Indoor and Outdoor Measurement Campaign for Unlicensed 6 GHz Operation with Wi-Fi 6E

The current Wi-Fi frequency bands (2.4 and 5 GHz bands) are severely congested due to the exponential growth of Wi-Fi-enabled devices with the increasing demands of higher capacity and faster wireless connections. Wi-Fi 6E is a potential solution to meet these needs by employing channels of up to 160 MHz bandwidth in the 6 GHz unlicensed band. However, there is limited research on understanding the effect of Wi-Fi 6E on incumbent users of the band. With this motivation, we conduct a comprehensive measurement campaign for a typical real-world deployment of Wi-Fi 6E Low Power Indoor (LPI) Access Points (APs) in a building. The campaign consists of both walking and fixed location measurements to evaluate outdoor beacon Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI), outdoor channel connectivity, and building entry loss (BEL) at 6 GHz band. The measurement results demonstrate outdoor RSSI level ranging from -64 dBm to -95 dBm with a median of -89 dBm, median outdoor downlink (DL) throughput level of 25 Mbps, and 25–33 dB BEL due to solid brick walls. We conclude that (i) outdoor RSSI levels do note pose a threat to incumbent fixed links and (ii) construction material plays a vital role on outdoor RSSI with highest levels observed immediately in front of glass doors and windows.