Wi-Fi 6 for a Smart Home

What’s the benefit of Wi-Fi 6 in a Smart Home?

September 12, 2020

In this article, we cover what Wi-Fi 6 is, and why it should be the cornerstone of any smart home.

Wi-Fi has been around for quite a while now, and is something none of us can get enough of. When I tell people they can get better, Faster Wi-Fi if they had a few extra bucks, a great percentage of them end up opting for it. But for smart homes especially, the benefits of strong Wi-Fi can be crucial for functionality.

Wi-Fi demands are continually growing, and that’s why further iterations are being developed constantly. Currently, we use Gen 5 Wi-Fi, which is also known as Wi-Fi 5. However, the next generation of Wi-Fi will offer more than just a bump in speed. 

What is Wi-Fi 6?

Wi-Fi 6 will serve the same purpose of connecting your devices to the internet. The difference is, this version will be faster, safer, more efficient, and overall better in nearly every aspect. 

Consider the versions as different versions of Android. They are essentially the same thing, but with better UI, more functions, and features. 

In 2015, a survey demonstrated that each house of the US had an average of five Wi-Fi devices. Does that number sound right for 2020? Didn’t think so. That number has drastically increased, and will only continue to do so for the foreseeable future. People aren’t getting more computers, but they are getting more devices that use Wi-Fi. For example, nowadays most phones, TVs, cameras, alarm systems, etc… use Wi-Fi to connect. And with the progression of home automation, smart bulbs, doorbells, fridges, and a myriad of other electronics will continue to increase in number. 

As the bandwidth is divided among multiple devices, the speed per device reduces greatly. If you’re using a smart home, you probably know what a toll that takes on your device speed. I’ve even known people to sell off devices because their connection can’t handle them all.

Wi-Fi 6 is designed to overcome these adversities. They will not only be faster, but they’ll provide near to equal speed even if multiple other devices are connected. 

In the following discussion, we’ll talk more about the benefits of Wi-Fi 6 for a smart home.

Benefits of Wi-Fi 6 for a Smart Home

Faster Wi-Fi

How fast is Wi-Fi 6? 

Well, if you look at the raw numbers, Wi-Fi 6 has a potential speed of 9.6 Gbps. For the present generation of Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi 5, that speed is 3.5 Gbps. 

One question is, do you need even 3.5 Gbps of speed? Maybe your highest download speed doesn’t even exceed 70 Mbps – only a fraction of 3.5 Gbps. If that’s the case, how can you use the potential of Wi-Fi 6?

Wi-Fi 6 will still have a significant speed bump over Wi-Fi 5, and it will be enough for you to notice. There is a lot more to Wi-Fi 6 than just a potential maximum speed boost.

You see, Wi-Fi 6 is able to offer more speed per device, even if there are multiple devices connected to the router. For example, if you using Wi-Fi 5, you’ll experience a drop in speed if you connect a moderate number of devices simultaneously. 

On the other hand, if you’re using Wi-Fi 6, you won’t face issues in speed until you get to ridiculous numbers of devices. As we’ve said earlier, the number of Wi-Fi devices per home is increasing many fold. The number is even higher in home-office spaces. 

And if you have a smart home, the number of Wi-Fi devices is supposed to be high. You can’t manage all these devices with a single Wi-Fi router if you’re using Wi-Fi 5. However, the same thing can be done with a single router if you have Wi-Fi 6. 

Better Battery Life

Wi-Fi 6 not only offers better speed, but you’ll get better battery performance as well. The Wi-Fi 6 technology allows the router to communicate with the antennas in a planned way, so it isn’t turned on all the time when it’s not in use. 

There’s this feature in Wi-Fi 6 devices that is known as target wake time. With this feature, the router will check-in with the devices now and then, but they won’t be active when in idle state. 

This feature isn’t meant for your desktop or even your laptop. These devices need Wi-Fi constantly. However, there are a lot of benefits of Wi-Fi 6 for a smart home. In a smart home, there are usually a lot of devices that sit idle most of the time. 

For example, you’ll have smart lights, smart fridges, etc. In the case of these devices, a constant Wi-Fi connection is unnecessary as well as energy consumption. With Wi-Fi 6, a lot of energy can be saved by using the Target wake time feature.

Better Security

After speed and efficiency, you’ll be getting better security as well. Wi-Fi 6 comes with WAP3, which is a greater security protocol. If your devices use WAP3, it will be very hard to crack the passwords of your device. 

Nowadays, cybercrime has become a real threat. We all store our personal information on our social media, as well as our devices. That’s why you should take extra care to store this information on your devices, and Wi-Fi 6 will take care of that for you.  

How can I Get Wi-Fi 6?

Unfortunately, Wi-Fi 6 isn’t another update that you can get by downloading a software patch. To utilize the features of Wi-Fi 6, you need to buy new hardware that offers Wi-Fi 6.

However, we don’t recommend you change every device at once. Instead, try to get Wi-Fi 6 devices each time you update your phone, TV, or laptop. Otherwise, it will get very expensive, which is unnecessary. 

However, change the smaller devices such as smart bulbs, smart fridges, smart air conditioners, etc. as soon as you can.

Conclusion on Wi-Fi 6 in a smart Home

There are lots of Benefits of Wi-Fi 6 for a smart home. If you’re living in a smart home, and you don’t want to experience a speed drop every time someone starts streaming Netflix, get Wi-Fi 6 as soon as you can! 

You can find our pick for the best Wi-Fi 6 smart home solution here.

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