CommScope is now offering two new Wi-Fi 6E products for multi-dwelling units (MDUs) to access the 6 GHz spectrum band.
The new products — the Ruckus R760 and R560 — are targeted for MDUs such as residential apartments, student housing, assisted living and other high-density living spaces.
Fierce Wireless asked whether each unit within an MDU would require its own access point (AP). CommScope said the ceiling-mounted APs are designed to support multiple apartment units within an MDU, and the APs can be placed in hallways or other common areas. The number of apartments within the MDU and the architecture/configuration of the building will determine how many devices are needed.
Ruckus also has patented BeamFlex smart antenna technology that maximizes the range of the APs, and therefore, the number of supported apartment units per AP. And the company has network segmentation technology to enable the MDU to create a specific private virtual network segment for each apartment for privacy.
Wi-Fi 6E and 6 GHz
Wi-Fi 6E products are especially designed to access the newly available 6 GHz spectrum.
The 6 GHz band is 1200 megahertz, all of which can be used for low-power indoor environments. 850 megahertz of the 6 GHz band can also be used for standard-power outdoor uses.
2023 is expected to be a big year for Wi-Fi 6E. For instance, Charter Communications already has over 450 million devices on its network connected over Wi-Fi in the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands. This year, Charter is deploying Wi-Fi 6E in the 6 GHz band, tapping the additional 1200 MHz of Wi-Fi capacity.
“The opening of the 6 GHz band for Wi-Fi represents the largest expansion of Wi-Fi spectrum to date, enabling dramatic increase in bandwidth and reduction of latency and paving the way for entirely new classes of applications connecting over Wi-Fi,” stated Bart Giordano, SVP for Ruckus Networks with CommScope.
Denton Meier, CTO of Firefly Technologies, has already replaced some older Wi-Fi access points with the Ruckus R760. He stated that Wi-Fi clients in an MDU test setting were connecting to 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz and 6 GHz radios. “We were able to truly achieve Gigabit speed wireless in an MDU test setting using the 6 GHz channels,” said Meier.