Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

In 2022, most of the mobile phones we can buy already support 5G, and with the steady progress of 5G infrastructure deployment, I believe our friends will be able to feel the smooth experience of 5G every day. Corresponding to 5G is Wi-Fi 6. "5G for external use, Wi-Fi 6 for home" is already the basic combination of "next generation" mobile communication.

Similarly, many mobile phones on the market already support Wi-Fi 6. However, if the phone supports Wi-Fi 6, will you be able to get a smooth, high-speed, low-latency Internet experience comparable to that of 5G?

That's not necessarily true. Because of the terminal's support for Wi-Fi 6, there is also a difference between being full of blood and discontented with blood. One of the souls is tortured, "are you 2x2 Wi-Fi 6?"

From 1x1 Wi-Fi 5 to 2x2 Wi-Fi 6, the difference is too big to see the above soul torture, many friends may be a little confused: what is 2x2 Wi-Fi 6?

CTOnews.com might as well say it for you first.

To figure out what "2x2 Wi-Fi 6" is, we might as well take it apart and look at what is "2x2" and then what is "Wi-Fi 6".

1. What is 2x2 Wi-Fi? we know that for Wi-Fi communication, mobile phones need antennas to receive and transmit wireless signals, in which received signals (input) and transmitted signals (output) need to use different antennas. But in traditional mobile phones, one antenna is used for receiving and transmitting, that is, 1 × 1 Wi-Fi, or one-way Wi-Fi.

With the development of the Internet, people use more and more Wi-Fi application scenarios, such as ultra-clear video, online mobile games and so on have high requirements for Wi-Fi data throughput and delay. 1 × 1 is gradually unable to meet the demand, and there are often cases of weak signal, delay and stutter. So there is 2 × 2 Wi-Fi.

2 × 2 Wi-Fi is two-way Wi-Fi, as the name implies, it has two Wi-Fi antennas to achieve double transmission and double reception, receiving and transmitting at the same time.

For example, 1 × 1 Wi-Fi is like a two-way single lane, and 2 × 2 Wi-Fi is like a two-way two-lane. Obviously, a two-way two-lane can hold more data and is less prone to congestion or accidents. 2 × 2 Wi-Fi is to improve the Wi-Fi experience in such a simple and rough way.

2 × 2 Wi-Fi often needs to cooperate with MU-MIMO technology. The full name of MU-MIMO is "Multi-User Multiple-Input Multiple-Output", that is, multi-user, multi-input and multi-output. In addition to the mobile side, the router side also needs to support this technology.

Routers that support MU-MIMO can transmit signals to multiple devices simultaneously, while the corresponding SU-MIMO can only transmit signals to one device at the same time.

For example, at some time when you are playing games on your mobile phone at home, while your family is watching videos, the SU-MIMO router can only transmit video data to your family first, and then transmit game data to you. Normally, the switching speed is very fast, so you can't feel it. But once the video data is very large at a certain time, the switching delay will affect your playing the game. This is not the case with a router that supports MU-MIMO, which can transmit data to both your family and your phone without affecting each other, and there will be no delayed stutters.

Therefore, 2x2 Wi-Fi and MU-MIMO are a combination of high-capacity, low-latency, non-stuttering Wi-Fi experience.

2. What is Wi-Fi 6? Now that we know 2 × 2 Wi-Fi, let's take a quick look at what Wi-Fi 6 is.

Wi-Fi 6 is also called 802.11ax.

Smart friends will say that if there is Wi-Fi 6, then there must be Wi-Fi 5 and Wi-Fi 4. Yes, CTOnews.com has sorted out Wi-Fi 1 to Wi-Fi 6 for you here:

It can be seen that Wi-Fi 6, as the latest protocol standard, has the strongest parameters in all aspects. But overall, compared with the past Wi-Fi 5, it has the following improvements:

Maximum support for 1024QAM: increase the amount of data transferred, improve the utilization of bandwidth, so as to increase the rate. Along with it, the bandwidth of Wi-Fi 6 can reach 160MHz.

Support OFDMA: different types of data can be packaged and transmitted on the same carrier, which further improves the utilization of spectrum resources and improves the transmission efficiency.

Support uplink MU-MIMO:Wi-Fi 5 wave2 only downlink support MU-MIMO, in Wi-Fi 6, both uplink and uplink can be MU-MIMO, it allows 8 terminals to share uplink and downlink MU-MIMO packets.

Support TWT target wake-up time: allows the terminal device to enter hibernation without data transmission, saving up to 7 times the battery power consumption.

Support for spatial multiplexing: Wi-Fi 6 can identify and stop signal interference in time when the mobile phone receives a signal from the same frequency band and the same wireless local area network.

Seeing this, I believe you can understand what 2x2 Wi-Fi 6 is, right? Yes, it is on the basis of Wi-Fi 6 to support double receiving and sending, just a few words, behind which the technical leadership and the superiority of experience are self-evident.

In fact, in routers and other devices, we can already see 2 × 2, 4 × 4 and even 8 × 8 Wi-Fi 6 products, but on mobile phones, due to factors such as an inch of internal space, the support for multi-channel concurrent Wi-Fi has always been restrained, and its road of evolution also includes the continuous innovation and efforts of communicators.

For example, from 1x1 Wi-Fi 5, which is relatively close to us, to 2x2 Wi-Fi 6 today, it is enough to remind us of the upgrading and evolution of mobile Wi-Fi in those years. Here we might as well take the most mainstream Qualcomm Snapdragon mobile platform as a clue to sort out the evolution of mobile phone Wi-Fi.

As you can see from the previous Wi-Fi standard evolution chart, the Wi-Fi 5 wave2 in 2016 has been able to support MU-MIMO in the downstream network, so before that, it was mainly 1 × 1 Wi-Fi 5. For example, the Snapdragon 800chip launched by Qualcomm in 2013 has a speed of about 150Mbps.

At the same time, Qualcomm's support for 2 × 2 Wi-Fi 5 is also very early, as early as November 2015 on Snapdragon 820, has started to support 2 × 2 MU-MIMO Wi-Fi 5. More consumers' understanding of 2 × 2 Wi-Fi 5 began with Snapdragon 835 mobile platform in 2016, when mobile phone manufacturers including Xiaomi, one plus and other mobile phone manufacturers began to focus on promoting 2 × 2 two-way Wi-Fi, and this technical term was known to more users.

Then, Qualcomm's Snapdragon 855 mobile platform in 2018 began to integrate Wi-Fi 6 Ready technology of 2 × 2 downlink MU-MIMO, which is a preparation for the arrival of Wi-Fi 6 era, but has been able to support most of the key features of Wi-Fi 6, with a peak rate of 867Mbps and a bandwidth of 80MHz in the 5GHz band.

Then, on the Snapdragon 865 mobile platform in 2019, we began to fully support Wi-Fi 6 technology, which is also 2x2 downlink MU-MIMO,80MHz bandwidth, 1024QAM, and the transmission rate reaches 1200Mbps.

As you can see, from 1 × 1 Wi-Fi 5 to 2 × 2 Wi-Fi 6, it is a great progress, and our experience of using Wi-Fi on smartphones is becoming more and more unimpeded step by step. This process is also the basis on which we can enjoy a powerful Wi-Fi comparable to 5G today.

Give full blood Wi-Fi 6 plus Buff, how far has the Wi-Fi we use today evolved? Take Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 8 + mobile platform, for example, its FastConnect 6900 mobile connection system can fully support Wi-Fi 6e of 2 × 2 uplink and uplink MU-MIMO, with a peak transmission rate as high as 3.6Gbps. Wi-Fi 6e can be understood as the whole of Wi-Fi 6, adding 6GHz band on the basis of Wi-Fi.

What we want to focus on here is Qualcomm's FastConnect mobile connection system, which is a platform solution launched by Qualcomm for smartphones and other terminals to achieve a new experience of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technology in the 5G era. The evolution from 1 × 1 Wi-Fi 5 to 2 × 2 Wi-Fi 6 mentioned earlier is inseparable from the support of the FastConnect platform.

For example, in 1 × 1 Wi-Fi 5 technology, Qualcomm FastConnect 6100 provides support, while 2 × 2 Wi-Fi and Snapdragon 855 mobile platform with 2 × 2 Wi-Fi 6 Ready use FastConnect 6200. Snapdragon 865 mobile platform, which supports 2 × 2 Wi-Fi 6 features, is based on FastConnect 6800.

As just said, the latest Snapdragon 8 + mobile platform is based on FastConnect 6900 to implement the Wi-Fi 6e feature of 2 × 2 uplink and uplink MU-MIMO. It can be said that it brings the most advanced Wi-Fi technology and features to smartphones.

Take FastConnect 6900 as an example, one of its innovations is that it can achieve 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 dual-band concurrency based on real-time dual Wi-Fi 6 technology (that is, it supports 2-channel data flow transmission in both 2.4GHz and 5GHz / 6GHz bands). In addition, it supports 4K QAM in each frequency band, so it can increase the link rate to 3.6 Gbps and achieve the peak rate of 3Gbps. It only takes a few seconds to download a high-definition movie at home at this speed.

The 4-channel dual-frequency concurrency of 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 can also bring wider coverage. Usually in the family environment, Wi-Fi signal coverage is limited and interference is relatively large is the main factor affecting Wi-Fi signal experience, I believe that most small partners have this feeling, home Wi-Fi peak rate is not low, but often slow response, signal coverage is not large, speed is not up, these are actually caused by Wi-Fi signal coverage and interference. On the other hand, the dual-frequency concurrency of 2 × 2 × 2 can take into account the advantages of wide 2.4GHz coverage and less 5GHz interference, which can increase the coverage by up to 2 times while maintaining high speed.

In addition, the dual-frequency concurrency of 2 × 2 and 2 × 2 can bring ultra-low latency and faster response speed, which can respond faster and transmit data more smoothly no matter playing games or watching video streams.

It can be said that this technology is equivalent to the addition of Buff on the basis of 2 × 2 Wi-Fi 6, and the effect is naturally outstanding.

In addition to the 4-channel dual-band concurrency of 2 × 2 × 2 × 2, FastConnect 6900 naturally has other features to enhance the experience. For example, the 4K QAM modulation technology mentioned just now is the first advanced modulation technology in the industry, which can achieve a 20% improvement in throughput compared with the standard Wi-Fi6/6E, and further enhance the game experience and ultra-high definition stream transmission capability.

At the same time, the application of MU-MIMO and 160MHz bandwidth technology of 8 × 8 data flow detection mechanism also provides support for improving throughput and reducing network congestion, so that a single terminal in a multi-user scenario can get a higher rate.

Large capacity in the 6GHz band can provide faster, more stable and more responsive links, especially in crowded places.

In addition, it is worth mentioning that in addition to the terminal side, in the routing network side, Qualcomm also has special solutions to match with the FastConnect platform. For example, Qualcomm Professional networking platform (Networking Pro) and Qualcomm immersive Home networking platform (Immersive Home) can provide the industry with a rich portfolio of Wi-Fi6/6E products to achieve complete end-to-end technology advantages from routers to mobile phones.

Among them, the Qualcomm professional networking platform was launched in 2019, and the named 400,600,800,400,400 corresponds to the number of streams (for example, 1200 supports 4 streams, and so on). MU-MIMO is closely related to the number of streams, and the more streams, the more high-bandwidth devices supported.

After the launch of Wi-Fi 6e in 2020, Qualcomm took the lead in launching the second generation professional networking platform 610,810, 1210 and 1610.

The immersive home networking platform is another main line of Qualcomm, which enables high-density deployment and an immersive home networking experience by supporting small, compact, energy-efficient designs.

Speaking of this, I believe you can already feel that, in fact, it is not just 2 × 2 Wi-Fi 6, we are now able to enjoy an excellent Wi-Fi experience, in fact, thanks to the industry in the terminal side and AP side of a variety of technological innovation and product depth, and Qualcomm is the most distinct example, it is such efforts, Wi-Fi 6 can better serve thousands of families.

Conclusion I believe that after reading this article, we should be able to understand some of the reasons for "why it is already Wi-Fi 6, my home network speed is still unable to come up, the signal is poor". You are Wi-Fi 6, but are you 2x2 Wi-Fi 6? Do your phone and router meet the features of 2x2 Wi-Fi 6? Can it support 2x2+2x2 's real-time dual Wi-Fi 6?

About how to know if the phone is 2x2 Wi-Fi 6? At present, if you are buying flagship products, you can choose FastConnect 6900 products, mainly Snapdragon 8 and Snapdragon 8 +; if it is non-flagship products, you can focus on FastConnect 6700, mainly on the first generation Snapdragon 7 mobile platform, Snapdragon 778G and 778G Plus; in addition, you can also pay attention to the previous FastConnect 6800.

Of course, to investigate these problems is still troublesome after all, you can also directly identify the combination of Qualcomm's latest FastConnect platform mobile phone and professional networking platform (or immersive home networking platform) router, one step in place, simple and efficient, why not do it?

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