5g Vs Wi-Fi – Do I need both for my home network?

With the rapid development of wireless technology, it is difficult to differentiate between the newly emergent 5G and Wi-Fi 6technologies. Here is a look at what they are, their differences and which one you need between them.

Wireless technology is one of the fastest changing tech in the world today. It can be divided into two main bodies: mobile network technology and Wi-Fi. Both fields have improved immensely over the years. Everything from bandwidth speed and range has improved to what we have today: 5G for mobile networks and Wi-Fi 6 for wireless connectivity.

5G is the newer of the two and is set to start rolling out slowly commercially in mid-2020. This is because many devices we use today are support up to 4G and switching all over sudden to 5G network will render all our devices useless. Howeversome modern smartphones and tablets are already fitted with a 5G receivers. It offers much more broadband compared to its predecessor: 4G.

What is 5G technology?

Cellular networks are vital to our lives today. 5G is the most recent release technology, 5^th,for cellular connections. Since it hasn’t been commercially released yet, it is said to provide much more coverage – both inside and outside the house.

On top of this, it is said to be more secure than Wi-Fi connectivity since it provides much more authentication methods and management of keys.Furthermore, it delivers higher speeds, provides extremely low latency and is overall more reliable and stable than 4G LTE.

There are three types of 5G networks set to release: low band, mid-band and high band 5G. They all provide different performance with the low band working like 4G. The low band supports up to 7, 20 MHz channels bringing the total to 140 MHz. Our cellphones are usually at about 60 MHz. Mid band on the other hand supports two 100MHz channels bringing the total to 200 MHz.and in high band, 8 100 MHz channels can be supported to provide very high speeds.

When it comes to supported devices, there are not many 5G smartphones out. 5G smartphones include the following: Samsung S20 and S20 Ultra, OnePlus 8 and 8 Pro and the Note 10 Plus. 5G is known to provide more options in airwaves compared to 4G. What this means is that it unlocks high bands that 4G did not support.To understand this better, we’ll look at previous generation cellular networks.

1G

The first generation of cellular networks was 1G and it was simply an analog cellular connection. It was released in 1980

2G

This supported speeds of between 200 kbps to about 1 megabytes per second. Furthermore, it featured the introduction new technologies we know to date such as GSM, CDMA and TDMA. It was the first generation that used digital signals. This network launched in the early 90s.

3G

Generation three cellular network saw an increase in speeds to about 10 Mbps. Continuing with the use of digital waves, new technology was integrated into the system. They include: EVDO, HSPA and UMTS. CDMA was also improved to CDMA2000. 3G was released in the early 2000s.

4G

Released in the early 2010s, 4G ushered in a new era of speeds and broadband connection. Many of the devices today run on a 4G cellular network. It is the direct predecessor of 5G technology.

Types of 5G

There are three types of 5G networks available: Low band 5G, mid-band 5G and High-band 5G. we’ll look at them in detail in the following section

Low Band 5G

This frequency operated at below 2 GHz. But low frequency usually means longer distance coverage. This means that Low band 5G is the furthest traveling network of the three. However, the channels are not wide and are usually used for 4G. Low band is therefore slow and is basically 4G. They measure between 5 MHz and 20 MHz.

Mid-band 5G

The band sits between 2 and 10 GHz in range. Distance covered by this band will therefore be slightly shorter than the low band frequency. However, the range is still excellent. It is important to remember that mid-band 5G is the most common 5G network and is currently the widest in use.

High band 5G

High band is also referred to as millimeter wave. It provides airwaves of between 20 and 100 GHz. Although quite short in range, they provide the fastest speeds we have for cellular networks today. They feature a distance of 800 feet from their towers. This band is however not in use yet with very few cities providing the network.

Wi-Fi 6

Wi-Fi 6 is what 5G is for wireless router technology. It is the latest generation of Wi-Fi connection that features extremely high speeds and wider area coverage. Like 5G, Wi-Fi 6 hasn’t quite caught on yet and will grow popular over time. This is because most of our devices such as laptops and smartphones do not support this technology, they were manufactured before the use of it. The biggest difference between this and its predecessor, Wi-Fi 5, is the speed. The speed has been amped up to 9.6 Gbps from 3.5 Gbps on the previous model. And although these speeds are purely theoretical, Wi-Fi 6 still beats out the previous in performance.

This module is also referred to as AX Wi-Fi. It is an improvement from the previous 802.11 ac standard. But the main reason for the development of Wi-Fi 6 was to keep up with the use of many the different devices we have today from smart TV, VR devices, 4K gaming equipment and more. In fact, it is said that a regular modern home today has double the number of wireless internet devices than there was ten years ago.

How do I get Wi-Fi 6?

Since Wi-Fi updates heavily rely on hardware updates, you will need a new router if you want Wi-Fi 6 connectivity. The router will do a wonderful job especially if you have a lot of devices connected to your home network. Regardless of whether the devices are Wi-Fi 6 enabled or not, you will see an improvement in performance since the router since this technology allows the router to communicate with more devices at a time.

Why is Wi-Fi 6 faster?

There are two main features that make Wi-Fi 6 the performance beast it is today: MUMIMO and OFDMA

MUMIMO

If you’ve been looking for a router, then you have probably stumbled upon this term. It stands for Multi User Multiple Input Multiple Output. It is a feature in many modern routers but Wi-Fi 6 takes it into a whole new level. MUMIMO is used to allow the router to communicate with many connected devices simultaneously instead of broadcasting to one device at a time. It allows up to 4 devices to communicate at the same time on a regular modern router. But when a router is Wi-Fi 6 enabled, it can support up to 8 devicessimultaneously. This is the reason homes with many connected devices are the perfect fit for a Wi-Fi 6 router

OFDMA

Orthogonal frequency-division multiple access or OFDMA is a feature that allows more data rate transmission per transmission from your router to your devices. This means there is minimal latency and the data bandwidth is utilized fully since there is little loss of speed during transmission.

What are the benefits of Wi-Fi 6?

Improved battery life

Wi-Fi 6 reduces the amount of time a device has to keep its antennas on. This is because this routers allow devices to plan communications. There is a feature known as Target Wake Time for Wi-Fi 6 routers that allows the router to schedule check in time with devices. Less on time for the antennas means power is saved consequently improving battery life.

Improved security for your devices

When it comes to wireless communication, the biggest threat is usually security attacks. Because of this, routers come with a security protocol known as WPA 3. It protects your passwords against hackers and encrypts some data that hackers find hard to crack. With improved WPA 3 functionalities in Wi-Fi 6 routers, security has been boosted up a notch.

Higher speeds

Wi-Fi 6 routers come with a rating of 9.6 Gbps. Although this speeds are theoretical, the routers still provide higher bandwidth than Wi-Fi 5 routers. This is due to the additional features such as OFDM and improved MUMIMO. There is also better distribution of bandwidth to all devices

Wireless technology	5G	Wi-Fi 6
Special features	Improved WiMax and LTE	OFDMA, MUMIMO
Channels	Dual band (2.4 and 5 GHz)	Dual band, triband with two 5 GHz bands
Supported Devices	Cellphones, tablets	Routers, TVs, laptops, smartphones
Previous gen	1G, 2G, 3G, 4G	Wi-Fi 5

 

Conclusion

Since both of these technologies are not yet in full use, there may be no need to upgrade just yet. However, upgrading to Wi-Fi 6 will serve more benefits since even Wi-Fi 5 devices are supported. It will also improve the overall speed for your devices.