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Forum Discussion
Tri-Band vs. Dual-Band allocation?
How are resources allocated with a WiFi 6E Tri-Band router Versus a dual band WiFi 6 router? If a WiFi 6E router is installed yet the only devices around use WiFi 6 is the third band simply a wasted ...
If you don't have any 6E devices, than a triband 6E router isn't as beneficial. Not saying a triband isn't beneficial, just not one with 6ghz. I have both the RAXE500 (6ghz + 5ghz + 2.4ghz) and the RAX200 triband (5ghz x2 + 2.4ghz) routers and for my home, the RAX200 is more beneficial.
Its also a matter of distance. I do have 6ghz devices but because the 6ghz band drops speeds so quickly with distance/obstruction, it doesn't cover my whole home. Another reason the RAX200 is better for my situation if I'm using a single router solution.
Whats your goal with coverage and usage?
If you have no 6GHz devices, then the 6GHz band is not providing you with any benefit, but if you do have some, then you will have some great close range benefits, especially if you have many 2.4GHz and 5GHz of multiple different standards, or not supporting all modern features such as MU-MIMO, forcing the AP to operate in a slower/ less efficient mixed mode. In cases like that, a laptop or smartphone that supports the 6GHz band, will be able to connect to is and have an effective real world throughput of 1.8-2Gbps, and if you have a NAS connected to the 2.5GbE port on the router, than a device on that band, will have a good chance at being able to use that full speed for things such as automated backups to the NAS, without interfering with other devices on the network.
For the 6GHz band, the primary thing holding it back is overly restrictive FCC regulations, though there is hope that they will change and then WiFi 6E devices can get firmware updates to take advantage of fewer restrictions.
While higher frequencies suffer from more attenuation, the 6Ghz band is not too far from the 5.8GHz range that we typically use for the 5GHz band.
The current main issue revolves around how transmit power for clients and APs are restricted. For the 5GHz band, you are largely restricted to 250mW on DFS channels, and 1000mW on non-DFS channels
On the other hand for the 6GHz band, you are largely dealing with transmit power limits based on channel width. (These limits apply to client devices) APs are also limited depending on if they are indoor or outdoor units.
- 20MHz= 15mW
- 40MHz= 31.6mW
- 80MHz= 63.1mW
- 160MHz= 125mW
- 320MHz (no device supports this yet)= 251.2mW
Things are further restricted due to the constant PSD requirement where instead of using the max allowed power at all times, it will only use enough to get an arbitrary dB above the noise floor, thus in some cases, it can be operating well below the max allowed power.
