Wi-Fi 6E Adoption Isn’t Going So Great Due to Supply Constraints, Will Likely Be Bypassed for Wi-Fi 7

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Image: Wi-Fi Alliance



Wi-Fi 6E is an “extended” version of Wi-Fi 6 that boasts a number of perks over its standard predecessor thanks to the addition of the 6 GHz frequency band, enabling improvements such as more bandwidth, faster speeds, and lower latency. Unfortunately, the technology might only have a limited time in the limelight, according to market research firm Dell’Oro Group, which shared a press release noting that Wi-Fi 6E’s adoption has been noticeably hampered due to chip shortages and supply constraints. The theory is that most users will just stick with Wi-Fi 6 before making the jump to Wi-Fi 7, the first products of which are expected in 2023.



Supply Constraints “A Pin in the Balloon” for Wi-Fi 6E, According to Dell’Oro Group (Dell’Oro Group)



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I see this happening with PCI 5 being superseeded by 6 faster than anyone thought. Mostly due to supply constraints of 5.
 
Grimlakin said:
I see this happening with PCI 5 being superseeded by 6 faster than anyone thought. Mostly due to supply constraints of 5.
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Could almost say the same thing about PCI 4. It really only has existed for a two CPU generations (zen 2 & 3, Rocket Lake), and it's already being replaced by 5.

I wonder how much of it is logistics, and how much of it just standards coming out faster than the industry can really move to adopt. It's not like, even if logistics were perfect, that the entire world was going to replace every single WiFi AP with 6e overnight.
 
What they fail to realize is that WiFi systems don't need to be upgraded until they either fail, are saturated or hit whatever EOL the end user has placed on it. Most businesses and end users haven't hit any of those.

They could release WiFi 7 tomorrow and it would have a slow adoption rate as well.
 
My wifi 5 router wasn't cheap and works great, level of caring about new wifi standards not high. Not like the Roku's will take advantage anyway
 
Yea I got a wifi 6 router but not because I had to have 6. It was because signal strength was lacking in small parts of the house so I needed something with more wifi OOMPH. That's what I told the wife of course.

Sure I could have bought some higher gain antenna's and fixed it that way as well.


Edit to add, and of course articles like this are going to DESTROY wifi 6e adoption. If you were on the fence why bother now with wifi 7 right there. Especially if suppliers are needing 60+ day lead times on orders. Might as well get in on the 7 bandwagon.
 
WiFi 6 isn't really needed in the consumer / SOHO space, neither is 7 (whatever it is) - you'll want it on your mobile devices for sure, but that's for using wireless networks away from home.

These technologies are for highly congested locations. They offer very little real benefit for consumers in non-congested situations. Biggest benefit that might be seen would be for prosumers seeing lower latency with many high-bandwidth wireless links active. Something like gaming and running a full disk image simultaneously on two different wireless clients perhaps.
 
Grimlakin said:
Yea I got a wifi 6 router but not because I had to have 6. It was because signal strength was lacking in small parts of the house so I needed something with more wifi OOMPH. That's what I told the wife of course.

Sure I could have bought some higher gain antenna's and fixed it that way as well.


Edit to add, and of course articles like this are going to DESTROY wifi 6e adoption. If you were on the fence why bother now with wifi 7 right there. Especially if suppliers are needing 60+ day lead times on orders. Might as well get in on the 7 bandwagon.
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I did the same over the holidays since my old router was close to a decade old. I'm a little surprised but I've got 3 or 4 devices in the house that recognized 6 and are using it.
 
My laptop, phone and all of my WAP's are still on 802.11ac, and honestly, that's more than fast enough for anything I do on a mobile device.

Anything that is stationary gets wired Ethernet. I just don't see the need for these newer standards.

Doesn't really matter what it is. If there is a wired and a wireless version of something, the wired version always performs better, is more reliable and more secure. The only time to go wireless is in an application that truly requires it. Everything else should be wired.
 
Zarathustra said:
The only time to go wireless is in an application that truly requires it. Everything else should be wired.
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I agree. Horses are more reliable than steam carriages. And they have personality.
 
Brian_B said:
I agree. Horses are more reliable than steam carriages. And they have personality.
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That's not a very good analogy.

A "steam carriage" is more powerful than a horse and allows you to get more done, just like wired Ethernet is more powerful than anything WiFi, and has other benefits too!

Sometimes new things are an improvement, and then they should be used. Wireless technologies are not that. They are inferior to wired technologies in just about every other way than mobility.

You are essentially sacrificing performance for mobility, and that is fine if you need the mobility. If you don't, it's just silly.

Not everything that is new is better. (and lately it feels like most things that are new are worse than the tried and true technologies)
 
Zarathustra said:
You are essentially sacrificing performance for mobility
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You also have to factor in running the wire - not every house or apartment comes pre-wired with CAT6 at every outlet.

That's the biggest hurdle for most people, and a bigger concern than mobility.

Unless your cool with running cables along the floor. Of which, in my house, become dog toys.

I ran some CAT6 in my house last year - got my home office wired, got my main home theater area wired, and ran it to some shelves where I keep my router and equipment. That **** near killed me crawling around in my crawl space. If I put a PC in any place other than one of those 3 spots -- yeah, it's gonna be WiFi.
 
Brian_B said:
You also have to factor in running the wire - not every house or apartment comes pre-wired with CAT6 at every outlet.

That's the biggest hurdle for most people, and a bigger concern than mobility.

Unless your cool with running cables along the floor. Of which, in my house, become dog toys.

I ran some CAT6 in my house last year - got my home office wired, got my main home theater area wired, and ran it to some shelves where I keep my router and equipment. That **** near killed me crawling around in my crawl space. If I put a PC in any place other than one of those 3 spots -- yeah, it's gonna be WiFi.
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My finished basement has drop ceilings which makes that a little easier, but I am usually pretty good at running wires elsewhere too. If nothing else works, I have become pretty good at stealthily installing tastefully stealthy cable raceways.

I guess my take is that I don't want to put up with something subpar forever, just to save myself a little bit of time right now.
 
Yeah I have gotten clever with under carpet ethernet wiring, but I cannot do it everywhere. And f*ck my attic, anyone bigger than a 7 year old is going to have a miserable time spelunking up there. If I ever in my life (dare to dream) get to own a NEW home (or witness the reconstruction of one anyway) then every room will have cat6. Until then I make do with my kooky daisy chain rig + wifi.
 
Burticus said:
And f*ck my attic, anyone bigger than a 7 year old is going to have a miserable time spelunking up there.
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Yup. I've been in mine exactly 3 times. I hope to only need to do it once more, then I'm done and can die. And that **** insulation and dust is definitely bringing that on faster than not.
 
I don't own any wireless devices that can take advantage of newer standards. Well maybe my phone that I just got last year, but my 5G speeds destroy my FiOS speeds, so I don't bother with WiFi on the phone unless I need the upload bandwidth (cuz 5G upload sucks). I don't have data caps, so I'm free to use 5G however much as I wish. Not that I have much use for it, at home I'm obviously on my desktop PC, and I rarely need Internet away from home.

At home I only use wireless for my laptop, smartphone, and most of my game consoles (cuz not enough ports on the router, and I didn't feel like bothering with a switch just to get consoles to have a wired network connection - and my fat PS3 is a refurb, the Ethernet port has never worked on it the entire time I've owned it). The only console that has a wired connection is my X360 Elite cuz it does not have built-in wireless, and that Ethernet cable gets shared with other devices too (like whatever PC I'm building for friends/family/clients on the test bench).

At my parents' house, almost 20 years ago when they first got broadband, my pops and I ran Ethernet cables through the walls, up into the attic, and down through holes drilled in the ceilings. Been fine ever since. Gonna be a real pain in the @ss if they ever need to go faster than 1 Gbps (or if the cables get damaged), but I don't see that ever happening. Those cables are in there for the long haul. I don't ever wanna have to deal with that sh1t again. Oh yeah, these cables mainly serve the upstairs rooms, so downstairs areas have to settle for wireless.

My dad and I wanted to just run Ethernet cables over the floors, under doors, and down the main stairs (to serve the lower floor), but my mom wasn't having any of it. You know, it seems that for my buddies who live without women, they can do whatever they want with their network setup. But those who live with chicks always have to bend over backwards to create some kind of elaborate setup just so it "looks nice" and their woman doesn't complain. On the other hand, it makes sense if you have animals that like to chew on cables. Anyone who has ever owned rabbits know those f*ckers loooove to munch on cords and cables of all types.


Burticus said:
If I ever in my life (dare to dream) get to own a NEW home (or witness the reconstruction of one anyway) then every room will have cat6.
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I share the same dream. I want a new/custom-built home with built-in Ethernet in every room.


Zarathustra said:
A "steam carriage" is more powerful than a horse and allows you to get more done
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Horses really stink. I'll take the steam carriage thank you. Plus animals tend to have a mind of their own. Machines won't give you any sass.
 
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