CableLabs and WBA hail results of WiFi 6E trial

The Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) has unveiled results from a field trial that it says highlights the benefits of using low power Indoor Wi-Fi 6E for a variety of residential applications, including video collaboration for telecommuting, multiplayer gaming, augmented and virtual reality and streaming video.

The trial conducted by cable industry technology outfit CableLabs and Intel, took place in a 3,600-square-foot, two-story home (pictured) with a basement and the drywall, wood and other building materials typically found in a US suburban residence.

The Wi-Fi 6E enabled laptops with Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX210 wireless cards were placed in various locations throughout the home and tests were conducted using a Wi-Fi 6E enabled access point from Asus.

The trial featured a range of tests on the downlink and uplink comparing throughput achieved on the 5 GHz and 6 GHz bands for wide channels (80 MHz and 160 MHz). C

ableLabs and Intel also analysed the Wi-Fi 6E performance compared to Wi-Fi 6 on the 5 GHz band in the presence of overlapping neighbouring access points.

The trial’s key results include 1.7 TCP Gbps downlink and 1.2 TCP Gbps uplink speeds when using 160 MHz channels on Wi-Fi 6E in locations close to the access point. The larger channel bandwidth and the associated increase in total EIRP transmit power based on the channel bandwidth helped maximize both coverage and speed throughout the home, according to CableLabs.

The cable tech outfit said that the trial results demonstrate the benefits of using Wi-Fi 6E enabled devices over 6GHz rather than 5GHz.

Tiago Rodrigues, CEO of the Wireless Broadband Alliance, said: “This field trial by CableLabs and Intel shows how Wi-Fi 6E and 6 GHz spectrum maximize coverage, capacity, throughput and the user experience in one of the most demanding real-world environments: people’s homes. Between HD and 4K streaming video, multiplayer gaming, dozens of smart home devices and videoconferencing for remote work, today’s home Wi-Fi networks are the foundation for how people live, work and play. This trial highlights that Wi-Fi 6E is more than capable of shouldering that load, especially when paired with 6 GHz spectrum.”

Lili Hervieu, lead architect of wireless access technology at CableLabs, said: “CableLabs has been a proponent of making the 6 GHz band available for unlicensed use, and we were honored to conduct the Wi-Fi 6E trial in one of our employee’s homes for a truly real-world experience. The results confirmed the benefit of Wi-Fi 6E for increased capacity and data rate that will support the growing demand we are seeing for a large variety of applications and for new emerging technologies.”

Eric A McLaughlin, VP client computing group, GM wireless solutions group, Intel, said: “Intel’s mission is to enable great PC experiences with industry leading platform capabilities like Wi-fi 6E.  The wireless trial, in collaboration with CableLabs and the Wireless Broadband Alliance, helps demonstrate the versatility of Wi-fi 6E on Intel platforms.  The speed, latency, and reliability improvements enabled by the new 6 GHz spectrum, with larger channels and freedom from legacy Wi-Fi interference, will help dramatically enhance user communication, entertainment, and productivity.”