Wi-Fi 6: What it Means and Why it Matters for New Product Development

Editor’s note: Mark Dohnalek is President & CEO of Pivot International, a US-based global manufacturing, engineering, technology, product development company with 14 offices across 3 continents worldwide.

No other process right now, more than Wi-Fi 6, provides as many game-changing possibilities for new product development. Across nearly every conceivable industry and market, this is the future of Wi-Fi and IoT for manufacturers and supply chain companies to seize emerging opportunities related to the rapidly mounting demand for Wi-Fi 6 applications.

There is the misconception that Wi-Fi 6 and 5G are interchangeable. They are not.

And, while there is overlap between them (both technologies support improvements in network speed, capacity and, latency), Wi-Fi 6 complements but does not replace 5G. Specifically, Wi-Fi 6 is designed to support high-speed, low-latency connectivity for local area networks, and 5G is designed to support wide and ultra-wide area networks. They can work in unison, however, 5G has been embraced and Wi-Fi 6 lags undoubtedly because it is less understood.
Below are three reasons why this latest technological advancement holds so much growth potential.

1. Unprecedented speed & capabilities. Wi-Fi 6, also known as 802.11ax, combines the speed of Gigabit Ethernet wireless with the predictability and reliability of licensed radio. This combination delivers greater efficiency, flexibility and scalability enabling new and existing networks to support next-generation applications.

2. The new standardization. Yes, Wi-Fi 6 is set to become the new standard and that means as these new networks expand, businesses will need to migrate their current infrastructure and adopt devices capable of supporting it. These advantages include higher speeds, lower latency, and the ability to run and share more information with new wireless APs.

3. Development of industry-wide applications. Wi-Fi 6 presents a wealth of profitable industry-wide IoT and sensor applications with wider channels of 80 and 160 MHz, as many as eight spatial streams, and other ground-breaking features. This has the ability to impact healthcare by helping companies capitalize on the skyrocketing demand for IoT-enabled medtech with remote imaging and diagnostic capabilities. In teaching applications, it will play a significant role in higher learning to security and defense by providing immersive, virtual learning environments enabling realistic simulated training scenarios. And, of course for manufacturing and supply chain companies, solutions connected to Wi-Fi 6 can enable companies to run remote diagnostics and maintenance on complex equipment utilized in the manufacturing, supply chain, quality control and distribution processes.
Overall, Wi-Fi 6 can have a tremendous impact on manufacturers and supply chain companies preparing to bring a new product to market. Whether it will help identify the needs the product is intended to meet, the challenges it’s designed to solve, or the practices and preferences of the end-user, this advanced technology can make a difference.

Both Wi-Fi 6 and 5G together can help optimize use cases when following specific design approaches, digital technologies, UX considerations, manufacturing methods, and supply chain challenges is an extensive undertaking. There can be more than one hundred different variables that need to be explored and assessed across the four basic steps of the process: context, effectiveness, efficiency, and engagement. The key is to know what it is, know how it works, and use it to take your product or process from conception through operation and through distribution.

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