Wi-Fi 6
Key Features
Stephen Cooper
Senior Systems Engineer – ANZ
@Stephen__Cooper
December 6, 2019 | Sydney, Australia 1
What’s On Tap For The Next 30 Minutes?
§ How did we get to Wi-Fi 6?
§ OFDMA
§ MU-MIMO
§ 1024QAM
§ BSS Coloring
§ Target Wait Time
2
Terminology
§ 802.11ax or Wi-Fi 6?
§ Can be used interchangeably
§ Technically Wi-Fi 6 is the WFA certification based on 802.11ax technology
PHY IEEE Amendment Wi-Fi Alliance
High Efficiency (HE) 802.11ax Wi-Fi 6
Very High Throughput (VHT) 802.11ac Wi-Fi 5
High Throughput (HT) 802.11n Wi-Fi 4
3
History of 802.11
Year Data Rate Band Modulation MIMO Modulation Channel
Max Width
802.11b 1999 11 Mbps 2.4 HR-DSSS n/a CCK 22 MHz
802.11a/g 1999/2003 54 Mbps 5/2.4 OFDM n/a 64QAM 20 MHz
802.11n 2009 600 Mbps 2.4, 5 OFDM SU 4SS (3SS) 64QAM 40 MHz
802.11ac 2013 6.9 Gbps 5 OFDM MU 8SS (4SS) 256QAM 160 MHz*
802.11ax 2019 (est.) 9.6 Gbps 2.4, 5 OFDMA MU 8SS 1024QAM 160 MHz*
§ The trend has always been to increase max speed.
§ Main goal of 802.11ax is to increase efficiency and decrease latency
*160 MHz not typically used in most real-world deployments due to limited channel re-use
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The Problem
§ Wi-Fi has a scale problem
Aggregate Throughput Per Client Throughput
900 900
800 800
700
Throughput (Mbps)
700
Throughput (Mbps)
600 600
500 500
400 400
300 300
200 200
100 100
0 0
1 10 25 50 100 1 10 25 50 100
Clients Clients
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Wi-Fi Today
Traffic jams!
802.11ax
Free-flowing traffic!
OFDM and OFDMA
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[Link]
Subcarriers – What’s new?
OFDM - Wi-Fi 4, 5
Subcarrier # Symbol
Width Subcarriers Duration
312.5 kHz 64 3.2 µs
f X X
4 4 4
78.125 kHz 256 12.8 µs
… OFDMA - Wi-Fi 6
f
[Link]
8
OFDM vs OFDMA – Multi-user Frame Delivery
OFDM - Wi-Fi 4, 5 OFDMA – Wi-Fi 6
Bandwidth Bandwidth
Time Time
§ OFDM – reserves full channel bandwidth § OFDMA – can utilise full channel bandwidth with
regardless of payload size/type multiple payload types and sizes for multiple users
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OFDMA Resource Units – 20 MHz
Up to 9 users for 20 MHz
26 26 26 26 13 13 26 26 26 26
52 52 52 52
106 106 Min. RU for MU-MIMO
242
26 SC = 2 MHz, 52 = 4 MHz, 106 = 8 MHz, 242 = 20 MHz
Good for ~ 375 kbps
[Link]
10
OFDMA Resource Units – 40 MHz
Up to 18 users for 40 MHz
26 26 26 26 13 13 26 26 26 26 26 26 26 26 13 13 26 26 26 26
52 52 52 52 52 52 52 52
106 106 106 106
242 242
26 SC = 2 MHz, 52 = 4 MHz, 106 = 8 MHz, 242 = 20 MHz
[Link]
11
OFDMA Resource Units & Users
RUs 20 MHz 40 MHz 80 MHz 160 / 80+80 MHz
996 x2 - - 1 user 1 user
996 - - 1 user 2 users
484 - 1 user 2 users 4 users
242 1 users 2 users 4 users 8 users
106 2 users 4 users 8 users 16 users
52 4 users 8 users 16 users 32 users
26 9 users 18 users 37 users 74 users
§ Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 – validation for up to four RUs
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OFDM Waveform
13
OFDMA Waveform
106 RUs 106 RUs
14
OFDMA Waveform
242 RUs 242 RUs
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OFDMA Operations
§ Legacy contention still applies to win TXOP
§ MU-RTS transmitted using OFDM so legacy clients can understand it
§ AP determines allocation of RUs for UL or DL for every TXOP
§ Trigger frames – for each user: specify RUs/tones, subcarriers, MCS, spatial streams, UL target RSSI
[Link]
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OFDMA Trigger Frame
Wireshark filter = [Link] eq 0x2400
4x OFDMA Users
RUs Allocated
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OFDMA Operations (cont.)
§ Within a transmission some RUs can be SISO some can be MIMO
§ Users send Buffer Status Report (BSR) to advise of payload for UL-OFDMA
§ AP determines SS/Tx Power/MCS – UL target RSSI instructs client which Tx power to use!
§ Operating Mode Indication (OMI) – client can opt-out of MU, and even request change to
RU/BW/SS
§ UL-OFDMA Random Access (UORA) – dedicated RUs for unscheduled UL transmissions
§ OFDMA Back Off (OBO) – used by clients wanting to transmit via UORA
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OFDMA (Frequency Multiplexing) and
MU-MIMO (Spatial Multiplexing)
§ OFDMA splits the channel into smaller chunks (RUs)
§ MU-MIMO divides spatial streams among users
§ Any RU 106 or bigger can split 8SS between users
OFDMA MU-MIMO
Stationary or roaming users Groups of spatially-diverse
stationary users
High density Low density
Lower latency Higher SNR/MCS
Smaller frames Larger frames
Reduces overhead Increases Overhead
Ideal: many Wi-Fi 6 clients Ideal: PtP/PtMP Wi-Fi 6 bridges
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[Link]
1024QAM = New Data Rates
MCS Modulation 802.11ax 802.11ac
(1SS 20 MHz 800 ns GI) (1SS 20 MHz 400 ns GI)
§ 802.11ax data rates are about 1.2x 0 BPSK 1/2 8.6 7.2
faster than 802.11ac
1 QPSK 1/2 17.2 14.4
§ Higher SNR required 2 QPSK 3/4 25.8 21.7
§ Different subcarrier spacing, new 3 16-QAM 1/2 34.4 28.9
guard intervals 4 16-QAM 3/4 51.6 43.3
§ 11n/ac – 312.5 kHz
5 64-QAM 1/2 68.6 57.8
§ 11ax – 78.128 kHz
6 64-QAM 3/4 77.4 65
§ Guard Interval – 3200 ns down to
800 ns 7 64-QAM 5/6 86 72.2
8 256-QAM 3/4 103.2 86.7
9 256-QAM 5/6 114.7 n/a
10 1024-QAM 3/4 129 n/a
[Link]
updated-with-80211ax-data-rates 11 1024-QAM 5/6 143.4 n/a
* 1SS 160 MHz 800 ns GI = 1.2 Gbps 20
1024-QAM
256-QAM (-68 dBm)
MCS Modulation 20 MHz – 1SS
1024-QAM (-60 dBm) 256-QAM vs. 1024-QAM
0 BPSK 1/2 8.6
1 QPSK 1/2 17.2
2 QPSK 3/4 25.8
3 16-QAM 1/2 34.4
4 16-QAM 3/4 51.6
5 64-QAM 1/2 68.6
6 64-QAM 3/4 77.4
7 64-QAM 5/6 86
8 256-QAM 3/4 103.2
9 256-QAM 5/6 114.7
10 1024-QAM 3/4 129
11 1024-QAM 5/6 143.4
256-QAM = 8 Bits per Symbol
25% 21
1024-QAM = 10 Bits per Symbol
Listen Before Talk - Wi-Fi is too darn polite
CCA
22
BSS Color Diagram
100 44
36
Intra-BSS frame
transmission
Inter-BSS frame
(space reuse)
36 44
100 23
Spatial Reuse - BSS Coloring
§ Clients will maintain a 2nd
NAV timer
§ Concept of OBSS vs
MYBSS
§ AP can instruct STA to
reduce Tx power for UL
[Link]
24
Target Wake Time (TWT)
§ First introduced in 802.11ah
§ Radio wake-up no longer tied to beacon/DTIM interval
[Link]
25
Wi-Fi 6 Clients (November 2019)
Samsung S10/e/+ Intel AX200 iPhone 11/Pro/Max Surface Pro 7/Laptop 3 Dell XPS 13
(2x2) (2x2) (2x2) (2x2) (2x2)
Wi-Fi 6 CERTIFIED clients/APs/chipsets: [Link] 27
How to Check Wi-Fi 6
Wi-Fi Analyzer
PCAP
Your Device!
Mist Dashboard!
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Thank you!
[Link]
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