Wi-Fi Advocates Get Win From FCC With Vote To Allow Higher-Power Devices (arstechnica.com) 35
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The Federal Communications Commission plans to authorize a new category of wireless devices in the 6 GHz Wi-Fi band that will be permitted to operate at higher power levels than currently allowed. The FCC will also consider authorizing higher power levels for certain wireless devices that are only allowed to operate indoors. The FCC said it scheduled a vote for its January 29 meeting on an order "to create a new category of unlicensed devices... that can operate outdoors and at higher power than previously authorized devices." These so-called Geofenced variable power (GVP) devices operating on the 6 GHz band will "support high data rates suitable for AR/VR, short-range hotspots, automation, and indoor navigation," and "overcome limitations of previous device classes by allowing higher power and outdoor mobility," the FCC said. They will be required to work with geofencing systems to avoid interference with fixed microwave links and radio astronomy observatories.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr attributed the FCC's planned action to President Trump in a press release titled, "President Trump Unleashes American Innovation With 6 GHz Win." That's consistent with Carr's relatively new stance that the FCC takes orders from the president, despite his insisting during the Biden era that the FCC must operate independently from the White House. While many of Carr's regulatory decisions have been criticized by consumer advocates, the 6 GHz action is an exception. Michael Calabrese, of New America's Open Technology Institute, told Ars that "increasing the power levels for Wi-Fi connections to peripheral devices such as AR/VR is a big win for consumers" and a change that has been "long advocated by the Wi-Fi community."
Carr said that the FCC "will vote on an order that expands unlicensed operations in the 6 GHz band so that consumers can benefit from better, faster Wi-Fi and an entirely new generation of wireless devices -- from AR/VR and IoT to a range of innovative smart devices. [It] will do so through a set of forward-looking regulations that allow devices to operate at higher power while protecting incumbent users, including through geofencing systems." [...] A draft of the order said the planned "additional power will enable composite standard-power/LPI access points to increase indoor coverage and provide more versatility to American consumers." The FCC will also seek comment on a proposal to authorize LPI access points on cruise ships.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr attributed the FCC's planned action to President Trump in a press release titled, "President Trump Unleashes American Innovation With 6 GHz Win." That's consistent with Carr's relatively new stance that the FCC takes orders from the president, despite his insisting during the Biden era that the FCC must operate independently from the White House. While many of Carr's regulatory decisions have been criticized by consumer advocates, the 6 GHz action is an exception. Michael Calabrese, of New America's Open Technology Institute, told Ars that "increasing the power levels for Wi-Fi connections to peripheral devices such as AR/VR is a big win for consumers" and a change that has been "long advocated by the Wi-Fi community."
Carr said that the FCC "will vote on an order that expands unlicensed operations in the 6 GHz band so that consumers can benefit from better, faster Wi-Fi and an entirely new generation of wireless devices -- from AR/VR and IoT to a range of innovative smart devices. [It] will do so through a set of forward-looking regulations that allow devices to operate at higher power while protecting incumbent users, including through geofencing systems." [...] A draft of the order said the planned "additional power will enable composite standard-power/LPI access points to increase indoor coverage and provide more versatility to American consumers." The FCC will also seek comment on a proposal to authorize LPI access points on cruise ships.
6GHZ?!!! (Score:4, Funny)
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Just take an extra Tylenol.
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Rumor has it that expectant mothers can take Tylenol and produce billionaires who invent landing rockets and make EVs cool.
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Salt (NaCl) will not kill you. But consuming Chlorine (Cl) will. Much the same way 6GHz will not cause cancer, even though 6G does. Read a book man!
Re: 6GHZ?!!! (Score:2)
I have to wonder about interference (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm genuinely not just shitting on this because it comes from the Trump administration, but I already have no less than 23 neighboring WiFi networks that show up from inside my home. There's a lot of ones named "SpectrumSetup-*" too, which I'm assuming is the result of people who didn't realize their cable modem has its own built-in WiFi and just connected a separate router without bothering to disable the WiFi in the modem.
So, more transmit power is likely going to mean that the 6 GHz band is going to be an even bigger mess. I can only imagine how bad it will get for apartment dwellers.
Re:I have to wonder about interference (Score:4, Informative)
I regularly visit two people whose home wifi is SpectrumSetup-xxxx with the default password that's printed on the bottom of the router.
I suspect the vast majority of customers never change these. Spectrum doesn't make it easy, you can't just put 192.168.1.1 into a browser and change settings, you have to download a fucking app.
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Even retail wireless APs and routers do this too. Some of the newer ones require apps. I hate that! I am old school to use 192.168.1.1 even via telnet like in Netgear RT311 router. ;)
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There days I have a lot of problems with the self-signed SSL certs in the PAs not being accepted by modern browser versions. Clicking through to accept the cert anyway just seems to loop.
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Nice thing about that, if they're too lazy to have properly signed certs, they're probably also too lazy to generate random keys and sign them. Quite a few of the cheapo consumer grade devices have the same private key on all of them. But we're secure! We did SSL!
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This too. Ugh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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At least with 6GHz, the penetration is quite low. Also, since it only came in with WiFi 6, those networks will be better neighbours than the ones on 2.4GHz that are using older standards.
You can usually still get a private channel on 5GHz as well, due to other routers not using some bands, and if they do "encouraging" them to leave.
Re: I have to wonder about interference (Score:5, Informative)
6 Ghz came with Wi-Fi 6E, actually.
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I'm genuinely not just shitting on this because it comes from the Trump administration, but I already have no less than 23 neighboring WiFi networks that show up from inside my home. There's a lot of ones named "SpectrumSetup-*" too, which I'm assuming is the result of people who didn't realize their cable modem has its own built-in WiFi and just connected a separate router without bothering to disable the WiFi in the modem.
So, more transmit power is likely going to mean that the 6 GHz band is going to be an even bigger mess. I can only imagine how bad it will get for apartment dwellers.
Have you done an actual scan to see which bands these wifi SSIDs transmit in? I will actively call bullshit right now on your experience being relevant to the discussion. Yes I too have many visible, about 15 in total. Out of those 15, only my 2 immediate neighbours are showing up along with my own networks in the 5GHz band (and weak). And out of those 15 I can only see my own SSID in the 6GHz spectrum that despite one of my immediate neighbours very much having the same Wifi 6E tri-band router and mesh rep
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How unfortunate that your local Wi-Fi environment is so over populated that you cannot actually use yours.
let me know, somehow, and I'll sport you over some Starbucks points so you can drink powerful coffee while you rant on and on and on...
Oh, wait, like my neighborhood, this is actually NOT A PROBLEM. Putz. It just looks annoying to you. Consider rewiring your house for Ethernet, or, try Powerline, Moca, or implement RFC2549, and get off our lawns.
(You could beg a neighbor for their W-Fi password)
Wrong solution to the wrong problem (Score:5, Insightful)
This might be seen as a "win" for consumers, but from a technical perspective, IMO, this makes zero sense. All it does is guarantee that your AR/VR headset will interfere with your neighbor's AR/VR headset. You don't overcome bandwidth limitations with higher power. You overcome it with wider bands at lower power and shorter over-the-air distances.
For the most part, Wi-FI access points should be *lower* power than they are. The louder they shout, the more interference to other devices, even with beamforming taken into account, and we're already way past the point where large rooms can experience horrible congestion because the *minimum* transmit power on many devices is too high to allow for adequate density.
What we need are point-to-point beamformed links between access points that operate on their own backhaul band to reduce congestion, and lower overall transmit power for links to devices that move around (like AR/VR headsets) and can't adequately be beamformed, thus encouraging users to set up an ultra-low-power mesh repeater in every room of their houses, rather than trying to flood yet another band with higher-power base stations to shout above the noise.
Also, I'm really confused about the summary. Is this for indoor devices or outdoor devices? First, it says that it is for devices that are only allowed to operate indoors (which is hilarious, because you can't realistically prevent people from taking stuff outside), and then it says that it is for outdoor use. The original article said the same thing. Or maybe that "and" was intended to describe two different new classes of devices?
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All it does is guarantee that your AR/VR headset will interfere with your neighbor's AR/VR headset. You don't overcome bandwidth limitations with higher power.
6GHz can barely get out of your room let alone affect your neighbour. You won't be interfering anything. The inability of these frequencies to pass through even a moderate obstacle is the reason they are allowing higher power transmission. 6GHz WiFi as it is has bandwidth falloff issues even if you are unobstructed within a few meters of your access
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6GHz can barely get out of your room let alone affect your neighbour.
And that's the main reason why the 6 GHz band is faster for most people, given the right setup. The range is only maybe 20 to 30 feet through drywall at current power levels because of attenuation, but if you have wired backhaul and a separate repeater in each room, it's great, because you're not worrying about interference with anybody because the attenuation keeps you from getting much interference from hardware a couple of rooms over.
Crank up the power so you can punch the signal through walls better, a
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And that's the main reason why the 6 GHz band is faster for most people, given the right setup.
Not really. Even the 5GHz band has pathetic penetration. You don't need much improved signal strength to get the full benefit of the entire bandwidth available. Try a local scan of your area. I'll be very impressed if you have any foreign interference from another network unless you're outside or scanning through an open window. I know where my neighbour's router is. It's 4m away from me right now, the signal strength is -85dBm compared to for example the two mesh repeaters I have in this room and the next
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Contention for Wi-Fi channels is already happening. Higher power might introduce more competitors, but it all still can work.
The worst thing people do is try ty manage their W-Fi channel assignment. You are not that smart. You aren't either, you were just lucky.
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WiFi 6 does not allow users to manage their channel assignment without locking you into a couple of channels. It mandates the use of DFS for most of the 5GHz spectrum. Anyone who is attempting to self-manage frequency allocation is almost certainly screwing themselves.
Re: Wrong solution to the wrong problem (Score:2)
So you got my point, at least that one.
An answer looking for a problem (Score:2)
Bribe-friendly Carr isn't doing this to help consumers, he's doing this to help big business. It's easier to excuse 'progress' if people think it benefits their self-interest. Since consumers currently have no reason to use it, they won't be in harm's way.
Screaming louder doesn't work. (Score:2)
The problems where signals are weak is usually due to interference from other signals. Now they propose a solution by just making all the signals more powerful - sure whatever. Yes there will be the rare event where more power is better, but not on busy networks.
Oh, and you are gonna need a bigger battery.
Trump Derangement Syndrome (Score:2)
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr attributed the FCC's planned action to President Trump in a press release titled, "President Trump Unleashes American Innovation With 6 GHz Win." That's consistent with Carr's relatively new stance that the FCC takes orders from the president, despite his insisting during the Biden era that the FCC must operate independently from the White House.
There has been a bill proposed [mn.gov] to have Trump derangement syndrome [wikipedia.org] classified as a mental illness.
Imagine that. What would be the recommended treatment?
Of course if you went abroad and saw a doctor there, you might be re-diagnosed as suffering from morality, or integrity.
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There has been a bill proposed [mn.gov] to have Trump derangement syndrome [wikipedia.org] classified as a mental illness.
Sponsored by 4 first-term MAGA senators (a fifth had himself removed from the bill's list of sponsors after it was referred to committee). Speaking of which, the bill was referred to the Senate Health and Human Resources Committee [mn.gov] on March 17th of last year, without thus far [senate.mn] even having been given a pro forma hearing by the committee ...
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This might meet my needs (Score:3)
If I get one of these will I still need a microwave for my popcorn?
(Asking for a friend)
What am I missing? (Score:2)
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You're not missing anything, and neither are the other commenters who pointed that out. MAGA types are proud of being ignorant and anti-science. Surely to them more power means better. Plus it will play well with the base -- "We gave your wifi more power! Biden couldn't do that!"