Should you Upgrade to WiFi 6 Router?
Part I. What is WiFi 6?
WiFi 6 is actually 802.11ax, which is an upgraded version of 802.11ac. It's just that the International Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IEEE) changed it to a more memorable name, calling it the sixth generation of WiFi technology. Corresponding previous generations, such as 802.11ac/n, were also renamed WI-FI 5/4 accordingly. The icon style after the renaming of the WI-FI standard will appear on our mobile phones, computers and other terminal devices. This is like the upgrade of mobile networks - 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G. The larger the number, the faster the speed and the better the performance. Therefore, when we choose a router, we don't need to study the meanings of the letters n/ac/ax, we just need to compare the numbers.
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Part II. What upgrades have been made to WiFi 6?
There are mainly three upgrades as follows.
1. Higher transfer rate
As we all know, in theory, WiFi 5 can support speeds up to 3.5 Gbps. With the introduction and upgrade of technologies such as MU-MIMO, 160MHz channel bandwidth, and 8*8 MIMO, the maximum rate of WiFi 6 can reach 9.6Gbps.?
2. More connected devices and the ability to speed up each device
The most important improvement of WiFi 6 is to support OFDMA technology, which simply allows data to be transmitted to multiple devices at once. OFDM technology on WiFi 5 only supports the delivery of one order at a time, while OFDMA technology allows multiple orders to be delivered simultaneously. Put into a real network environment, which means that the router can allow more devices to connect to the network at the same time. In the case of connecting the same number of devices, its speed is nearly 4 times that of WiFi 5. When connecting the same number of devices, the speed is nearly 4 times that of WiFi 5.
3. Reduce battery consumption of end devices
WIiFi 6 adopts a function called TWT (Target Wake Time), which allows terminal devices to enter a sleep state when not transmitting data, reducing the time required for continuous transmission and searching for signals, which means battery consumption will be reduced.
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Part III. Do you really need to change to WiFi 6 Router?
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Since WiFi 6 has so many excellent features, do you really need to change to using a WiFi 6 router? There are 4 aspects that you should take into account.
1. Bandwidth perspective (based on the terminal device that is a WiFi 6 network card device)
First of all, there is no doubt that it would be better if there is larger supported bandwidth. But according to the barrel effect, in this era, the external network speed of the family depends first on the broadband of the family. At present, there are not many users who install Gigabit bandwidth. Even more, the bandwidth is below 500 megabytes. So in fact, your external network speed will not be significantly improved. For the internal LAN, after losing the limitation of external broadband, theoretically, the speed of intranet mutual transmission can be significantly improved.
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2. Throughput
This is the most important improvement. Many families now use IoT devices. Personally, I have more than 30 devices connected to Mijia. Everything from lamps, TVs, mobile phones, notebooks, Pads, air purifiers, and sweepers in the home are connected to the Internet. This is a test for routers. WiFi6 solves this problem very well, with multiple terminals and low latency.
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3. Delay
To tell you the truth, the delay was 30ms before, but now the delay is 20ms. For ordinary users, the perception is not very obvious. Maybe I have a feeling for e-sports players. I am a player like King Xingyao who only hates my broken hands. I am absolutely ashamed to blame the network, but when I play with others and do not perform well, it is definitely because the network is too slow.?
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4. Power saving
Talking about it is better than nothing, it will indeed increase the standby and usage time of the device. However, at present, the largest power consumption of most terminal devices should come from the screen and processor. As for how to put it, its perception is not strong. Therefore, it is recommended that users with a lot of IoT devices, or users who are constantly upgrading their smart homes and devices, consider replacing routers. There are still many users whose routers are still many years ago. It is time to replace routers.
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Part IV. Related Product: V-SOL WiFi 6 Router
Here we introduce two excellent WiFi 6 routers HG5050 and HG5051 with 4 Gigabit Ethernet ports.
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WiFi 6 router?HG5050 is equipped with high-performance FEMs and 5 external 6dBi high-gain antennas. More devices can be connected to the internet at the same time with lower lag. The dual-band concurrent rates are up to 1501Mbps (2.4GHz 300Mbps+5GHz 1201Mbps). The signal can automatically switch according to the location.
As for another?Wireless Mesh router?HG5051, it's equipped with 4 external 5dBi high-gain antennas. The folded hidden antenna design contributes to saving packaging materials and lowing the costs. The WiFi rates can reach up to 1800Mbps. What's more, it supports WiFi Mesh technology, which can be applied to deploy wireless Mesh networks. The TWT target wake-up time function enables notifying the device hibernation and wake-up so as to save power consumption of the mobile terminal.