Stefan Mileschin

TP-Link has announced pre-orders for their first 802.11ax router - the 8-stream Archer AX6000, along with technical details, pricing, and other information. In addition, a higher-end model, the Archer AX11000 is slated to become available in January 2019.

Most of the leading consumer networking vendors have already announced their first-generation 802.11ax routers lineup. In fact, Netgear and Asus already have their units available for purchase or pre-orders. Today, TP-Link is announcing their corresponding lineup for the North American market.

Traditionally, the flagship routers from TP-Link have been based on Qualcomm silicon, but, the company has opted to go in with Broadcom-based platforms for their first two 802.11ax products. The entry-level product from all the vendors is based on the Broadcom 8-stream platform (one 4x4 5 GHz radio, and one 4x4 2.4 GHz radio). For the high-end, Netgear opted for the Qualcomm-based 12-stream platform (one 8x8 5 GHz radio, and one 4x4 2.4 GHz radio). However, TP-Link, like Asus, has gone in with Broadcom for their high-end AX11000 router too. This product adopts a tri-band design, with two 4x4 5 GHz radios and one 4x4 2.4 GHz radio.

The benefits of Wi-Fi 6 have been brought out in multiple articles before, but, it is important to have a recap for context:

Availability of both uplink and downlink OFDMA (orthogonal frequency-division multiple access) to improve spectral efficiency
Usage of both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands (unlike the 5 GHz-only 802.11ac standard)
Standardization of 1024-QAM and and making MU-MIMO a mandatory feature (dissimilar to its optional downlink-only nature in 802.11ac Wave-2)

Wi-Fi 6 / 802.11ax doesn't target peak data-rates, but, improves the aggregate performance over several simultaneously active clients. The OFDMA-enabled simultaneous transmission to several users results in increased efficiency. Thanks to the lowered waiting time, the battery life of client devices also increases.

https://www.anandtech.com/show/13697...0211ax-routers