Mixing WiFi 5 and WiFi 6 access points

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Liver

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I have 2 Ubiquiti UAP-AC-PRO (wifi 5) access points and 4 Ubiquiti U6 Lites (wifi 6).

The Pros are obviously older and I am reusing them. Is there *any* issue on using them mixed in with U6 Lites?

If there is any issue, I can move the Pro APs to the periphery of my network, which is basically one of the garages and the well house and keep all the U6 lites inside.

Recommendations?
 
Only issue I can think of is the same for any AP, too much overlap and interference, and corresponding reduction in performance. If your house is big enough for more than 4 U6 AP's use em IMO. How many Wifi6 devices do you have. I only have handful so still on 5. In an OCD sense the Pro in the garage and well house with the U6 in the house makes a bit of harmony, :D
 
Yeah it's really going to come down to how you allocate the frequency spectrum. You don't want nearby access points using channels that overlap. Some considerations:

-Channel Bandwidth. You could potentially use up to 160Mhz channels for faster speeds but you use up your available bandwidth quickly doing that, creating more potential overlap. I usually use higher-bandwidth channels on 5Ghz (since range of 5Ghz tends to be shorter and it does not penetrate walls as easily, it will be less likely to interfere with other access points) and stick with low bandwidth channels on 2.4Ghz, so you can have three non-overlapping channels (1, 6, 11) and 2.4Ghz can be a fall-back option for anything that doesn't have a good connection on 5Ghz.

-DFS channels. A good portion of the 5Ghz spectrum is comprised of DFS channels. This is frequency that overlaps with other things such as weather radar. Devices are allowed to use this part of the spectrum, but when things like weather radar are detected they automatically switch to a non-DFS channel. This can be frustrating, because just when you get your frequency allocation setup for the least interference possible, devices on DFS channels will jump to non-DFS channels and all of a sudden they are over-lapping. This can be tricky to get right. Check and see if your devices allow you to specify a fall-back channel for when they have to move off of a DFS channel so it's not so random and chaotic.

-2.4Ghz WiFi 6. It's important to remember that WiFi 5 (802.11ac) was 5Ghz only. There is no such thing as 2.4Ghz WiFi 5. WiFi 5 devices that are dual band are using WiFi 4 (802.11n) for the 2.4Ghz channels, which is not horrible but definitely showing it's age at this point. WiFi 6 brings some much-needed improvements to 2.4Ghz. Since there are only 3 non-overlapping 2.4Ghz channels, I'd consider only using 2.4Ghz on your WiFi 6 devices and disabling 2.4Ghz on your WiFi 5 / WiFi 4 devices (only using those devices for 5Ghz).
 
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I just installed a Wifi 6e router today - Asus GT-AXE16000 (yes, it's absolutely overkill) and I'm using my older AC5300(only G and AC) as an AImesh node. I have 2.4ghz, 5ghz and WiFi 6 all on the same network name managed by smart connect. The coverage is honestly bigger than I could possibly need and the smart connect is working awesome, even with mixed WiFi and 50+ devices connected.

I even have all of it running through a pihole.
 
TheSlySyl said:
I just installed a Wifi 6e router today - Asus GT-AXE16000 (yes, it's absolutely overkill) and I'm using my older AC5300(only G and AC) as an AImesh node. I have 2.4ghz, 5ghz and WiFi 6 all on the same network name managed by smart connect. The coverage is honestly bigger than I could possibly need and the smart connect is working awesome, even with mixed WiFi and 50+ devices connected.

I even have all of it running through a pihole.
Click to expand...

Dang that is a expensive router!

I am waiting for Wifi 7 right now.
 
Waiting for unifi to release there wifi 6 in walls and I will replace my older og in walls
 
Just to piggy back on OPs post (I'm in same product eco system), is there a noticable difference between Wifi 5 and Wifi 6. I have been running a UAP-AC-LR-US since 2016, and I have no issues, but was wondering if going to one of their fancy new Wifi 6 units would show me any tangible benefit.

Most of my higher bandwidth appliances are wired. Only truly mobile devices are wifi and will probably be bottlenecked by ISP?
 
sc5mu93 said:
is there a noticable difference between Wifi 5 and Wifi 6
Click to expand...

There should be? It's a new radio protocol on both 2.4 and 5, but wifi 5 only did the new protocol on 5ghz. But it depends on how many of your clients are wifi6 capable. Personally, if you have no issues, I'd leave well enough alone, though.
 
toast0 said:
There should be? It's a new radio protocol on both 2.4 and 5, but wifi 5 only did the new protocol on 5ghz. But it depends on how many of your clients are wifi6 capable. Personally, if you have no issues, I'd leave well enough alone, though.
Click to expand...
most of my wifi clients are wifi 6/E compatible, but also most of those are just accessing interwebs (usage is the socials, youtube, etc) - no real heavy streaming or bandwidth hungry apps. All those data eaters are wired in. and my internets never go above 150Mbps. I think i will probably just save the money.
 
I haven't noticed any improvement with WiFi 6 over WiFi 5. But I already got quite good (over 400mpbs) speed with WiFi 5.

My only WiFi 6e devices are my and my wife's Pixel phones - where it doesn't really matter. Most we ever do with them is watch video.

My desktop also has a WiFi 6, but it's a few walls away from the router and also has Ethernet. So I obviously tend to use the latter.

A better, more powerful router hardware made way more impact then having another WiFi band for me.
 
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sc5mu93 said:
Just to piggy back on OPs post (I'm in same product eco system), is there a noticable difference between Wifi 5 and Wifi 6. I have been running a UAP-AC-LR-US since 2016, and I have no issues, but was wondering if going to one of their fancy new Wifi 6 units would show me any tangible benefit.

Most of my higher bandwidth appliances are wired. Only truly mobile devices are wifi and will probably be bottlenecked by ISP?
Click to expand...

The biggest difference is 2.4Ghz where previously the fastest 2.4Ghz spec was 802.11n / WiFi 4. The draft spec for 802.11n is 17 years old, so this involved some much needed improvements. You'll see a lot less improvement on 5Ghz as 802.11ac / WiFi 5 was already pretty good. 802.11ax (WiFi 6) has a lot of great things, such as improved performance with multiple clients, etc.

But getting good performance from WiFi has always been more about implementation than the spec. Stuff like how far away you are from the Access Point, how many walls or other physical objects are blocking the signal, how many other nearby WiFi access points are using the same frequency, etc.

And you have a lot of choice involved. You can manually choose a frequency based on what you believe has the least interference. You can also choose the bandwidth, usually anywhere from 20Mhz to 160Mhz. More bandwidth has the potential for faster speeds, but since it covers more of the available spectrum, it's also more susceptible to interference.

It's important to make sure that you are asking the correct question. Are you limited to only using one Access Point? Do you absolutely have to choose between the two? The best choice is to simply use both, connected together via Ethernet. Put the WiFi 6 access point in the area where people spend the most time, and use the WiFi 5 Access Point (which would be WiFi 4 on the 2.4Ghz band) in a separate area that doesn't get great reception from the main access point. Even though WiFi 4/5 is slower, having that extra access point to overcome physical barriers and interference issues is far more important than the differences in the spec.

For example, I have my WiFi 6 access point in my living room, which also links to my kitchen. It's mounted high on the wall so that it has line-of-sight to most things. For anyone who is in the living room or kitchen, using 5Ghz, it allows for amazing speeds. It's also able to broadcast 2.4Ghz very far, even into our RV which is outside, on the other side of the house. Having it up on the wall really helped. In addition to that, I have a WiFi 5 access point in my room since I have a lot of devices in there, and I have another WiFi 5 access point in the far corner of my house which helps give better reception to some of the IP security cameras that are at the far end of our property.

It's also nice to have more than one access point simply so that if there is an issue with any one of them, most/all of your clients can automatically switch to one of the others. I don't need to worry if anyone is using WiFi if I decide to do a firmware update, etc.
 
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