Wi-Fi6/6e was designed with common concerns in mind, especially in a healthcare setting. Nowadays, there's a demand for seamless connectivity, and secure application use with low latency. Ultimately, the end user experience is simply better and more secure with Wi-Fi6/6e. Here are the 6 main reasons why you should consider the switch.
1. Higher Capacity
Wi-Fi6/6e gives you a 4x increase in capacity. This means you can have more high bandwidth apps per device.
2. Improved Security
Cybersecurity has become a large issue with more apps and operations moving online. Your Wi-Fi's security MUST be able to handle sophisticated cyberthreats. Mobile medical devices on the network and IoT devices, in particular, have been a target of hackers. Secure WiFi can keep them secure. With newer technology, the requirement for stronger security is inevitable. Wi-Fi6/6e Security is augmented with WPA3 and RF Snapshots to achieve this.
3. Reduced Latency
This means faster, more reliable data transfer (more reliable connection).
Wi-Fi6/6e deploys deterministic scheduling, which means you get the best of both worlds, low latency and energy efficient wireless communications according to IEEE.*
This is especially beneficial in regards to voice and video. It improves the seamlessness of Telehealth appointments, among other communications, improving the patient experience.
4. Power Efficiency
Wi-Fi6 uses Target Wait Time to provide up to 3x better device battery life. (More Details in Below Question).
5. Greater IoT Coverage
Wi-Fi6/6e offers UL/DL OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access) in 2.4 GHz. In translation, this means that access points can simultaneously receive data from multiple clients upstream and receive the same downstream. *[2]
Each year, more devices come online in a healthcare setting (think IoT devices, med carts, etc.) and need to communicate.
Wi-Fi6/6e allows you to onboard billions of devices like temperature monitors, door sensors, etc.
6. Improved Interference Mitigation
Wi-Fi6/6e offers ~ 59 non overlapping Channels vs. ~ 29 non overlapping on Wi-Fi5. So why does this matter?
More channels allow you to get on and off the network faster and more seamlessly. It also means less noise as there are less areas of overlap on the network. A reduction in noise ration creates faster data rates (sending and receiving of data). Ultimately, it creates a better quality of experience for the end user.
Sources:
[1] https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9490255
[2] https://blogs.cisco.com/networking/wi-fi-6-ofdma-resource-unit-ru-allocations-and-mappings
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