We’ve heard a lot about the rollout of 5G and the enormous impact it will have on the Internet of Things. An emerging communications technology that may be equally exciting that has not garnered the same amount of attention is WiFi 6. So now with both 5G and WiFi 6 coming to the market in 2019, we should anticipate that newer IoT devices will be designed to take advantage of these advances in connectivity. The cool thing about the technologies is that they will enable connected IoT devices to use less energy, offer longer battery life and process more data. I suspect that many IoT devices will likely begin shipping with SIM card trays or embedded SIM cards to enable the cellular functionality that 5G and WiFi 6 bring. The article that follows compares and contrasts the two.
Thanks to two new wireless standards rolling out this year—WiFi 6 and 5G—2019 is shaping up to be a watershed year for the Internet of Things (IoT). These new technologies are expected to revolutionize IoT, and mobile communications in general, with blazing speeds, low power requirements, and high bandwidth. Let’s see what these emerging technologies are all about and why they’re so exciting for the future of IoT.
WiFi 6 is the name for the next generation of the wireless standard, following the current 802.11ac protocol. WiFi 6 is technically called 802.11ax, but in addition to new wireless technology, it’s also bringing with it a new naming scheme: it’ll be known simply as WiFi 6, while 802.11ac will be referred to as WiFi 5.
