21815 - SCTE Broadband Feb2023 COMPLETE v3

64 Vol. 45 No. 1 - February 2023 Issue Intel IT tests Wi-Fi 6 in an actual office environment during COVID lockdown, proving enhanced performance under challenging, real-world scenarios and delivering important insights for successful deployments. by Omri Barkay, Principal Engineer, Intel IT; David Birnbaum, Principal Engineer, Client Computing; Liran Klein, Network Engineer, Intel IT; Yaki Lanciano, Wireless Validation Architect, Client Computing; Ifat Peczenik, Network Engineer, Intel IT and Ehud Reshef, Principal Engineer, Client Computing IT@Intel: Executive Summary Wi-Fi 6 may be the ideal gateway toward realisation of an enterprise-wide wireless infrastructure. With many of our office spaces temporarily vacated during the COVID pandemic, we had the unique opportunity to test this latest Wi-Fi standard in a real office environment using laptops equipped with Intel® Wi-Fi 6E (AX210) network cards. We partnered with Intel’s Client Computing Group to conduct a series of tests within these spaces. The team systematically stressed the network with scenarios relevant to today’s working environments, including an increased number of connected devices and real-time collaboration applications. We varied user counts, roaming settings, channel configurations and more to benchmark the performance of each configuration. Our test results demonstrated that a Wi-Fi 6 upgrade can provide the following advantages for a dense enterprise wireless local area network (WLAN): n The ability to increase the number of users and devices per access point (AP), reducing deployment costs n Enhanced support for an increasing number of devices with existing deployment densities n Improved high-density performance with less interference, fewer dropped connections and more efficient packet transmission n Faster data throughput n Consistent service and improved reliability We hope that sharing our insights into the advantages of Wi-Fi 6 can help the IT industry achieve successful Wi-Fi 6 deployment. Background Intel IT has been working toward enterprise-wide standardisation of in-office WLAN Wi-Fi access for the last few years. Today, about 75 percent of Intel’s workforce uses the WLAN as their main method of connectivity. But real-time services can be challenging given the limitations of Wi-Fi 5’s stability, latency and channel usage. These limitations manifest in ways that are highly inconvenient to today’s business operations (for example, lost connections or poor video service), creating frustration and productivity challenges for employees. Wi-Fi 6 – The Advantages Are Real technical