Unifi Wifi6, 11ac not included?

Networking Networking Hardware
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Looking at the new Unifi Wifi6 access points, to replace some very old Unifi BGN aps. Noticed the lack of any mention of 802.11ac wave 1 or wave 2 support.

Since 11ac wave 2 is also called “WiFi 5”, is it included in wifi 6, or skipped over?

I don’t have any Wifi6 devices but I do have a bunch of 5g 11ac devices.

Any input is appreciated.

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According to Netgear, Wifi 6 is compatible with all previous generations of Wifi.

https://blog.netgear.com/blog/wifi-6-isnt-a-big-deal-or-is-it/

WiFi 6 routers are 100% backwards compatible with WiFi 5 and older WiFi devices

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I’ve read the same, but what what I’m stuck on is the price, and uplink connectivity.

802.11ac wave 2 access points are rather expensive, 149US for the AP AC Pro, 349US for the AP HD and both have multiple gigabit uplinks. The WiFi 6 AP is selling for 10 more than their “lite” 11ac wave 1 AP at 99US.

Seems to indicate the WiFi 6 doesn’t support AC wave 2, but only wave 1?

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I forgot what wave2 was in the end… beyond downstream mu-mimo.

In wifi 6, headline features IMHO are:

  • mu-mimo on upstream traffic (arguably way more useful than downstream - definitely an upgrade from 802.11ac)
  • wpa3 (and more specifically management frame protection parts of it are kind of nice, at least on paper various clients might have issues with roaming and encryption)
  • ofdma even on 5GHz
  • 6Ghz band… (not supported on u6-lite and u6-lr)

Specific difference to ap-ac-lite vs u6-lite and nanohd vs u6-lr, you get faster cpu cores inside especially on the lite which in ac versions was still selling with a 2010 era design single core mips cpu. This cpu difference adds about +50% performance on the lite. (haven’t tested myself, folks online report up to 700Mbps on the lite in ideal conditions)

I’m waiting on u6-lr to appear in stock in Europe before I order a few (early access hardware had DFS channels locked out, deal breaker for me and my house, production versions can use DFS channels).

Also, the two ubiquiti APs have a single 1Gbps port - to me that’s ok but it’s a deal breaker for some folks who were hoping it’d help them in high density setups like conferences and some classrooms (once those start happening in person again)

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Thanks for the analysis.

At the price point for the “6 lite” AP, I’ll go for it, since it looks like a decent upgrade compared to the “ac lite” AP.