Just as we were getting used to Wi-Fi 6, which is ideal for building home networks, Wi-Fi 6e was introduced. By adding a new 6 GHz transmission band and opening up a number of high-performance data channels, Wi-Fi 6e takes data delivery to a new level, but it also suffers from range limitations.

Based on the American Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11ax specification, Wi-Fi 6e opens up the 1.2 GHz high-frequency band from 5.925 to 7.125 GHz to support high-capacity data transfer. This is the largest addition to Wi-Fi since the original 802.11b was introduced over 20 years ago. [This is] a huge leap forward for Wi-Fi," said Kevin Robinson, senior vice president of marketing for the Wi-Fi Alliance. This is a huge leap for Wi-Fi," says Kevin Robinson, Wi-Fi Alliance's senior vice president of marketing, "Wi-Fi 6e will enable easier viewing of full-frontal online games and 8K online video, as well as video conferencing with frozen faces without staring, and can open up new vistas in telemedicine, augmented reality (AR), and virtual reality (VR).

A look inside the Wi-Fi 6e specification reveals several important performance updates. In addition to the low-latency design that gamers have been drooling over, Wi-Fi 6e offers improved immunity to interference and more than 100 new data channels compared to Wi-Fi 6. In fact, Wi-Fi 6 added seven 160 MHz ultra-wideband channels, compared to one 160 MHz channel in Wi-Fi 6.

While the overall bandwidth is comparable to Wi-Fi 6's 9.6 Gbps, WiFi-6e uses the 2.4 GHz band, the 5 GHz band, and now the 6 GHz band to spread data over a wider frequency range, saving users frustrated by low throughput.Wi-Fi 6 e can be thought of as a cascade of data: 6 GHz peak performance dominates near the router, automatically switching to 5 GHz as you step out into the hallway, and finally relying on 2.4 GHz for long distance connections.

"Wi-Fi 6e will be most beneficial in areas where high-speed data is most critical," adds Wi-Fi Alliance's Robinson.

"And," adds Robinson of the Wi-Fi Alliance, "Wi-Fi 6e will be most beneficial in areas where high-speed data is most important.

The wait for Wi-Fi 6e devices is likely to be much shorter than for previous wireless data specifications, because some of them are already available. This is because some of these devices have already appeared. The first Wi-Fi 6e routers are already starting to sell, and we will see more Wi-Fi 6e routers and mesh systems throughout 2021.

Then comes Wi-Fi 7. Details are still being worked out, but it will be based on 802.11be Extremely High Throughput (EHT) technology. This next-generation specification is expected to raise the available bandwidth while further reducing latency and ensuring that everyone in the home has access to the data they need

. [However, since all of these changes are in the developmental stages, and Wi-Fi 7 is not expected to appear in consumer products until 2024 or later, Wi-Fi 6e will be the biggest standards change to watch in the coming years.

On the router side of 6e, chips for the new generation of routers are available from Intel, Broadcom, Qualcomm, and others; a look at the CES 2021 router list shows several Wi-Fi 6e routers in the works.

The first three products are the Asus ROG Rapture GT-AXE11000, the Linksys AXE8400 mesh system, and the Netgear Nighthawk RAXE500.

All are tri-band premium devices, selling for $450 for a traditional router and $1,200 for a three-piece mesh networking kit.

On the receiving end, Samsung's Galaxy S21 Ultra phone has Wi-Fi 6e built in. Other companies are expected to announce their own hardware by the end of the year.

The good news is that the Wi-Fi Alliance has begun certifying new Wi-Fi 6e gear to work with new generations of wireless gear as well as existing systems. By summer, there will be hundreds of Wi-Fi 6e products, from routers, laptops, and tablets to phones and augmented reality (AR) headsets.