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Network Infrastructure Magazine | Thursday, January 20, 2022
WiFi technology is evolving and heading towards a brighter future for everyone, so people must be well equipped to support the upcoming WiFi technologies.
Fremont, CA: There are almost 300 million people in the U.S. who are actively using the internet, and the number of internet users keeps growing continuously. As people become more dependent on the internet-enabled lifestyle, everyone seeks strong and fast WiFi connections to meet their daily needs, whether an employee is working from home, a casual gamer, or a student searching for study material. There is no doubt that a wired connection is much stronger than a wireless connection. But in reality, people are hooked to wireless connections.
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Getting ready for the future of WiFi
Understanding different equipment
While setting up an internet connection, one may come across different terms like modem, router and more. All these devices help the user access the internet, but these devices may work differently from each other. Modems connect a network to the user's home computer, while routers function in combination with the modem to connect devices, allowing users to connect their phone, tablet, smart TV, and other devices to a single WiFi network. A single gateway or router may not be enough to offer WiFi coverage throughout a larger property. Poor coverage due to the distance between router and device, passing through walls, and even interferences like fish tanks, might result in slower web browsing, frequent buffering when streaming videos, and slower download speeds for large files. Hardware equipment additions such as WiFi extenders and mesh networks are used with the gateway to help solve interruptions in the networks.
Evolving WiFi standards and technology
Periodically, new WiFi standards are introduced, resulting in increased speed limitations on the WiFi highway. WiFi 5 was released in 2014, followed by WiFi 6 in late 2019. WiFi 5 is capable of speeds up to one gigabit, whereas WiFi 6 is designed to achieve rates of more than two gigabits. It is vital to emphasize that devices must support these new WiFi standards to obtain these benefits. Gateways must support new WiFi protocols to reap their benefits. With old generation Dual-Band technology, gateways had up to two notional traffic lanes to move data from the gateway to the connected devices. Today's WiFi standards are based on Tri-Band technology, which provides an additional data transmission path to connected devices.
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