Introduction
Wi-Fi 6, also known as 802.11ax, is the sixth generation of Wi-Fi with enhanced capabilities to effectively handle increasing traffic demands, capacity, coverage, and network intelligence. Wi-Fi 6 offers faster speeds for immersive-experience applications and IoT capacity for high-density venues such as malls, stadiums, educational institutes, and manufacturing facilities. Wi-Fi 6 also offers reduced latency, greater reliability, and improved power efficiency. Also, Wi-Fi 6E means Wi-Fi 6 Extended to the 6 GHz band. Wi-Fi 6E works with the same standard as Wi-Fi 6 but with an extended spectrum of 6 GHz ranging from 5.925 GHz to 7.125 GHz. Wi-Fi is facing a spectrum shortage as a result of increasing number of devices being used in 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands and the addition of 6GHz will help mitigate the shortage. Access to the 6 GHz frequency brings more bandwidth, faster speeds, and lower latency. Wi-Fi 6E can utilize up to 14 additional 80 MHz channels or 7 additional super-wide 160 MHz channels in 6 GHz for applications such as high-definition video streaming and virtual reality. Devices certified for Wi-Fi 6E provide the advanced features of Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 and Wi-Fi CERTIFIED WPA3 security to offer substantially greater overall Wi-Fi network performance in challenging environments with many connected devices such as stadiums, airports, and industrial parks.
It is expected that there will be more than 13 Billion cumulative devices shipment enabled with Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E by 2026 with a growth rate of around ~26% between 2020 and 2026. Also, it is expected to have around 3.5 Billion devices just in 2026 with an annual opportunity worth $17.5 Billion. Increasing number of connected devices and high bandwidth applications such as high-resolution video streaming, gaming, AR/VR, and large media file transfers has resulted in demand for an efficient Wi-Fi network.
Key Drivers
High usage of applications which require greater bandwidth and lower latency such as video, telemedicine, and navigation systems has resulted in faster growth of internet traffic than the number of connections. In 2019, video accounted for nearly 61% of total downstream volume worldwide, followed by web traffic at 13.1%, gaming at 8.0%, social media at 6.1% and file sharing at 4.2%. Lockdowns round the world due to COVID-19 has led to global shift to remote work and online learning resulting significant change in internet usage pattern. COVID-19 pandemic has drastically affected network usage around the world, with many operators experiencing 100% growth in traffic volume as usage shifts from enterprise and education networks to primarily consumer broadband networks.
Wi-Fi 6 advantages over previous generation in network speed, capacity and responsiveness to drive its adoption in smartphones. Wi-Fi 6 has data rates beyond 1gbps because of 1024-QAM modulation scheme and uplink resource scheduling mechanism. Wi-Fi 6 also enhances user experience in dense environments and address emerging high-bandwidth, low-latency use cases. Target Wake Time feature of Wi-Fi 6 & 6E is very effective in orchestrating network traffic and minimizing unnecessary chatter will significantly improve smartphone’s battery life. Wi-Fi 6 delivers higher speeds per user enabling more data-intensive applications including 4K UHD video streaming, real-time immersive gaming and mobile augmented reality (AR).
Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E Market - Highlights
Public Wi-Fi hotspots is likely to reach 628 million by 2023 and it is expected that Wi-Fi6 hotspots will contribute nearly 11% of all public Wi-Fi hotspots by 2023. Major use cases of Wi-Fi6 hotspots include airports, public transportation, retail, healthcare, smart cities, and stadiums.
Smartphones supporting Wi-Fi 6 & 6E to account for more than 90% of the total smartphone market in 2026. Currently, Wi-Fi 6 is mostly limited to premium smartphones. However, this trend is set to change as companies such as Qualcomm and MediaTek are likely to come up with chipsets supporting W-Fi 6 more mid and low-end smartphones. Around 780 million smartphones supporting Wi-Fi 6 & 6E are expected to be shipped in 2021. Apple, Asus, Honor, Huawei, Lenovo, LG, Meizu, Motorola, OnePlus, Oppo, RealMe, Samsung, Sony, Vivo, Xiaomi, and ZTE are some of the major smartphone manufacturers who have launched smartphones supporting Wi-Fi 6. Qualcomm has announced several mobile platforms such as Snapdragon 865, 888, and 690 chipsets with Wi-Fi 6 capability.
More than 60 million Wi-Fi 6 & 6E chipsets are expected to be shipped for automobile by 2026. Wi-Fi 6 is expected to offer enhancements that are essential for a seamless wireless experience for the growing number of use cases both in a vehicle. The sensors used for autonomous driving generate a significant amount of data around 4TB per day that needs to be uploaded for processing and analysis. Major benefits of Wi-Fi 6 in a vehicle include less congestion, longer range, lower power with target wake time (TWT) to let the access point schedule, OFDM, MU-MIMO and 1024-QAM to increase throughput, improve the upload data rates by up to 80% for networks with multiple users.
Gaming Devices supported by Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E are expected to grow by 40% CAGR between 2020 and 2026. Sony Play Station 5 launched in August 2020 (supports Wi-Fi 6 connectivity) is designed to improve speed, increase efficiency and reduce congestion in heavy bandwidth usage scenarios. A wired connection is considered to be ideal for gaming as it has low latency, reliable connection and low lag. 20 to 40 ms is considered to be optimum latency for gaming that can be provided by Wi-Fi 6. Other advantages of Wi-Fi 6 includes flexibility and support for a greater number of devices at the same time. Wi-Fi 6 increases throughput by up to 25% because of higher quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) resulting in more data transmitted per data packet.
Asia Pacific is expected to dominate the Wi-Fi 6 & 6E market with nearly 50% share in 2026. Wi-Fi 6 & 6E market in Asia Pacific is expected to reach USD 8,559 million by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 25.6% between 2020 and 2026. Consumer devices such as smartphone, tablets, laptops & PCs are expected to be major contributors. China, Japan, South Korea, and India are expected to be the major contributors of Wi-Fi 6 & 6E market in Asia Pacific. North America is expected to be second largest market with 25% share in 2026. The US is expected to be contributor of Wi-Fi 6 & 6E market in North America. North America is expected to witness higher adoption of Wi-Fi 6 supporting CPEs followed by Europe during the forecast period.
Wi-Fi 6 vs 5G
Wi-Fi 6 and 5G have entered the market around the same time and both are technologically superior to their predecessors (4G LTE and Wi-Fi 5). Both the technologies are more energy-efficient, and capable of supporting a greater number of devices simultaneously. While Wi-Fi 6 will support indoor or local area deployments, 5G is more suited for applications that require highly reliable, low-latency connectivity and wide-area deployment. However, there is overlap in some areas such as a large event, hospitality, stadium, smart city projects, and large campuses may consider both the technologies.
Based on deployments of previous generations of cellular and Wi-Fi technology, it has been observed that cellular has been favourable for large-scale deployments, while Wi-Fi has been preferable for small-scale deployments. When professionally installed and managed, a sizeable Wi-Fi 5 deployment is on a par with a 4G deployment in terms of Total cost of ownership. However, OPEX is higher for Wi-Fi and CAPEX is higher for cellular. Wi-Fi will continue to be the preferred technology as it has a lower cost to deploy, maintain, and scale at home and business environments where access points serve a greater number of devices.
Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be or Wi-Fi EHT)
Wi-Fi Alliance has announced the certification for Wi-Fi 6E, or Wi-Fi 6 Extended, which refers to the ability for Wi-Fi to leverage the 6 GHz band for unlicensed Wi-Fi operation. But When compared to Wi-Fi 6, Wi-Fi 7 will also use multi-band/multi-channel aggregation and operation and deliver higher spectrum and power efficiency, better interference mitigations, higher capacity density and higher cost efficiency. The seventh generation of Wi-Fi is also referred to as Wi-Fi Extremely High Throughput as result of its projected ability to support up to 30Gbps throughput, roughly three times faster than Wi-Fi 6. There are a number of proposed features for the Wi-Fi 7 standard, but direct enhancements over Wi-Fi 6 include support of 320 MHz transmissions, which is double the 160 MHz of 802.11ax, the use of higher modulation orders, optionally supporting 4096-QAM - up from 1024-QAM in 802.11ax - and the allocation of multiple resource units, such as groups of OFMDA tones.
Key Players Profiles and Analyzed
Broadcom Inc., Qualcomm, ON Semiconductor, Intel, NXP Semiconductors, Skyworks Solutions, Inc., Qorvo, MediaTek. Celeno Communications, Nordic Semiconductor, Realtek Semiconductor, Huawei. Nokia, Samsung, Apple, Asus, NETGEAR, TP-Link, D-Link, Cisco, Linksys, Dell, Lenovo, HP, Sony, Acer, LG, Fujitsu, HPE - Aruba, CommScope, Extreme Networks, H3C Technologies, Juniper Networks, Cambium Networks, Ubiquiti, Calix, EnGenius Technologies, Fortinet, Verizon, Zyxel Communications, Xiaomi, DrayTek Corporation, Access Networks, Tenda, Arista Networks, Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise, Belkin, Senscomm Semiconductor, Silicon Labs, Micro-Star INT'L CO., LTD
Key Questions to be answered through this study
- What is the market size and forecast of the Global Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E Market?
- What are the driving factors and impact of COVID-19 shaping the Global Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E Market during the forecast period?
- Which are the products/segments/applications/areas to invest in over the forecast period in the Global Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E Market?
- What is the competitive strategic scenario for opportunities in the Global Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E Market?
- What are the technology trends and regulatory frameworks in the Global Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E Market?
- What are the modes and strategic moves considered suitable for entering the Global Wi-Fi Hotspot Market?
Table of Contents
1 Introduction
1.1 Wi-Fi Evolution
1.2 Wi-Fi 6
1.3 Wi-Fi 6 Capabilities and Benefits
1.3.1 Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA)
1.3.2 Multi-user MIMO
1.3.3 Long Symbol Duration and Guard Interval
1.3.4 Dual Carrier Modulation (DCM)
1.3.5 Extended Range
1.3.6 Target Wait Time
1.3.7 Spatial Reuse
1.4 Wi-Fi 6E
1.4.1 Spectrum comparison
1.4.2 Spectrum allocation status
1.5 Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be or Wi-Fi EHT)
2 Key Drivers
2.1 Rapid growth in internet traffic
2.2 Growth in number of connected devices
2.3 Wi-Fi: Key to digital resilience
3 Wi-Fi 6 vs 5G - What to choose?
3.1 Wi-Fi 6 & 5G adoption trends
3.2 Wi-Fi 6 & 5G cost comparison
3.3 Wi-Fi 6 & 5G interoperability
3.4 Wi-Fi 6 & 5G for private networks
4 Wi-Fi 6 & 6E for IoT
4.1 IoT Wireless Technologies Comparison
4.2 Bandwidth and latency requirements
5 Use cases
5.1 Healthcare
5.2 Education
5.3 Stadiums and venues
5.4 Enterprise
5.5 Airports
6 Total Cost of Ownership
6.1 Airport
6.2 Factory
6.3 Port
6.4 Mining
6.5 Warehouse
7 Market Size, Shipment and Forecast by Devices
7.1 CPE
7.2 Smartphones
7.3 Tablets
7.4 Laptops & PCs
7.5 Computer Accessories
7.6 AR/VR Headsets
7.7 Wireless Camera
7.8 Gaming Devices
7.9 Smart Home Devices
7.10 Automobile
7.11 Mobile Robots
7.12 Drones
7.13 Wearables
7.14 Machine-to-Machine Communication
7.15 Others
8 Regional Market Analysis & Forecast
8.1 Drivers of connectivity maturity by country
8.2 Economic value of Wi-Fi by country
North America (U.S., Canada, Mexico)
Europe (U.K., Germany, France, Italy, Rest of Europe)
APAC (China, Japan, South Korea, Rest of APAC)
South America & Middle East
9 Competitive Landscape
9.1 Wi-Fi 6 Ecosystem
9.2 Value chain analysis
9.3 Patent analysis
9.4 Wi-Fi 6 & 6E chipset suppliers and Market Ranking
10 Company Profiles
10.1 Broadcom Inc.
10.1.1 Overview
10.1.2 Solutions offered
10.1.3 Key developments
10.2 Qualcomm
10.2.1 Overview
10.2.2 Solutions offered
10.2.3 Key developments
10.3 ON Semiconductor
10.3.1 Overview
10.3.2 Solutions offered
10.3.3 Key developments
10.4 Intel
10.4.1 Overview
10.4.2 Solutions offered
10.4.3 Key developments
10.5 NXP Semiconductors
10.5.1 Overview
10.5.2 Solutions offered
10.5.3 Key developments
10.6 Skyworks Solutions, Inc.
10.6.1 Overview
10.6.2 Solutions offered
10.6.3 Key developments
10.7 Qorvo
10.7.1 Overview
10.7.2 Solutions offered
10.7.3 Key developments
10.8 MediaTek
10.8.1 Overview
10.8.2 Solutions offered
10.8.3 Key developments
10.9 Celeno Communications
10.9.1 Overview
10.9.2 Solutions offered
10.9.3 Key developments
10.10 Nordic Semiconductor
10.10.1 Overview
10.10.2 Key developments
10.11 Realtek Semiconductor
10.11.1 Overview
10.11.2 Solutions offered
10.11.3 Key developments
10.12 Huawei
10.12.1 Overview
10.12.2 Solutions offered
10.12.3 Key developments
10.13 Nokia
10.13.1 Overview
10.13.2 Solutions offered
10.13.3 Key developments
10.14 Samsung
10.14.1 Overview
10.14.2 Solutions offered
10.14.3 Key developments
10.15 Apple
10.15.1 Overview
10.15.2 Solutions offered
10.15.3 Key developments
10.16 Asus
10.16.1 Overview
10.16.2 Solutions offered
10.16.3 Key developments
10.17 NETGEAR
10.17.1 Overview
10.17.2 Solutions offered
10.17.3 Key developments
10.18 TP-Link
10.18.1 Overview
10.18.2 Solutions offered
10.18.3 Key developments
10.19 D-Link
10.19.1 Overview
10.19.2 Solutions offered
10.19.3 Key developments
10.20 Cisco
10.20.1 Overview
10.20.2 Solutions offered
10.20.3 Key developments
10.21 Linksys
10.21.1 Overview
10.21.2 Solutions offered
10.21.3 Key developments
10.22 Dell
10.22.1 Overview
10.22.2 Solutions offered
10.23 Lenovo
10.23.1 Overview
10.23.2 Solutions offered
10.24 HP
10.24.1 Overview
10.24.2 Solutions offered
10.25 Sony
10.25.1 Overview
10.25.2 Solutions offered
10.26 Acer
10.26.1 Overview
10.26.2 Solutions offered
10.27 LG
10.27.1 Overview
10.27.2 Solutions offered
10.28 Fujitsu
10.28.1 Overview
10.28.2 Solutions offered
10.28.3 Key developments
10.29 HPE - Aruba
10.29.1 Overview
10.29.2 Solutions offered
10.29.3 Key developments
10.30 CommScope
10.30.1 Overview
10.30.2 Solutions offered
10.30.3 Key developments
10.31 Extreme Networks
10.31.1 Overview
10.31.2 Solutions offered
10.31.3 Key developments
10.32 H3C Technologies
10.32.1 Overview
10.32.2 Solutions offered
10.33 Juniper Networks
10.33.1 Overview
10.33.2 Solutions offered
10.33.3 Key developments
10.34 Cambium Networks
10.34.1 Overview
10.34.2 Solutions offered
10.34.3 Key developments
10.35 Ubiquiti
10.35.1 Overview
10.35.2 Solutions offered
10.35.3 Key developments
10.36 Calix
10.36.1 Overview
10.36.2 Solutions offered
10.36.3 Key developments
10.37 EnGenius Technologies
10.37.1 Overview
10.37.2 Solutions offered
10.37.3 Key developments
10.38 Fortinet
10.38.1 Overview
10.38.2 Solutions offered
10.39 Verizon
10.39.1 Overview
10.39.2 Solutions offered
10.40 Zyxel Communications
10.40.1 Overview
10.40.2 Solutions offered
10.40.3 Key developments
10.41 Xiaomi
10.41.1 Overview
10.41.2 Solutions offered
10.42 DrayTek Corporation
10.42.1 Overview
10.42.2 Solutions offered
10.42.3 Key developments
10.43 Access Networks
10.43.1 Overview
10.43.2 Solutions offered
10.43.3 Key developments
10.44 Tenda
10.44.1 Overview
10.44.2 Solutions offered
10.45 Arista Networks
10.45.1 Overview
10.45.2 Solutions offered
10.45.3 Key developments
10.46 Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise
10.46.1 Overview
10.46.2 Solutions offered
10.46.3 Key developments
10.47 Belkin
10.47.1 Overview
10.47.2 Solutions offered
10.48 Senscomm Semiconductor
10.48.1 Overview
10.48.2 Key developments
10.49 Silicon Labs
10.49.1 Overview
10.49.2 Key developments
10.50 Micro-Star INT'L CO., LTD
10.50.1 Overview
10.50.2 Solutions offered
Companies Mentioned (Partial List)
A selection of companies mentioned in this report includes, but is not limited to:
- Access Networks
- Acer
- Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise
- Apple
- Arista Networks
- Asus
- Belkin
- Broadcom Inc.
- Calix
- Cambium Networks
- Cisco
- CommScope
- D-Link
- Dell
- DrayTek Corporation
- EnGenius Technologies
- Extreme Networks
- Fortinet
- Fujitsu
- H3C Technologies
- HP
- HPE - Aruba
- Huawei. Nokia
- Intel
- Juniper Networks
- LG
- Lenovo
- Linksys
- MediaTek. Celeno Communications
- Micro-Star INT'L CO. LTD
- NETGEAR
- NXP Semiconductors
- Nordic Semiconductor
- ON Semiconductor
- Qorvo
- Qualcomm
- Realtek Semiconductor
- Samsung
- Senscomm Semiconductor
- Silicon Labs
- Skyworks Solutions Inc.
- Sony
- TP-Link
- Tenda
- Ubiquiti
- Verizon
- Xiaomi
- Zyxel Communications
