Apple Wi-Fi 6E Support: What iPhone and Mac Users Need to Know

[vesalius]

"Additionally, operating on a higher frequency band may lead to increased power consumption on your Mac, which could impact battery life in portable devices."

This is WRONG, I do wifi for a living. Wifi 6E actually reduces power consumption with a feature called TWT or target wake time. compared to 24/5. disabling wifi 6e on the router wont make a difference for the clients power. When the client is connected to an SSID that has 24/5/6 enabeld yes the client will check for roam candidates (aka another AP to go to if you need to roam) but 80211k neighbor lists fixes that.

so really confused with the above statement.

The way I've heard this explained in regards to potential battery life impact from folks from ruckus is that the higher frequency of 6 GHz means it will fall off at shorter distances. That can result in more work for the device to stay locked into a Wi-Fi AP at 6gHz, more searching for a new one from distances that work for Wi-Fi 5, or fall backs to cellular for those that limit 2.4g. And finally just the inefficiency of the current chips and software on our devices relative to the more mature Wi-Fi 2.4/5 implementations.

Also means that current AP physical locations, for those that have several may need to be redone (or add another one for closer spacing) for good Wi-Fi 6E/7 coverage over larger homes.

 

[metalsiren]

Yeah I've seen those settings before but they all seem to do their own scanning and decide on their own still. I believe it was something along the lines of color coding they call it on the newer versions. I'll have to look up the details but the negotiation between unrelated devices is supposed to be further improved.

LOL yea I edited my above post to reflect that

 

[metalsiren]

The way I've heard this explained in regards to potential battery life impact from folks from ruckus is that the higher frequency of 6 GHz means it will fall off at shorter distances. That can result in more work for the device to stay locked into a Wi-Fi AP at 6gHz, more searching for a new one from distances that work for Wi-Fi 5, or fall backs to cellular for those that limit 2.4g. And finally just the inefficiency of the current chips and software on our devices relative to the more mature Wi-Fi 2.4/5 implementations.

Also means that current AP placements, for those that have several may need to be redone for good Wi-Fi 6E/7 coverage over larger homes.

true, but this happens even on 24/5 networks. and yes you should always check your design for 6e networks. You would need a dense 5ghz for a 1 to 1 replacement. 6 power is not the same a 5, for example channel bodning on 5 and you loose 1/2 the distance each time. in 6 you gain 1/2 the distance. but as you mentioned it and others, propagation through devices is worse the higher frequency you go. so 5ghz through a wall will take less of a signal hit then 6

 

[JitteryJimmy]

Thanks. Need coverage for the whole house with 2 floors and basement.

It is often possible to centralize a WiFi router within 10 or 12 meters of any point within a house if it is located centrally. This helps avoid the limitations of mesh.

My centralized router fully covers all my floors and my deck and driveway. The only problem I had was with an IoT device that I placed on top of the large metal air handler in my attic, so I had to move the device so it is next to the air handler. Evidently the 6 or so layers of sheet metal blocked the signal.

 

[metalsiren]

It is often possible to centralize a WiFi router within 10 or 12 meters of any point within a house if it is located centrally. This helps avoid the limitations of mesh.

My centralized router fully covers all my floors and my deck and driveway. The only problem I had was with an IoT device that I placed on top of the large metal air handler in my attic, so I had to move the device so it is next to the air handler. Evidently the 6 or so layers of sheet metal blocked the signal.

true but this can slow down the entire RF cell because the devices on the edge because of their lower data rate takes 2-5 times longer to transmit the same data than the close clients can do quicker. in your use case, this might be ok but for others it would be an issue. Mesh helps this situation because the clients have a stronger data rate to the "map" device than the "rap" one. each design has its drawbacks with the only one being better is running a cable for the other AP (havent tested power line adapters etc so cant confirm on them)

 

[MCKLMT]

Do you have benchmarks to share on WiFi6E endpoint and iPhone 15 Pro please?

 

[daneoni]

Just upgraded to WiFi 6 so i'll probably be skipping 6E altogether, and upgrade again with WiFi 7 or later

Which reminds me, i now need to bin my Airport Extreme routers

 

[JitteryJimmy]

While it seems logical do use the same SSID on all bands on the same AP, it often doesn't work that well.

I agree, but many "Mesh" products limit the band configuration of SSIDs, so it may not be an option.

Living in a city I see 100+ SSIDs at any one moment, and there are likely 1000+ nearby devices chatting on the spectrum. Clear channel? Never. 2.4 GHz? Works great for nearby devices that can get away with 1-2 mbit. Breaking out the channels is helpful. This is why many Mesh products are inappropriate for urban and dense suburban areas.

But in a less populated areas, I generally combine the channels under a single SSID and let the clients decide.

 

[victorvictoria]

WiFi 6E isn't for everyone. For instance, I have a detached garage with true brick construction. I had to disable the 5 GHz band to get a 2.4 GHz signal out to the garage opener from the router in my basement. After I did that, the signal on the second floor improved, and I was finally able to set up HomeKit automations and get them working all over the house. I'm not convinced that even 5 GHz is fully compatible with all Matter devices.

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

They don’t tell you anything on the iPhone since like iOS 11. Had to stop using it for anything at all and just bust out the Mac. Option click the WiFi icon and it will tell you many things.

I forgot about that little trick. Great for techy people, but who knows what 802.11x means? "802.11x (WiFi 6)" would have taken a macOS dev about 15 seconds to do.

 

[vesalius]

@victorvictoria Wi-Fi 6e&7 will be much more difficult to use effectively for many home owners tied to the one central or hidden router setup. To be used well most will need a Wi-Fi router and at least one bridged AP, in anything more than a small home/apartment.

Most super inexpensive IoT devices, relative to Laptops/tablets/phones, have less expensive Wi-Fi chips and most go with the cheapest, longest range option ... 2.4ghz. That will remain true with newer Matter devices, just as it has been with HomeKit native, google, amazon IoT Wi-Fi implementations.

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

My humble suggestion is to not use mesh if you can avoid it. Use MoCA adapters to take advantage of the coaxial cable you probably already have, or go to the trouble once to run a network cable.

Having said that, if you really want to or have to go mesh, then either TP-Link or Eero probably have the best.

My home WIFI network has never been so stable and fast as when I switched away from Ubiquiti AP's (non-mesh) and now a TP-LINK mesh system. Both systems had wired AP's. Always had issues with devices (iPhones, iPads, etc.) handing off to the nearest AP with the non-Mesh. My device would be stuck on a distant AP. Threw out the Ubiquiti stuff and put in the TP-Link mesh stuff and it's been 100% flawless. Way better signal reach, hand-off, reliability. Couldn't be happier.

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

AmpliFi | Faster, Whole-Home Wi-Fi

Not Just a Wi-Fi Router, It’s a Mesh Wi-Fi System.

amplifi.com

Amplfi / Unifi is run by the ex Airport team. They have a new version of this comin out soon - under the Unifi name.

Couldn't find any WIFI 6E hardware from Amplifi on their site. Just Wifi 5 and 6. Which Amplifi system does Wifi 6E?

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

Just bought a TP-Link mesh system and really like it. It is much better (and cheaper) than the Netgear Orbi setup it replaced. Happened to go with a 6E variant, only because it came with a 2.5G ethernet connection. No 6E devices in the house, so I am using the 6gHz band as the dedicated wireless backhaul between router/satellite. No complaints at all.

Likewise. Not just for myself at home, but for client homes and small offices and TP-Link has been flawless. Pretty much set-and-forget.

 

[falkon-engine]

The main reason, in my view, why WFI 6E 160 MHz channels are better than 5 GHz 160 MHz channels is because of rules regarding RADAR and Dynamic Frequency Selection (DFS). In the 5 GHz band, a 160 MHz channel will include channels that are subject to DFS operations, and depending on whether or not your router detects radar or something that appears to be radar, it will vacate the channels and the 160 MHz channel will be cut in half to 80 MHz. Some localities are more susceptible to radar than others. The 6 GHz band has no such issue and the channels can operate unimpeded from radar. But the downside of the 6 GHz band is that it is more susceptible to obstructions than 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz. So there are Pros and Cons, but in my experience I get good speeds on WiFi 6E and I love that I don’t have to worry about DFS.

But you know what’s better than WiFi 6E? Ethernet in the walls!

 

[lexvo]

AmpliFi | Faster, Whole-Home Wi-Fi

Not Just a Wi-Fi Router, It’s a Mesh Wi-Fi System.

amplifi.com

Amplfi / Unifi is run by the ex Airport team. They have a new version of this comin out soon - under the Unifi name.

I guess with Unifi you mean the Unifi series from Ubiquity?

 

[LogicalApex]

One thing the article missed mentioning. WiFi 6E requires WPA3 across all bands that share the same SSID. It doesn't support and backward compatibility modes. So to set it up in the manner Apple suggests might require you to have two separate SSIDs across multiple bands. Which may not be possible on consumer level equipment.

Do these new WiFi standards really make a difference? I mean, if you are serious about network speed you’ll (have to) use ethernet anyway.

The improvements are worthwhile. WiFi speeds are finally getting high enough to challenge Ethernet. Obviously, Ethernet still matters, but it means realistically good speeds on more devices in more situations. My iPhone 15 Pro can fully saturate a 1Gb connection with low latency. That's pretty awesome.

While it seems logical do use the same SSID on all bands on the same AP, it often doesn't work that well. And I mean 2.4GHz in particular. Today that band is over occupied and in my experience, whenever a device switches over to 2.4GHz the performance drops even though the signal strength looks better. The 2.4GHz frequency band is over occupied with wifi (wireless mesh and or repeaters), bluetooth, thread, zigbee stuff and many other wireless devices.

I for one have limited the 2.4GHz wifi to single channel mode and is only in use for a few IoT devices that do not need high bandwidth anyway. This way the disturbance I get from neighbours is reduced. All the high bandwidth Mac's are on 5GHz.

Just like the 5GHz band was kind of empty 15 years ago, the 6GHz will probably be relatively empty for the coming 5 years. I'll wait a few years until I replace my Zyxel WAX650S, when the 5GHz becomes overcrowded too. Maybe when wifi 8 is introduced? 😉 By that time we need a newer encryption anyway.

It is due to the way Apple has implemented WiFi 6E. They've done it in a way similar to 5G Auto where you can't know directly that it is actually using 6E. Prior to this you were able to lock the device on to a band specific network. Now the device wants to determine which frequency it thinks is best. It could be range, battery related, or something else that Apple uses to determine which to use. But they aren't clear. It sounds like what WiFi 7 will be doing though so they've lined themselves up well to jump to that.

 

[LogicalApex]

Well the main point is are you going to notice really?

1 Gb connections are common now... but that's more than most islands have for hundreds of homes...

it's about 40x 4K Streams of video!

I ustilise it for Work due to video and 3d animation work... but other than that it's overkill for pretty much any web viewing etc. 100mb is still great for most people.

It isn’t overkill. Bursting is still very important. So being able to burst up to a gigabit and download a file quickly is great. Even if you aren’t using a gigabit connection constantly.

 

[onenorth]

My humble suggestion is to not use mesh if you can avoid it. Use MoCA adapters to take advantage of the coaxial cable you probably already have, or go to the trouble once to run a network cable.

Having said that, if you really want to or have to go mesh, then either TP-Link or Eero probably have the best.

I can attest that my very old MoCA adapters running at <90 Mbps are 100% reliable for driving a Roku Ultra, a TiVo Mini, and an Xbox. Everything in my house that can be tethered to Ethernet or MoCA is tethered that way. I only use Wi-Fi for the phones, tablets, and IoT. I have one range extender for a video doorbell (which I no longer really need since a firmware update has since fixed a wireless issue) and everything else works great from the router. But I am not in a congested area either.

 

[JustSomebody12]

"Additionally, operating on a higher frequency band may lead to increased power consumption on your Mac, which could impact battery life in portable devices."

This is WRONG, I do wifi for a living. Wifi 6E actually reduces power consumption with a feature called TWT or target wake time. compared to 24/5. disabling wifi 6e on the router wont make a difference for the clients power. When the client is connected to an SSID that has 24/5/6 enabeld yes the client will check for roam candidates (aka another AP to go to if you need to roam) but 80211k neighbor lists fixes that.

so really confused with the above statement.

Isn’t TWT available on all wifi 6 devices?

What’s 80211k?

Sorry, newbie here

 

[metalsiren]

Isn’t TWT available on all wifi 6 devices?

What’s 80211k?

Sorry, newbie here

yea TWT is available in wifi 6 as well, sorry for the confusion. wifi 6E is basically wifi 6 extended into 6 Ghz.

802.11k is a nighbor list, the AP's send a list of their neighbors and the client that supports k, uses this information to build its roam canidate list. this is faster and saves power becuase the client doesnt have to do full scans when its wifi signal drops below whatever its configure threshold is.

Wi-Fi roaming support in Apple devices

Supported Apple devices (iPhone, iPad, and Mac computers with Apple silicon) and Cisco networks recognize each other, allowing the devices and network to use the latest Wi-Fi technologies to optimize the experience.

support.apple.com

 

[el-John-o]

"Additionally, operating on a higher frequency band may lead to increased power consumption on your Mac, which could impact battery life in portable devices."

This is WRONG, I do wifi for a living. Wifi 6E actually reduces power consumption with a feature called TWT or target wake time. compared to 24/5. disabling wifi 6e on the router wont make a difference for the clients power. When the client is connected to an SSID that has 24/5/6 enabeld yes the client will check for roam candidates (aka another AP to go to if you need to roam) but 80211k neighbor lists fixes that.

so really confused with the above statement.

Yeah, unless the higher frequency has lower power limits (I'm not familiar with the spec; maybe it does? I know congestion is a continued concern for WiFi so having a band that's more power limited would be a potential solution there). But frequency, by itself, has nothing to do with power consumption.

 

[whsbuss]

lol yea always happens. I mean “technically “ the hardware revisions for wifi7 are done so don’t think the hardware will change but no 100% guarantee I mean with 8011n it was a disaster because the hardware changed and home devices had to get replaced. With the specs after it was better like 6 and 6e they came out first and I don’t think the hardware had to be replaced but I could be wrong.

Mesh is a good option for people if they don’t mind the 1/2 throughout hit on each hop. (I mean with devices like Cisco it’s not as bad a half but good rule of thumb). I just paid for a guy to run a home Ethernet run for the upstairs AP. I stopped using home stuff long time ago

Better off using separate AP with router like UniFi

All my mesh nodes are connected Ethernet for the backhaul. That’s the best way for mesh if you can.

 

[el-John-o]

Do these new WiFi standards really make a difference? I mean, if you are serious about network speed you’ll (have to) use ethernet anyway.

Yes, ish.

You're right if you need top network performance you'll use Ethernet but virtually everyone uses WiFi in some fashion. I'm typing this on an Ethernet-connected desktop PC and I've got half a dozen devices around me, including my iPhone, that use WiFi and aren't really practical to use Ethernet with.

The improvements do make a difference. Some in ways you won't really notice; like better congestion tolerance. If you are in a crowded area with lots of WiFi and everyone was still using 802.11g, you'd definitely notice. But as technologies have gotten better, congestion has been much less of an issue. And we are using significantly more bandwidth on our devices. Uploading videos, for example. As internet connections get better we want WiFi that allows multiple devices in a single household to be able to access lots of bandwidth at once.

Also, VR headsets are a thing! A niche admittedly but 802.11ax let's me use my Meta Quest 2 headset as a wireless PCVR headset.

So tl;dr, no, you probably wouldn't swap routers and suddenly notice an improvement. But eventually your stuff will break and you'll replace it and you won't replace it with the 'old stuff'. What you WOULD notice is if you switched back to a standard from 10+ years ago. Like so many things in tech, the upgrades are incremental. But they do add up over time.

 

[ChrisA]

Do these new WiFi standards really make a difference? I mean, if you are serious about network speed you’ll (have to) use ethernet anyway.

WiFi 6e and Wifi 7 can be faster than Ethernet. That is, until you buy 10 Gb Ethernet.

Note, I wrote "can be" it depends on the distance to your router. Ethernet is reliable out to 100 meters

Today if you need network speed the best out there is 10 GB Eiternet. Some Apple devices do suport 10 Gb Ethernet, my Mac Mini does. But my Internet connection is slower then 10 Gb. I use the 10Gb for accessing files on a NAS.

Then to get full 6E speed throughout the house you need to a mesh network with WIRED backhaul. So yes to get best speed from 6e and 7 you will need to pull Ethernet cables to a few places in the house.
But in a small apartment where you have line-of-sight to a router that is less then 20 feet away, WiFi can now be faster than Ethernet. Many people live in such places.