At MWC Barcelona, RCRTech principal analyst Sean Kinney spoke with Intel’s Eric McLaughlin, VP, Client Computing and GM, Connectivity Solutions about the evolution from 5G to 6G, and how the 6 GHz band (along with Wi-Fi 7 and 6E) will be a bridge to higher-frequency performance.
Expansion into 6 GHz band, Wi-Fi 6E, Access points (APs) and Client Devices
The global rollout and adoption of the 6 GHz spectrum is accelerating, and on top of it, Wi-Fi 6E is delivering faster, more reliable wireless connections with significantly reduced congestion.
“In April 2020, we (Intel and Broadcom) spoke with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and demonstrated with a test license what 6 GHz could do. They were very excited, and 4 months later they opened the full 6 GHz band in the U.S. and 6 months later, we shipped our first products,” said Intel’s Eric McLaughlin, vice president of Client Computing Group and General Manager, Connectivity Solutions Group. “The industry was really ready for this big inflection point of 6GHz.”
According to McLaughlin, more than 100 countries now support 6GHz—some are “full band,” like the U.S., and some are partially or upper/lower 6 GHz. “There are 45 countries exploring 6 Gig in general, and 48 more looking at lower and upper bands,” he explained.
In terms of the regulatory environment, “there’s been good progress,” as with the FCC “GVP” Order to expand unlicensed access to the 6 GHz band, which allows for higher-power outdoor operations (like AR/VR and automation) while using location-based controls to prevent interference with incumbent services. Currently, the FCC is reviewing a proposed rule for “mid-band flexible use” (open for comment until March 23, 2026) to improve unlicensed device performance across the 3.7–24 GHz range, specifically targeting the 5.925–7.125 GHz band.
When it comes to devices, he says there are more than 12 million APs in the market and 1 billion client devices sold. “Since 2021, Intel has launched 9 generations of PC platforms with support for Wi-Fi 6E and/or Wi-fi 7 operation in the 6 GHz band. About 50-60% of our current wireless product volume supports 6 GHz,” said McLaughlin.
How Wi-Fi 7 is ramping
“We are really pleased with the ramp and the percentage of 6E/ 6 GHz-supported devices,” said McLaughlin, noting that Wi-Fi 7 is deploying ahead of previous generations. “We are 40% or so with Wi-Fi 7, with more devices coming out every year. It will be a predominant portion of our mix by late next year.”
One capability that makes expansion into 6 GHz significant is its automated frequency coordination (AFC). “Part of using 6 GHz is that there are incumbents in the market, beyond the indoor use of Wi-Fi, for backhaul, and some outdoor deployments using this spectrum.” When talking about mission-critical applications of the technology, like at the Department of Defense, it’s important to ensure optimal performance. “When we are transmitting and using the 6 GHz at high power, we want to deliver the very best data rate and experience with AFC.”
So far, multiple providers, including WFA, Broadcom, Qualcomm, and WBA, own the rights to develop an AFC solution. “Those solutions capture a regular database of all of the incumbents and clients that are NAPs using 6 GHz, and they allow new devices that come in regularly (minute by minute) to understand if they can transmit in 6 GHz, and if so, can they use high power, and if so, what channel? This is all to make sure the best possible experience is delivered while also reserving the space for the incumbents in those bands today,” McLaughlin explained.
Impact at enterprise level
For Intel, partners, and AI PCs to gain further traction in enterprises, they need strong connectivity to handle AI workloads locally as well as in the cloud. Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 7 will deliver that, whether devices are equipped with CPU, GPU, or NPU.
“Wi-Fi 6 was a huge inflection point prior to 6E, shifting the protocol for Wi-Fi from contention based – a ‘free-for-all of who got the spectrum’–into 6, where it became more controlled like a cellular model, OFDMA, that allows you to have the AP act as a coordinator for time,” said McLaughlin, adding that “6E opened up more spectrum, and then 7 is primarily about how to best utilize the spectrum you have – how do you do use both contiguous channels (right next to each other) or when not contiguous (two channels simultaneously but with parts of different channels) so you can maximize the use of your spectrum.”
He notes that in enterprises, the situations change rapidly. “At any given time, the AP might be supporting 30 users, and then people start getting together for a party or conference, and suddenly the set of APs is supporting 300 users, with phones, PCs, headsets, etc.,” explained McLaughlin, emphasizing why efficient use of spectrum, especially in enterprise scenarios, is crucial to delivering best experience for the users.
AIOps for IT managers in the enterprise networks
In the move to 6 GHz band (Wi-Fi 6E and 7) and eventually 6G, the sheer volume of data and number of connected devices will explode. With 6G and AI PCs, AIOps is what will make high-speed, complex infrastructure manageable. “You have to have AI tooling to make sure the performance is as optimal as possible so AI PCs can work well,” said McLaughlin. “AI Ops IT shops often run into user complaints about their connectivity, and a help desk call costs $20 and somebody’s time.” He pondered not only reducing the 20-minute help desk call to a matter of seconds, but completely eliminating the need for it. “That will happen, as devices are giving data to AI models, which learn and understand what’s happening so AI can ultimately help diagnose and fix issues. That’s where we are headed,” said McLaughlin.
Because the wireless client is the first place data comes in and last place data comes out, there is an enormous amount of information about what’s happening on the client and on the network, and it doesn’t matter where the pipes or clients are. “With AI, you will deploy a driver fix because that help desk through AI and their dashboard will say ‘we saw the issue here or there, and it’s localized here,’ or it will identify it as a driver problem, before the end user even knows about an outage,” said McLaughlin. “You can do the processing on the AP, in the cloud, but with AI PC, you can also do some of the workloads local on the PC’s CPU, GPU and NPU—the hybrid combination of all those things for an immediate fix could be realized in the next year or two.”
