average downstream throughput is 539 Mbps with Wi-Fi 6 compared with 247 Mbps with Wi-Fi 5, an increase of around 120%.
Wi-Fi 6 can also deliver and maintain a high level of service in saturated environments, thanks to the implementation of Edge data centers by UltraEdge. As Wi-Fi 5 is rapidly limited in the event of high user load, Wi-Fi 6 is more consistent, thanks to OFDMA and bi-directional MU-MIMO extended to 8 streams, compared with 4 for Wi-Fi 5.
This has a positive impact on deployment and maintenance costs.
Wi-Fi 6: what impact for businesses?
Optimized throughput and latency
For several years now, WiFi has been the primary means of connection for most services. Combining improved throughput and reduced latency, Wi-Fi 6 boosts the user experience and perceived quality of the enterprise network. In this, it meets the growing demands generated by the mass adoption of collaborative cloud applications, IoT, AI and unified communications tools.
This increased responsiveness is optimal for sensitive applications with video or voice-over-IP solutions. This drastically reduces audio/video outages and desynchronization, which are common with Wi-Fi 5 in busy environments.
If we take the concrete example of a consultancy firm that has deployed Wi-Fi 6 in its offices, this difference is clearly evident during migration. Before migration, Teams sessions involving more than ten simultaneous participants on the same platform systematically led to quality problems. Post-deployment, even with three times as many employees participating simultaneously in different videoconferences, quality remains steady for each user.
Smoother management of multiple connections: IoT
The surge in AI, IoT and connected objects is a particularly structuring challenge for corporate network infrastructures. Wi-Fi 6 responds directly to this challenge, thanks to its design optimized for high connection density environments.
Unlike Wi-Fi 5, which showed saturation signs beyond 25 devices per access point, or even less, Wi-Fi 6 can easily support more than a hundred simultaneous connections.
This feature is currently being exploited in UltraEdge's Edge data centers, where we are deploying dense sensor networks. A single Wi-Fi 6 access point can manage all the environmental sensors in a server room - power consumption, hygrometry, temperature, etc. - without compromising on the connectivity required by the servers.
Reduced energy consumption
Energy efficiency is an often overlooked, yet very relevant, dimension of Wi-Fi 6, particularly since the CSRD standard requires a report on the risks, opportunities and impacts of environmental issues.
Controlling this efficiency is made possible by optimizing battery management and terminal lifespan through levers such as Target Wake Time (TWT), a mechanism enabling connected devices to negotiate scheduled communication periods with the access point.
WPA3 enhances security
Network and infrastructure security are major concerns for IT managers, hosting providers and data center operators like UltraEdge. The WPA3 or Wi-Fi protected access 3 protocol, introduced in Wi-Fi 6, corrects weaknesses identified in WPA2, namely its vulnerability to dictionary attacks and KRACK (Key Reinstallation Attack) vulnerabilities.
The SAE (Simultaneous Authentication of Equals) mechanism replaces the traditional PSK (Pre-Shared Key). This approach, based on a Dragonfly exchange, provides effective protection against offline brute-force attacks. Even if an attacker captures the authentication traffic, he won't be able to decrypt the password by repeated attempts.
Finally, the WPA3-Enterprise standard offers GCMP-256 encryption, mandatory management frame protection (PMF) and an optional 192-bit mode for particularly sensitive environments such as the financial sector (FinTech, banking, etc.) or governments.
IT infrastructure: the most relevant use cases
Internal mobility in business buildings
Is your organization adopting an increasingly flexible or collaborative working model? Then, internal mobility is potentially a major challenge for your organization.
It facilitates the experience of this mobility by ensuring fluid, high-performance connectivity wherever employees are located
. The 2.4 GHz band ensures much more homogeneous coverage, even in complex architectural configurations with numerous partitions or attenuating materials.
Every transition between access points (roaming) benefits from dedicated optimizations.
For example, advanced authentication protocols can maintain critical application sessions with no perceptible interruption when the user is on the move. Fluidity so complicated for previous Wi-Fi users, keen on large spaces and multiple access points!
Data centers, warehouses: high-density networks
Wi-Fi 6 is not designed to replace Ethernet cabling or fiber, but has a complementary strategic role in UltraEdge data centers, particularly for operational connectivity, intelligent management and facility logistics. Logistics warehouses are particularly demanding environments for wireless infrastructures. These facilities face numerous specific challenges, such as high device density and particular physical constraints.
Wi-Fi 6 facilitates the massive deployment of IoT sensors without compromising overall network performance. The densification of supervision tools such as thermal sensors, humidity detectors, video surveillance systems and predictive maintenance devices all coexist on a single wireless infra-structure.
Reduced cabling helps to improve air circulation and optimize cooling, a critical aspect of energy efficiency.
Network access: best practices
Best practices are emerging for large-scale deployment of Wi-Fi 6:
● Logical network segmentation. Take one SSID for business-critical applications, another for connected devices (IoT) and finally, one to manage visitor access. Maximize this segmentation to allocate Wi-Fi 6 network resources according to business priorities, identified upstream.
● Integrating a VLAN on every SSID can also complement VLANs, for finer granularity of access based on user identity and device compliance. A NAC solution can also complement the VLAN, for finer granularity of access based on user identity and whether or not devices are compliant.
● "sites surveys" identify optimal coverage zones and anticipate possible interference. Specify Wi-Fi 6-specific configurations and improve the accuracy of your estimates!
Deploying a network infrastructure: what to anticipate
What equipment compatibility?
Compatibility prior to any large-scale deployment is an issue that raises the question of ecosystem compatibility.
Even though Wi-Fi 6 was designed with backward compatibility in mind, enabling devices from previous generations to link up with the new access points.
They remain dependent on their native capabilities, with the need to maintain compatibility mechanisms that reduce overall network efficiency.
Even if it is now easy to find compatible terminals, with the majority of high-end business devices integrating this technology since 2020, it is essential to carry out a thorough audit of the existing equipment. Then plan the extent of renewals, based on the degree of compatibility and the resulting costs.
A word of caution: Gigabit Ethernet (1 Gbps) can be a bottleneck when faced with theoretical capacities of 9.6 Gbps. The ideal solution is to deploy multi-gigabit links (2.5/5/10 Gbps) or link aggregation for the most frequently used access points.
Coexistence with Wi-Fi 5
In large organizations, this is becoming more and more of a challenge, and the switch to Wi-Fi 6 alone is rarely a one-step process. It remains an operational reality to manage the coexistence of Wi-Fi norms, such as Wi-Fi 5 and Wi-Fi 6, to effectively drive and maintain a consistent user experience.
A phased approach means that Wi-Fi 6 can be deployed in higher-density areas or to meet critical needs, while Wi-Fi 5 remains in place.
Band steering can also automatically route customers to the technology best suited to their capabilities, and choose the frequency best suited to their uses.
A hybrid environment requires very precise management of the radio spectrum.
If there is interference between cross-generation access points, then the automated radio frequency (RF) management solutions recommended by manufacturers simplify this cohabitation.
Wi-Fi 6 and network security: key integration issues
Dynamic segmentation with VLANs
This dynamic approach is no longer a “nice to have”, but a requirement for every security-aware company, without compromising the user experience.
Securing a company's Wi-Fi 6 infrastructure requires dynamic segmentation via VLANs.
Isolate traffic types, and assign security policy according to user categories or type of device.
The result is greater flexibility and granularity. Modern access points can now dynamically apply VLAN assignments based on a combination of criteria: user identity, device type, compliance with security policies, location or even connection times. This is the Least Privilege principle.
Hybrid working is particularly affected by this approach. A VLAN for internal resources will be available for a business computer, and a more restricted VLAN will be pushed when used outside working hours or if a private smartphone is being used.
NAC Integration
Integrating Wi-Fi 6 with network access control (NAC) solutions represents a major lever for improving security policy. Especially for a Zero Trust approach!
Implementing NAC with Wi-Fi 6 infrastructure can assess device compliance in real time, at every connection attempt.
Several key KPIs can be included in this audit: patch verification, presence of antivirus, disk encryption.
Based on these insights, the NCA can authorize, restrict or disable the connection.
It is particularly useful to continuously re-evaluate the security status of each device during the session. For example, if a non-compliant device is detected, the NAC automatically adjusts access authorizations, or even quarantines it until the event is resolved.
IoT: what secure management?
Deux problématiques distinctes qui sont des défis potentiels en termes de sécurité :
- Device heterogeneity and their intrinsic security levels
Industrial sensors, designed before the emergence of new standards, present vulnerabilities that can be very tricky to fix. Micro-segmentation and Wi-Fi 6 isolate devices in strictly controlled zones, thus limiting connection to whitelisted collection servers.
- IoT device authentication. WPA3 offers improved security mechanisms, but there may still be devices incompatible with this protocol, which was introduced in July 2020. In such cases, certificate authentication or a secure provisioning service can be used to authenticate the concerned devices.
WWi-Fi 6, Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7: what are the differences?
Wi-Fi 6 vs Wi-Fi 6E: coverage and 6 GHz band
Distinguishing between Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E is an important point for all IT decision-makers considering the renewal of their network infrastructure. These names differ by a single character, yet they cover significantly different technical realities.
Wi-Fi 6E represents an extension of Wi-Fi 6 (hence the "E"), retaining all the fundamental characteristics but adding a new frequency band: the 6 GHz spectrum.
This evolution, approved in France in December 2021 by ARCEP, opens up an additional frequency range between 5.945 and 6.425 GHz. In the United States, this band is even wider, extending to 7.125 GHz.
The main advantage of Wi-Fi 6E lies in its use of a still virgin spectrum, unlike the already saturated 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands.
This congestion-free high-speed communication is particularly useful in dense environments or collaborative workspaces.
Wi-Fi 7: what performance in critical environments?
Wi-Fi 7, corresponding to the IEEE 802.11be standard and sometimes referred to as "Extremely High Throughput" (EHT), represents the next major evolution in wireless networking. Like all previous major upgrades, Wi-Fi 7 also brings faster data rates, lower latency, higher bandwidth for more simultaneous connections and improved security. Its preliminary specifications make it possible to anticipate its impact in critical business environments.
The main innovation is MLO (Multi-Link Operation) technology, which enables simultaneous use of several frequency bands (2.4 GHz, 5 GHz and 6 GHz). This approach, comparable to link aggregation in wired networks, can multiply theoretical data rates by up to 30 Gbps, more than triple the capacity of Wi-Fi 6. More fundamentally, it offers enhanced resilience by enabling instant switching from one band to another in the event of interference.
For critical environments such as IX data centers, this feature represents a significant advance. A connection can maintain its stability even in the event of radio interference on one of the bands used, guaranteeing continuity of supervision and maintenance operations. MLO's intrinsic redundancy considerably reduces the risk of interruption due to radio propagation uncertainties.
Which technology to choose for your infrastructure?
Choosing between different standards - Wi-Fi 6, 6E or Wi-Fi 7 - requires in-depth consideration of a number of factors: budget forecasts, use cases, deployment schedules and device renewal cycles, and the quality of your IT infrastructure hosting provider.
For organizations with a Wi-Fi 5 infrastructure that is showing its limits, Wi-Fi 6 is an interesting option, as it is mature and offers a wide range of use cases.
A stable, tried-and-tested ecosystem with widespread availability delivers substantial performance gains and greater density than Wi-Fi 5, with efficient cross-device connectivity and compatibility.
For complex environments with high spectral congestion, Wi-Fi 6E is an alternative to consider.
Wi-Fi 6E is a relevant alternative for specific environments with severe spectral congestion problems. The 6 GHz band is much less congested, but requires compliant equipment and a denser network of access points. These are always roadblocks to implementation!
Wi-Fi 6E (with the E for "Extended") can be used as a base for general coverage: islands with Wi-Fi 6 or even Wi-Fi 7 can be used in areas with a very high demand for performance or more accentuated spectral isolation.
Wi-Fi 6: what are the potential limits?
Service continuity and coverage
Deploying Wi-Fi 6 can always pose obstacles that were not anticipated at the start. It is important to anticipate the points to be vigilant about:
Radio coverage
In theory, Wi-Fi 6 offers greater range thanks to its optimized management of the 2.4 GHz band. This improvement does not systematically compensate for the physical constraints of complex buildings. If the structure is made of reinforced concrete or the walls are metallized, or even if the spaces are densely partitioned, then challenges are clear!
In any case, on-site site surveys are a prerequisite for optimizing network coverage.
User density
Even if this was less managed than in previous generations - and that's an understatement - it's still a limiting factor. OFDMA consequently boosts the management of multiple simultaneous connections, now that individual performance can suffer beyond a certain threshold, namely maximum density.
In high-density environments such as corporate lecture halls, meticulous capacity planning is always essential.
Intergenerational compatibility can also lead to performance trade-offs. A Wi-Fi 6 access point simultaneously serving Wi-Fi 6 clients and older devices will occasionally have to revert to compatibility mechanisms that reduce overall network efficiency. This phenomenon, sometimes referred to as “legacy tax”, can significantly mitigate the benefits expected in transitory mixed environments.
What security conditions to anticipate?
Wi-Fi 6 security, although strengthened by the WPA3 protocol, is not free from vulnerabilities and implementation challenges that IT teams need to anticipate.
The Dragonblood attacks, identified shortly after the publication of the WPA3 standard, demonstrated potential weaknesses in the implementation of the SAE protocol. These vulnerabilities, although partially corrected by manufacturer updates, are a reminder that no protocol is perfectly immune to future discoveries. Active monitoring of Wi-Fi 6-related CVEs and rigorous application of patches remain essential.
Managing the transition period between WPA2 and WPA3 is a second major challenge. Transition modes, necessary to maintain compatibility with existing devices, can reintroduce WPA2 vulnerabilities if they are not optimally configured. Downgrade attacks, forcing a WPA3-compatible device to revert to the more vulnerable WPA2, represent a real threat in these hybrid configurations.
In data centers and other mission-critical environments, the application of the defense-in-depth principle remains paramount. WPA3 can be complemented by additional mechanisms such as application encryption, multi-factor authentication for critical accesses, network micro-segmentation and intrusion detection systems specialized in monitoring wireless networks.
Making a successful Wi-Fi 6 network migration with UltraEdge
Your infrastructure choice or transition to a Wi-Fi 6 standard remains a strategic challenge. UltraEdge uses a structured, proven approach to conduct an in-depth audit of your existing infrastructure.
Coverage, network performance, not to mention user expectations and critical service requirements, enable us to bring our expertise to deployments in sometimes tense contexts.
For example, we have in-house methodologies for dealing with constraints in server rooms, such as electromagnetic fields or temperature variations.
Deployment planning is a key stage, during which we work with our customers' IT teams to define a progressive migration strategy.
Our agile, phased approach reduces the need for operational changes, while validating the benefits and impacts at each stage. Our IX data centers in seven strategic locations provide excellent support, as their controlled environment facilitates precise pre- and post-migration performance monitoring.