Evaluating The Interference Potential in 6 GHz: An Extensive Measurement Campaign of A Dense Indoor Wi-Fi 6E Network

TL;DR

This study presents extensive real-world measurements of dense indoor Wi-Fi 6E deployments in the 6 GHz band, assessing interference potential to incumbents and providing data on RSSI, BEL, and channel utilization.

Contribution

It is the first comprehensive measurement campaign evaluating interference risks of dense Wi-Fi 6E deployments in the 6 GHz band with diverse measurement methods.

Findings

Median outdoor RSSI between -75 dBm and -85 dBm

Building entry loss (BEL) between 12 dB and 16 dB

Only 5% of indoor BSSIDs observed outdoors

Abstract

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has allocated the 6 GHz band (5.925 - 7.125 GHz) for unlicensed, shared use in the US. Incumbents in the band are protected via Low Power Indoor (LPI) rules that do not require the use of an Automatic Frequency Control (AFC) mechanism and Standard Power (SP) rules which do. As the deployment of Wi-Fi 6E APs implementing LPI rules have been increasing, there is limited research examining the real-world interference potential of dense LPI deployments to fixed links, which remains a concern for incumbents. We have conducted a first-of-its-kind extensive measurement campaign of a dense indoor Wi-Fi 6E network at the University of Michigan, which includes walking, driving, and drone measurements to assess outdoor beacon Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI), building entry loss (BEL), channel utilization, and appropriate enabling signal level for a proposed client-to-client (C2C) mode in 6 GHz. Our detailed measurements under various conditions show median outdoor RSSI between -75 dBm and -85 dBm, BEL between 12 dB and 16 dB through double-pane low-emission windows, and only 5% of indoor Basic Service Set Identifiers (BSSIDs) observed outdoors. Our overall conclusion is that the probability of interference to incumbent fixed links is low, but more research is required to determine the appropriate signal level for the C2C enabling signal.