Wi-Fi 6 launch in 2019: what it meant for home streaming setups

AndroidBox_Tim

AndroidBox_Tim

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Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) launched for consumers in late 2019. This thread discusses the community reaction.
 
Wi-Fi 6 certified routers started hitting the market in mid-2019. The Netgear Nighthawk AX12 was first.
 
Initial prices were $300-$600 for early Wi-Fi 6 routers. Premium pricing for early adopters.
 
OFDMA is the key improvement for dense home environments. Multiple devices share each transmission window.
 
In a home with 20+ Wi-Fi devices, Wi-Fi 6 handles congestion far better than Wi-Fi 5.
 
BSS Coloring reduces interference from neighboring networks. Great for apartment buildings.
 
Target Wake Time reduces latency for devices that sleep between transmissions.
 
Single-device speed was not dramatically better over Wi-Fi 5. The gains are in multi-device scenarios.
 
When streaming on five devices simultaneously, Wi-Fi 6 maintained quality where Wi-Fi 5 struggled.
 
The 2019 limitation was device support. Very few devices supported Wi-Fi 6 client-side.
 
My 2019 router was Wi-Fi 6 but all my streaming devices were still Wi-Fi 5. No benefit until device refresh.
 
Wi-Fi 6E arrived in 2021 adding the 6GHz band. That was a bigger practical improvement.
 
Looking back, 2019 Wi-Fi 6 was laying groundwork for the ecosystem that matured in 2021-2022.
 
The IPTV streaming quality improvements only came once both router and device supported Wi-Fi 6.
 
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