Very often I hear disputes in a professional and philistine environment about Wi-Fi 6 and 5G. What's better? What's the difference? When 5G arrives, WiFi 6 will no longer be needed.
Very reminiscent of childhood with pressing topics:
- Who is stronger whale or elephant?
- Which actor is stronger Van Damme or Schwarzenegger?
- My kung fu is stronger than your karate!
I decided to share short abstracts for educational program in the spirit of the 20s of the last century.
Disclaimer: The article does not claim to be comprehensive and fundamental.
What is similar?
The same basic technologies:
- Wi-Fi 6 and 5G use orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) technology, which was first used in LTE networks.
- In the Wi-Fi 6 network, subcarrier frequencies appeared for the simultaneous transmission of user data. Additionally, Multi-User MIMO (MU-MIMO) systems are used by Wi-Fi 6 to quadruple the bandwidth and number of connected subscribers per access point.
The carrier environment uses Massive MIMO technology, allowing up to 128 spatial streams.
Differences between Wi-Fi 6 and 5G:
Various application scenarios:
Wi-Fi 6 is a wireless technology suitable for indoor use. Due to spectrum and power resource limitations, Wi-Fi 6 is not applicable to long distance outdoor coverage scenarios.
Planning and management of the 5G spectrum is carried out by the SCRF on the basis of the issuance of licenses for spectrum resources.
Let's leave aside the struggle for the frequency resource between business and government agencies.
In outdoor applications, the influence of interference is extremely small, so the use of 5G is quite logical.
However, indoors, the high frequencies (24 GHz to 52 GHz) used by 5G are highly susceptible to attenuation, and a very difficult deployment scenario will have to be planned in order to use 5G.
The clear benefit of Wi-Fi over 5G is the ease of deployment and maintenance in indoor coverage scenarios.
So it turns out that Wi-Fi 6 (mostly, though there are some interesting outdoor applications) is being used for enterprise campus networks and high-density indoor access.
But the place of 5G is most interesting in:
- voice solutions();
- data transfer scenarios;
- IoT infrastructure in .
Various methods of working with the spectrum:
Wi-Fi Spectra - 2,4GHz and 5GHz do not require a license for indoor use. To use them, there is no need to apply for a frequency spectrum or register as a telecom operator.
By choosing a Wi-Fi environment, businesses can enjoy free spectrum on WiFi 6 wireless networks at 10 Gbps.
Outdoor use, 5GHz adjustable.
You can read more
For small and medium businesses (SMBs), using their own 5G infrastructure and deploying 5G base stations is simply not financially viable.
Various costs:
Deploying Wi-Fi networks is very simple. As Wi-Fi access points become smarter (for example, Huawei access points use smart antennas and SmartRadio calibration technologies), planning and maintaining Wi-Fi networks is becoming seriously easier than before.
Sometimes even without the involvement of professional engineers, which were previously required even in simple scenarios.
Note that complex and responsible implementations still require careful radio planning and radio modeling of the wireless network by professional engineers and architects.
5G wireless networks always require careful planning, modeling and controlled implementation at all stages of the project, both from scratch and when expanding the coverage area of ββthe Telecom Operator.
Thus, the total costs of launching the network differ by orders of magnitude.
Various ways to popularize 5G and Wi-Fi 6 terminals:
The cost of popularizing Wi-Fi 6 terminals is lower. Upgrading existing Wi-Fi 5 terminals to Wi-Fi 6 terminals requires a chipset upgrade on the end device, without the need to change the designed wireless architecture.
Handheld terminals can even quickly get started on Wi-Fi 6 via .
The transition from non-5G terminals to 5G terminals involves redesign of end devices, increases system complexity and overall costs. Although of course there are exceptions and exceptions.
Therefore, the use of Wi-Fi 6 is preferable for end devices that were not intended to support 5G, such as printers, electronic whiteboards, smart building management systems, projection TVs and telepresence systems.
Interaction between Wi-Fi 6 and 5G:
5G networks have some limitations, such as the high cost of indoor coverage and the inability to upgrade older devices.
Wi-Fi 6 technology addresses the challenges of high throughput, high capacity, and low latency in indoor coverage scenarios.
These advantages make Wi-Fi 6 suitable for key applications requiring high bandwidth and low latency, such as VR/AR, 4K/8K content, and automated guided vehicles (AGVs).
Thus, for enterprises, 6G and 5G Wi-Fi networks can interact with each other in most scenarios in synergy mode to achieve an optimal access and coverage ecosystem.
For some industrial scenarios such as oilfields, coal mines and AGVs, 5G has unique advantages including low latency and wide area coverage.
In scenarios with very high street density (such as plazas and stadiums), 5G network capacity may not always be able to meet user access requirements without adding a significant number of base stations.
In this case, high-density Wi-Fi 6 access is a cost-effective solution for accessing a large number of users and high-density terminals.
Conclusion:
Despite similar physical technologies, the scope of Wi-FI 6 and 5G differs in industrial scenarios, as well as in implementation and ownership costs.
Therefore, the conclusion βwho is coolerβ will be better illustrated with a picture!
I hope that this material was useful and helped to understand the main key elements of similarity and difference between these technologies.
Source: habr.com