Wi-Fi 6E
Wi-Fi 6E is the latest advancement in Wi-Fi technology, and last year the FCC opened up the 6 GHz band for unlicensed use in the US. What makes this so significant is that the amount of usable Wi-Fi will more than double (due to the amount of RF spectrum available for Wi-Fi).
With Wi-Fi 6E, we should expect to experience less network congestion due to wider channels and faster data rates that can support high-bandwidth applications and use cases—providing a realistic means to help speed innovation.
According to the Wi-Fi Alliance (global network of companies advancing the adoption and evolution of Wi-Fi), Wi-Fi 6E builds on the transfer speed and bandwidth of the existing Wi-Fi 6 standard, through the addition of a 6 GHz wireless band. And since the FCC opened the 6 GHz band, the US and 39 other countries (and growing) now support this unlicensed band for Wi-Fi 6E.[1] Think about those high bandwidth applications (e.g., video, AR/VR, and unified communications) used for research, education, entertainment, aerospace, defense—innovation in general. Wi-Fi 6E should be readily available to support growing numbers of 6 GHz devices and Wi-Fi 6E enterprise access points.
Aruba’s 630 Series Campus AP Enterprise-grade, Wi-Fi 6E Solutions
To that end, Aruba, (an HPE company), recently announced their first enterprise-grade Wi-Fi 6E solution set, starting with the 630 Series Campus Access Point (AP) solution.
Throughout the years, Aruba has been enabling customers to meet the need for secure, fast, and flexible connectivity. As huge numbers of organizations are taking to the cloud, it isn’t surprising that Aruba would be among the first to support them in their cloud journeys, helping them manage secure connectivity across highly complex and distributed environments.
The new Aruba Wi-Fi 6E solution set is part of Aruba Edge Services Platform (ESP), described by the vendor as an AI-powered, cloud-native platform designed to unify, automate, and secure the Edge, able to predict and resolve problems at the network edge before they happen.
Aruba’s new Wi-Fi 6E solutions will enable organizations to benefit from improved capacity, broader channels in 6 GHz, and considerably less signal interference, 3.9 Gbps maximum aggregate throughput to support high bandwidth, low latency services and applications, including high-definition video, unified communications, AR/VR, IoT, and cloud.
Aruba’s solution includes tri-band filtering to reduce interference between 5 GHz and 6 GHz bands, so that companies can not only support existing requirements, but can use the full spectrum to innovate and grow.
The Aruba 630 Series Campus Access Point solution includes:
- Comprehensive tri-band coverage across 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz with 3.9 Gbps maximum aggregate data rate and ultra-triband filtering to minimize interference.
- Up to seven 160 MHz channels in 6 GHz to better support low-latency, high bandwidth applications, including high-definition video and AR/VR.
- Ability to operate on existing IEEE 802.3at standards for PoE power, eliminating the need to rip and replace existing power supplies.
- Advanced security with WPA3 and Enhanced Open to better protect passwords and data.
- Flexible failover with two HPE Smart Rate Ethernet ports for 1-2.5 Gbps, offering true hitless failover from one port to another for both data and power.
- Application assurance to guarantee stringent application performance for latency sensitive and high bandwidth uses by dynamically allocating and adjusting radio resources.
- Cloud, controller, or controllerless operation modes to address campus, branch, and remote deployments.
Availability
The Aruba 630 Series will be available in Q3 2021.
The introduction of Aruba’s 630 Series Campus AP is a good start for enterprise-grade Wi-Fi 6E solutions. After 20+ years waiting for the FCC to open up a new band, leveraging Wi-Fi 6E appears to hold significant promise to enable increasingly congested WiFi networks and empower organizations to leverage Wi-Fi for video and voice-intensive collaboration applications.
[1] Wi-Fi Alliance.
