Ek9max wrote

I know wifi 6 is only really great when more and more of my devices start to get wifi 6 also.  But I'm more just curious if I shoulda waited to be more future proof. 

See https://community.tp-link.com/en/business/forum/topic/157459?replyId=318647

If you can't wait, check out AX6000: https://www.tp-link.com/us/home-networking/wifi-router/?filterby=5730, it's already available on the market for consumer devices (WiFi 6 rat race).

Just out of curiosity: do you have a 2.5 Gbps Internet connection to make use of WiFi 6 bandwidth?

martijn86 wrote

It is primarily OFDMA and Spacial Frequency Reuse that I'm interested in.

Basically, most of the new features that WiFi 6 brings are improvements to features that the 802.11ac standard (WiFi 5) also has to offer.

Let's look at the details:

• Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) is expanded to Multi User Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (MU-OFDMA). Advantage: lower latencies, good for gamers.
• With MU-OFDMA, 256 subcarriers are available instead of only 64 subcarriers. But channel width still remains at 20 MHz and they still can be combined to only 160 MHz (8 WiFi channels required).
• 802.11ax divides the subcarriers into resource units (RU) and subchannels, respectively.
• 1024 quadrature amplitude modulation mode (1024-QAM) is intended to ensure better utilization of the available bands and channels.

However, the greater number of possible combinations also makes them more susceptible to interferences. Full use of 1024-QAM with MU-OFDMA requires not only free line of sight between the client and the AP, but also short distances between them (that's the reason why 1024-QAM is not very practical in cell phone networks). Thus, subcarriers and RUs will highly likely improve the overall experience if you have several clients with 2x2 spatial streams (as many clients already have).

In my opinion, WiFi 6 will surely improve WiFi experience in home scenarios, but it still has to proof whether it has this much benefits in typical business-class environments, where rat races are mostly unknown. Personally, I expect new business-class devices not before the WiFi Alliance has finalized the WiFi 6 standard, which is scheduled for end of the year 2019 or early 2020.

Well, we'll see.