What is 5G ? | What is WiFi 6 ? | 5G vs WiFi 6 | 2022 updates

5G launch in India

Usher in the tech revolution with 5G | Cruise with the most modern and super efficient WiFi 6

By Blue Water Tech

Wireless technological change is a constant

The constantly changing digital landscape has, over the years, consistently thrown up adaptive technologies to accommodate the needs of the times. Each improvement in technology has spawned more and new uses and applications. Take, for instance, the humble yet, fantastic and still futuristic HDMI.

The latest breakthroughs

Here, we are going to discuss far wider possibilities. Those introduced by WiFi 6, which is already making a difference in the digital sphere, and, the vast possibilities that 5G holds for humanity.

Creating new footprints in an increasingly digitised world

The positive impact of the fourth industrial revolution defined and propelled by wireless, mobile communication is set to be realized by the 5G air interface. The impact will be obvious from the optimisation of key functional aspects of the global economy. Expect better and more efficient product output, swifter, and further enablement of key decision making, optimization of services and more, which will all create a better user experience for society.

What is 5G ?

As the name suggests, 5G is the new global wireless, mobile network. A standard in networking that redefines the way the world connects and communicates. It intends to integrate and enable humans as well as machines to create seamless and easy functioning of major activities. The magnitude of the scope of 5G is professed by experts to be enormous in its implications. It is a standard designed to create a sweeping ambit to digitally connect people, devices, conveniences, tools, and services within and beyond the boundaries of nations.

5G makes the leap

If 4G LTE ushered in the mobile broadband era, the 5G interface promises to break barriers and create great possibilities. It is expected to not only revolutionise the way we connect and communicate, but also the way we function as it intends to encompass a vast array of services. It is capable of higher speeds, greater reliability, and efficiency as well as establishing minimal latency numbers which means your connections are quicker and more seamless than ever before.

5G vs 4G LTE – 5G is the winner

To begin with, theoretically, 5G is 20 × faster than 4G LTE, making it significantly swifter than its predecessor, delivering peak data rates of 20 Gbps leaving 4G far behind on the course. You can imagine the level of performance of 5g from this – downloading a Hi-res video on a 5G network is 500% faster than it is on a 4G platform.

On the latency front too, 5G scores over 4G. While for 4G the lag between sending and receiving a signal is 200 ms, the latency rate for 5G is just 1ms !

Also, apart from having a much higher capacity to support network traffic, 5G derives far more out of a spectrum – low, mid, and high bandwidths – than 4G.

How 5G will impact economic activity

With its superior inherent abilities, 5G is expected to immensely expand the wireless connectivity ecosystem and bring into its fold wide and major assets of economic activity.

5G with its ability to greatly scale up digitisation in manufacturing and, increasingly higher potential to maximise efficiency creates room for increased mobility, flexibility, and versatility in processes.

It accelerates and optimises the integration of automation in production processes, which translates into better process efficiency and product quality. Particularly, algorithm dictated process control and monitoring stand to benefit greatly. For example, it can assist in ensuring the purity and fineness of a chemical or intermediate that serves as an input to a pharmaceutical product or a vaccine.

But, that’s not all. The ability of 5G to establish a well connected, functionally resourceful, and efficient infrastructure provides a permanent, and constantly improving supply chain structure. By doing so, it creates better possibilities for production planning and distribution.

5G benefits logistics

5G efficacy has a direct positive fallout for the logistics industry that is supposed to ensure timely and certain movement of goods. That’s a major boost to supply chains with far-flung links, all over.

What 5G ensures is that it enhances route optimization and location tracking, particularly, in hard-to -reach dead zones by improving geolocation technology. Also, it enables better on-the-road backup to avoid or minimise system downtime.

This helps improve chain visibility and minimises or even eliminates revenue loss due to pilfering or loss of goods.

5G and agriculture

AI and ( IoT ) / Internet of things are already providing a technological push to alleviate the challenges of the agricultural industry across the globe. The arrival of 5G has created greater potential to assist farming activity and offer new possibilities in output growth and farming efficiency.

With its higher throughput and speed, 5G can ensure better allocation and distribution of water through fields. This is achieved by acquiring data through drone and ground technology and enabling more efficient and quicker data processing.

These same benefits extend to and ensure more productive weeding, harvesting, and picking of fruit.

The high traffic enabling and low latency ability of 5G provides an accurate real-time estimate of live stock status. This directly results in efficiency in milking and other aspects of livestock management.

The timely arrival of 5G is already proving to be a major boost for agriculture. It enables wider scales of operations and brings higher efficiency to labour and energy consumption.

A boost to safety, security, and accessibility

A 5G network generally improves connectivity and coverage and enhances data security, privacy, and compliance in critical security areas. All of which ensure the smooth and seamless functioning of systems.

What is WiFi 6 ( or WiFi 802.11ax ) ?

WiFi 6 ( or WiFi 802.11ax ) is the new generation standard for wireless local area network ( WLAN ). It is a vastly improved version of its predecessor – WiFi 5 ( or 802.11ac). It allows your network to function with much greater speed and capacity. WiFi 6 is a more powerful platform that brings higher efficiency and scalability to connectivity networks. Apart from speed, it enables better connectivity performance in congested environments, be they public places or your office or home crammed with multiple devices.

How fast is WiFi 6 ?

Theoretically, WiFi 6 is supposed to have a throughput ( successful data transmission per unit of time) of a maximum of 9.6 Gbps as compared to 3.5 Gbps of WiFi 5 or 802.11ac. Both these values, however, do not show up in real-world use. Typical maximum speeds achieved in real-world applications never nudge the theoretical possibilities. Far from it. For example, in many countries with expansive internet use, real-world speed limits are confined to far lower limits.

Theoretical extreme of WiFi 6 is relevant in more ways

The theoretical maximum of 9.6 Gbps paves and sets up the foundation for a network accommodating a caboodle of connected devices. Certainly, WiFi 6 speeds up data rates, but its benefits are not restricted to a single device. Rather, the 9.6 Gbps get dedicated to a bunch of connected devices as the transmission is split up across all connected devices in use in a common network. This means an improvement in network quality with each device seeing a potential-jump in speed. This also translates into much lower latency.

WiFi is future-proof in its scope

Its ability to enable multiple connected devices parallelly at the same time eliminates some of the limitations of its predecessor – WiFi 5. A WiFi 6 enabled router, with its ability to feed more channels, communicates with more devices than ever.

With passing time, as more and more digital devices and smart gadgets find their way into our networks, the challenges of functional needs increase. WiFi 6, with its future-proof approach is already embracing higher numbers of connected devices and is ready for more.

Works better in congested, device-crammed places – public and personal

Its ability to transmit multiple data feeds in a common broadcast and schedule multiple-device check-ins with a router makes busy networks retain excellent connectedness, speeds, and efficiency. Consider a network that includes smart sweeping robots, digital door locks, smart curtains, and more apart from your laptop, smart TV, ipad, laptop, mobile phone all wanting to check-in at the same time. Instead of vying with each other for bandwidth, they get connected easily if the network is WiFi 6 enabled.

WiFi 6 – a beacon for Multiple User enablement

Among the key tech highlights in the sphere of WiFi 6 are MU-MIMO and OFDMA – both of which take functionality to a high when multiple devices wait to get their share of bandwidth at the same time in a common network.

Multi User-Multiple input, Multiple output, or MU-MIMO gets a decided upgrade with WiFi 6 pushing up the number of devices that can simultaneously communicate to an impressive eight.

OFDMA which works well with low bandwidth applications, too, gets a boost improving its ability to connect with more than one device, boosting connectivity and network efficiency.

Energy saving

The new Target Wake Time ( TWT ) WiFi 6 feature means your mobile phone, laptop and tablet have a higher battery life too. It enables devices to decide when and how they will wake up to receive or send data, ensuring optimization of device sleep time resulting in battery life-saving.

WiFi 6 brings improved security

WiFi 6 is enabled with WAP3 certification. That lends it much better security as it provides robust encryption algorithms and key management. WAP3 translates into greater protection for devices, the traffic between connected devices, and the WiFi access point. WiFi 6 is supported by the Passpoint protocol which means WiFi 6 users get automatically authenticated network. No need to go through the cumbersome, manual process of logging in and seeking authentication to the network.

Minimises WiFi overlaps and conflicts

Its built-in BSS Colour technology identifies and prevents signals from neighbouring networks preventing overlap and network interference. That makes your router as well as your network more efficient and exclusive.

5G vs WiFi 6. Can you compare the two ?

While you may find it tempting to pit these two in a mirror situation to find out which one is the winner, a reasonably deep understanding of these two modern evolutions in wireless communication technology will reveal that both have enough similarity and somewhat differing functionality that make them complementary rather than conflicting options.

Let’s view this situation of abundance of having these highly evolved new-generation technologies as a promising reality, with what appears to be boundless potential, rather than through a lens of debate. For that’s what it deserves.

A convergence of the two

While 5G unlocks vast possibilities and opportunities for the entire global economy, the newest WiFi 6 updates display enough vim and vigour to put your WLAN on the fast track. In either case, wireless communication is the winner.

For its part, 5G promises to alter the way critical factors of economic activity, like, manufacturing, logistics, agriculture, services and more, are run, and managed.

WiFi 6 brings its own enhancements and updates with higher speeds, wider multiple-user scope, enhanced support to digitally operate multiple utility gadgets and devices, making a lifestyle enhancing difference.

Indoor access choice – personal and professional space

For indoor areas like home and office spaces, naturally functional access is provided by WiFi 6, but where spaces are extended and require expansive coverage as in large houses, large campuses, and institutions 5G, importantly augments the connectivity to provide a seamless network area.

Mobility

5G is a boon for autonomous and connected driving which requires real-time accurate response. While self-driven cars are still in the nascent stage of application, the concept is gaining momentum to find its place in the mainstream. 5G has all the superior skills and features to put it on course.

In the park, on the beach

The outdoor nature of 5G connectivity makes it a natural choice for wireless connectivity use in public areas like the beach, parks, and subway travel.

Retail store location and branches

Retail, be it groceries, clothing or even hospitality is increasingly implementing systems to accommodate in-house databases and analytics. 5G with its superior user experience provides higher enablement to the application of AR and VR which support customer personalisation which is the need of the times.

In education

School and higher education require both 5G and WiFi 6 options. While WiFi 6 certainly has its place in education, 5G fills in the blanks created by extended spaces in educational institutions. It creates extended networks, can be used outdoors in situations like outdoor educational activities, bus rides, and so on.

It augments existing network capacities within and beyond campus infrastructure with its wider reach and coverage.

Healthcare benefits from 5G

Smart healthcare is undergoing rapid transformation due to the application of Internet of things ( IoT). 5G, with its higher broadband, low latency, and much higher capacity greatly support this industry to function highly efficiently. The ultra-reliable communication it provides enables smooth er and better human to machine and machine to machine communication which are critical functions in the healthcare ecosystem.

Summary of benefits of 5G and WiFi 6


The two share an inclusive rivalry without a shred of conflicting fallout and have settled down to a shared existence providing increasing benefits in the social and economic spheres. With the adoption of both still in the early stages, particularly, and more so in the case of the more wide-reaching 5G, the benefits are increasing as interconnectedness grows with each passing day.

Key Benefits of 5G

  • Increased bandwidth for single and multiple users
  • Allows extensive and excellent mobility
  • Much higher speeds
  • Enhanced M2M ( machine to machine ) communication
  • Lightens traffic in highly congested network situations
  • Favours roaming
  • Supports WAN to facilitate branch connectivity

Key Benefits of WiFi 6

  • Increased capacity benefits single device speed as well as multiple device speed
  • Facilitates near-instant and certain hook up of multiple devices and utility gadgets without lag
  • Swifter data transmission rates
  • Energy-saving and higher efficiency
  • Adept at functioning in dense networks with a high number of connected devices
  • Offers a high degree of security

Final words

The future is here and getting better…

As more and more utilities get sucked into the internet-enabled digital realm, and the scope for mobile communication increases, the possibility for wider applications of innovative technologies like 5G and WiFi 6 too are on the rise.

… as both coexist

Work from home and remote locations is being increasingly enabled by innovations. Speedier connectivity and data transmission are already creating a seamless and unbounded workspace as we start the day’s work using Wifi 6 at a desk at home and continue the work with 5G as we move outdoors.

Overlap of applicability and interests?

While there are certainly no battle lines drawn, as 5G becomes ubiquitous in the socio-economic landscape and networking becomes more about connecting end-to-end points, accruing benefits of both promise to spoil us.

With IoT devices too set to increase rapidly the two technologies will increasingly continue to nudge each other while still enjoying a harmonious and shared existence.

5G Technology in India

If you have any queries, you can post them in the comments section, and our team at bluewater tech shall get back with an answer.      

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