- abstract: "The opening of the 6 GHz spectrum promises substantial capacity gains for dense WiFi deployments, yet real-world performance depends critically on configuration choices rather than spectrum availability alone. This paper presents a measurement study of a large-scale outdoor WiFi 6E deployment at Brigham Young University's LaVell Edwards Stadium, combining two years of operational data with targeted measurements during football games. Despite the RF advantages of 6~GHz, capacity-based configuration preferences result in only modest performance improvements compared to 5 GHz. While 6 GHz achieves 3.4x higher median throughput (28 Mbps vs 8 Mbps) and 90% lower channel utilization (3.1% vs 31.4%), both bands fall well below expected performance levels. More critically, client adoption remains the dominant limiting factor\: automated Passpoint steering redirects ~50% of stadium clients, an estimated 20% of whom are 6 GHz-capable, exclusively to 5 GHz, while WiFi chipset-level association decisions prevent manual band selection. Historical data reveals that migration to OWE transition mode increased 6 GHz adoption from near-zero to 21% of non-steered clients."
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