Wi-Fi 6 and CHIP: the ideal indoor couple?

The pandemic has more people working from home, and this has accelerated the adoption of Wi-Fi 6. Consumers are upgrading home networks with this new, higher-speed standard and they’re enjoying the additional key benefits of its distributed architecture – ease of setup and high capacity that serves the needs of all family members – from video conferencing in the home office, to binge watching a favorite show in the living room, to hours of online gaming in an upstairs bedroom.

Wi-Fi 6’s distributed architecture brings a router and a set of satellites, or “pods,” which can be strategically positioned in the home. These pods connect themselves automatically to the main router, the one that connects to the outdoor internet, via a protocol called Wi-Fi Easymesh. The result is high-speed Wi-Fi through the whole house. Gone are the days when proximity to the router is crucial for performance and repeaters and/or powerline adapters are needed to cover the dead zones.

Although the term “pod” sounds rather simple, it could be a quite sophisticated device that can simultaneously do many other things. In fact, every non-mobile Wi-Fi device could function as a pod. A TV, a wireless speaker or smart assistants like Amazon’s Echo Dot or Google Home can simultaneously execute their own function and serve as a pod for other Wi-Fi devices. This is all on the drawing boards.