Wi-Fi Certified 6 Program Available for Products based on Broadcom, Cypress, Intel, Marvell, and Qualcomm 802.11ax Chips

Last year the WiFi alliance introduces a new naming scheme for WiFi using numbers instead of IEEE standards so that WiFI 4 is 802.11n, WiFi 5 is 802.11ac, and WiFi 6 is the latest 802.11ax standard with data throughput up to 10 Gbps, and a better ability to manage high-density scenarios.

Shortly after (November 2018) we also got news of the first WiFi 6 routers from ASUS and NETGEAR, but the WiFi alliance only just announced the launch of their Wi-Fi Certified 6 program that promises optimal interoperability and security.

The program will make sure the following features are properly implemented:

• WPA3 WiFi security
• Orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA): effectively shares channels to increase network efficiency and lower latency for both uplink and downlink traffic in high demand environments
• Multi-user multiple input multiple output (MU-MIMO): allows more downlink data to be transferred at once and enables an access point to transmit data to a larger number of devices concurrently
• 160 MHz channels: increases bandwidth to deliver greater performance with low latency
• Target wake time (TWT): significantly improves battery life in Wi-Fi devices, such as Internet of Things (IoT) devices
• 1024 quadrature amplitude modulation mode (1024-QAM): increases throughput in Wi-Fi devices by encoding more data in the same amount of spectrum
• Transmit beamforming: enables higher data rates at a given range resulting in greater network capacity

Five silicon vendors currently offer Wi-Fi Certified 6 solutions/testbeds:

• Broadcom – BCM4375,  BCM43698, and BCM43684
• Cypress – CYW89650 Auto-Grade Wi-Fi 6 Certified
• Intel – Wi-Fi 6 (Gig+) AX200 for PCs and Home Wi-Fi Chipset WAV600 Series for routers and gateways
• Marvell – 88W9064 (4×4) Wi-Fi 6 Dual-Band STA and 88W9064 (4×4) + 88W9068 (8×8) Wi-Fi 6 Concurrent Dual-Band AP
• Qualcomm – Networking Pro 1200 Platform and FastConnect 6800 Wi-Fi 6 Mobile Connectivity Subsystem

Some of the first certified products include Samsung Galaxy Note10 smartphone and Ruckus R750 Wi-Fi 6 Access Point.

More details about Wi-Fi Certified 6 program can be found on Wi-FI Alliance website.

Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)

Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.

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