The Benefits of Wi-Fi 6E for Higher Education
Wi-Fi 6E provides several benefits for colleges and universities. According to Luke Schiavone, CDW solution architect for networking, Wi-Fi 6E provides four times the throughput of Wi-Fi 5 (or 802.11ac). It also supports higher density, so access points can serve more people and more devices in the classroom, dorm room, laboratory and myriad communal settings. With Wi-Fi 6E, the APs are more power-efficient, meaning they don’t need to draw as much power from the switches.
“Switching to Wi-Fi 6E can provide more coverage and help the organization better future proof its networks because it’s a newer technology,” says Schiavone.
Wi-Fi 6E includes stronger security measures. The wireless standard has implemented WPA3, a security protocol with more robust authentication than previous versions.
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Networking Modernization Considerations for Higher Education
Higher education institutions often have long networking refresh cycles, so when they do upgrade to the latest wireless standard, they expect the modernized infrastructure to support the college for several years.
“More times than not, you’re going to see corporations at the cutting edge because they have the money, flexibility and agility to jump into a new standard, whereas organizations that are getting tax dollars are going to wait until everything’s settled and other people have done it. They don’t want to be the first,” says Schiavone.
He also points out that many higher education institutions prefer to wait until a new Wi-Fi iteration is ratified. Vendors may do things differently, and there could be a lack of interoperability before ratification occurs. Wi-Fi 6E has been ratified, so newer devices are likely compatible with the standard. However, a university’s existing laptops, phones and connected devices may or may not be able to operate with Wi-Fi 6E, says Schiavone. It’s important that organizations ensure their devices are compatible with the standard before upgrading.
“As it gets ratified and we move further down the road, you’re going to be able to use Wi-Fi 6E with more devices,” says Schiavone.
In addition to device compatibility, colleges need to make sure their networking infrastructure will also support Wi-Fi 6E. Newer APs will have two connections so they can make full use of the expanded throughput. But a university with older network infrastructure may have only one wire available from each AP, meaning they may have to replace the AP with a newer one if they want to fully utilize Wi-Fi 6E’s capabilities.
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