Wi-Fi 7: Essential InsightsWi-Fi 7 is poised to revolutionize connectivity

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Wi-Fi 7: Essential InsightsWi-Fi 7 is poised to revolutionize connectivity. It promises faster speeds, enhanced reliability, and reduced latency, catering to the escalating demands of modern digital lifestyles.The key features of Wi-Fi 7 include:Speed: Wi-Fi 7 boasts unprecedented speeds, significantly surpassing its predecessors. This accelerated performance facilitates seamless streaming, rapid downloads, and lag-free gaming experiences.Efficiency: Through advanced technologies, Wi-Fi 7 optimizes spectral efficiency, ensuring more robust connections in dense environments. This efficiency translates to smoother connectivity amidst crowded networks.Low Latency: With minimal latency, Wi-Fi 7 enhances real-time communication, making it ideal for applications requiring instantaneous responsiveness, such as online gaming and video conferencing.Security: Wi-Fi 7 incorporates enhanced security protocols, safeguarding sensitive data from potential threats. This heightened security is crucial in an era where cyber threats continue to proliferate.Compatibility: Despite its advancements, Wi-Fi 7 remains backward compatible, ensuring seamless integration with existing devices. This compatibility mitigates the need for immediate hardware upgrades, facilitating a smooth transition to the new standard.In essence, Wi-Fi 7 represents a significant leap forward in wireless technology, poised to redefine the way we connect and interact in an increasingly digital world.

Wireless technology undergoes rapid upgrades. Just a few years post Wi-Fi 6’s launch, the Wi-Fi Alliance prepares to unveil Wi-Fi 7, or 802.11be. Wi-Fi 7 promises significant speed enhancements over Wi-Fi 6, alongside expanded bandwidth for the 6GHz channel introduced in Wi-Fi 6E. If you’re eager about upcoming wireless tech, join us as we delve into Wi-Fi 7, its advancements, and how it stacks up against Wi-Fi 6 and 6E. We’ll explore new features like MLO, 4K QAM, and AFC, detailing their impact on download speeds and latency reduction. Let’s dive into the intricacies of Wi-Fi 7.

Understanding Wi-Fi 7 (2022)

This article simplifies Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be), detailing its new technologies and enhancements over Wi-Fi 6 and 6E. Expand the table below for more details.

What is Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be)?

Wi-Fi 7, or 802.11be, is the latest wireless network standard developed by Wi-Fi Alliance, governing its design and specifications.

Wi-Fi 7 succeeds Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) and Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax), released in 2019 and 2020, respectively. When Wi-Fi 6 debuted a few years ago, it offered only incremental improvements in speed and latency. While Wi-Fi 6E introduced support for the 6GHz spectrum, it remained largely untapped, not realizing its full potential. This changes with Wi-Fi 7.

What Frequency Bands Does Wi-Fi 7 Support?

Similar to its predecessor, Wi-Fi 7 operates across three frequency bands: 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz. However, Wi-Fi 7 leverages the 6GHz band extensively, forming an aggregated data pipeline, a significant departure from 6E.

Wi-Fi 7 will utilize dual 5GHz + 6GHz (320MHz) channels to maximize throughput, enabling significantly faster speeds. The 6GHz band’s proximity to 5GHz facilitates the creation of a wider channel, ensuring optimal performance with minimal latency, known as Multi-Link Operation (MLO) in Wi-Fi 7.

In regions where the 6GHz band faces regulatory restrictions, Wi-Fi 7 will provide two 5GHz + 5GHz (240MHz) channels to maintain faster speeds.

Wi-Fi 7 Speed: Velocity of Wi-Fi 7

Wi-Fi 7, a monumental upgrade over past standards, boasts extremely high throughput (EHT) and is also referred to as 802.11be EHT. It achieves speeds up to 40Gbps, four times faster than Wi-Fi 6E’s 9.6Gbps and six times more than Wi-Fi 5’s 6.9Gbps. Clearly, Wi-Fi 7 marks a significant advancement in local wireless transmission, poised to revolutionize wireless communication alongside 5G.

The Wi-Fi Alliance, continuously developing Wi-Fi 7, anticipates finalizing specifications in 2024.

Wi-Fi 7 introduces significant changes, including Multi-Link Operation (MLO), 4K QAM, and Automated Frequency Coordination (AFC). These advancements result in faster speeds, reduced latency, and improved device handling in congested areas. Furthermore, Wi-Fi 7 enhances existing technologies like OFDMA, MU-MIMO, and TWT from Wi-Fi 6E. Let’s delve into the new features of Wi-Fi 7.

New Features in Wi-Fi 7

Here, we explore the technologies driving Wi-Fi 7’s fourfold increase in throughput over Wi-Fi 6. We’ll focus on its key features: Multi-Link Operation (MLO), 4K Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM), and Automated Frequency Coordination (AFC).

Multi-Link Operation (MLO)

The advent of Multi-Link Operation (MLO) in Wi-Fi 7 is lauded for its role in achieving exceptionally high throughput. MLO enables devices to transmit data across multiple channels—2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz—forming an aggregated data pipeline, markedly enhancing throughput and lowering latency. Notably, MLO facilitates swift and unrestricted operation between the 5GHz and 6GHz spectrums.

The frequency width between 2.4GHz and 5GHz exceeds that of 5GHz and 6GHz. This means that channels at 5GHz and 6GHz are much closer and can operate swiftly without waiting for other channels, unlike 2.4GHz. With the introduction of a new band in the 6GHz frequency spectrum in Wi-Fi 7 (more on this in the AFC section below), large data volumes can be split into packets and transferred using high-bandwidth frequencies, ensuring high speeds.

Moreover, utilizing high-frequency channels like 5GHz and 6GHz for data transfer and reception remains effective even in congested environments with multiple connected devices. In essence, Multi-Link Operation (MLO) emerges as a pivotal technology in Wi-Fi 7, potentially revolutionizing connectivity.

4K Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM)

Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) technology, available on older Wi-Fi standards, sends multiple data packets by superimposing signals of different amplitudes and phases.

Upgraded to 4K QAM in Wi-Fi 7, it can now superimpose 4096 signals simultaneously, significantly increasing network capacity compared to Wi-Fi 6’s 1024 QAM. This enhancement reduces latency and boosts efficiency.

Automated Frequency Coordination (AFC)

Wi-Fi 6E, released in 2020, faced a major challenge: avoiding interference with other 6GHz channel devices. For instance, US federal organizations like NASA use this channel for satellite communication, including weather radar. This obstructs Wi-Fi 6E’s full utilization of the 6GHz channel. Similar regulatory hurdles exist in other regions. To address this, Wi-Fi 7 introduces AFC (Automated Frequency Coordination).

AFC gathers antenna pattern and signal direction data to establish a cloud-based database. It performs calculations to prevent interference. In interference-free zones, Wi-Fi 7 can broadcast 6GHz channels at higher power levels.

Wi-Fi 7 can operate at 63 times more power without interferences. With AFC on Wi-Fi 7, the usage and availability of 6GHz channels will increase.

Comparing Wi-Fi 7 to Wi-Fi 6

Wi-Fi 7 introduces MLO, 4K QAM, and AFC, along with enhancements to existing technologies. For instance, MU-MIMO enables simultaneous data transmission with 16 streams, doubling Wi-Fi 6’s capacity. Additionally, Wi-Fi 7’s QAM signals are boosted to 4096, quadrupling Wi-Fi 6’s capacity (1024).

Source: Qualcomm

Notably, the maximum channel bandwidth in Wi-Fi 7 has doubled once more, now supporting up to 320MHz across the 5GHz and 6GHz channels. Wi-Fi 6 was limited to 160MHz. Enhancements in Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) are also evident, with channels divided into multiple resource units (MRU) more efficiently in the Wi-Fi 7 standard, reducing interference and latency.

Moreover, Target Wake Time (TWT) has undergone improvements to reduce power consumption by putting the device to sleep when network access is not required. A new feature, Restricted Target Wake Time (RTWT), has been introduced to allocate bandwidth for specific types of data transmission.

Comparison: Wi-Fi 7 vs Wi-Fi 6E vs Wi-Fi 6

Recapping, here’s a concise comparison of the key specifications and features of Wi-Fi 7, Wi-Fi 6, and Wi-Fi 6E:

Wi-Fi 7: Essential InsightsWi-Fi 7 is poised to revolutionize connectivity. It promises faster speeds, enhanced reliability, and reduced latency, catering to the escalating demands of modern digital lifestyles.The key features of Wi-Fi 7 include:Speed: Wi-Fi 7 boasts unprecedented speeds, significantly surpassing its predecessors. This accelerated performance facilitates seamless streaming, rapid downloads, and lag-free gaming experiences.Efficiency: Through advanced technologies, Wi-Fi 7 optimizes spectral efficiency, ensuring more robust connections in dense environments. This efficiency translates to smoother connectivity amidst crowded networks.Low Latency: With minimal latency, Wi-Fi 7 enhances real-time communication, making it ideal for applications requiring instantaneous responsiveness, such as online gaming and video conferencing.Security: Wi-Fi 7 incorporates enhanced security protocols, safeguarding sensitive data from potential threats. This heightened security is crucial in an era where cyber threats continue to proliferate.Compatibility: Despite its advancements, Wi-Fi 7 remains backward compatible, ensuring seamless integration with existing devices. This compatibility mitigates the need for immediate hardware upgrades, facilitating a smooth transition to the new standard.In essence, Wi-Fi 7 represents a significant leap forward in wireless technology, poised to redefine the way we connect and interact in an increasingly digital world.
Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be) Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax) Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax)
Frequency Bands 2.4GHz, 5GHz, 6GHz 2.4GHz, 5GHz, 6GHz 2.4GHz, 5GHz
Maximum Speed 40Gbps 9.6Gbps 6.9Gbps
Maximum Channel Bandwidth 320MHz (6GHz)
320MHz (6GHz + 5GHz)
240MHz (5GHz + 5GHz)		 160MHz 160MHz
QAM Signals 4096 1024 1024
MU-MIMO Streams 16 8 8
Technologies MLO, 4K QAM, AFC, MU-MIMO, OFDMA, TWT, RTWT QAM, MU-MIMO, OFDMA, TWT QAM, MU-MIMO, OFDMA, TWT

Anticipating Wi-Fi 7 Availability

Wi-Fi 7’s specifications and features remain unfinalized, but projections suggest a potential release in 2024. Pre-certified routers may emerge as early as 2023. Following the finalization of Wi-Fi 7 standards in 2024, consumers can expect certified routers to hit the market by fall.

Devices Embracing Wi-Fi 7

Qualcomm, Broadcom, and MediaTek are leading the charge in adopting Wi-Fi 7 for their chips. In June 2022, Qualcomm unveiled its Networking Pro platform, featuring the 1220, 1620, 620, and 820 series, all equipped with ARM Cortex-A73 cores to support Wi-Fi 7.

Similarly, MediTek announced two chipsets, Filogic 880 and Filogic 380, in May 2022 supporting Wi-Fi 7. These chipsets will be used in high-end routers and other gateway solutions in the coming years. No information on the release date yet, but speculations suggest a 2023 market launch.

Broadcom also joined the race, announcing Wi-Fi 7 ecosystem products in April 2022. It will release five chips: BCM67263, BCM6726, BCM43740, BCM43720, and BCM4398, supporting Wi-Fi 7. The release date is yet to be confirmed, but Broadcom is working with enterprise partners to bring Wi-Fi 7 to the market.

Excited for Wi-Fi 7 Routers and Devices

That was our in-depth explainer about the upcoming Wi-Fi 7 wireless standard. Wi-Fi 7 is set to be a monumental upgrade over Wi-Fi 6/6E, offering 4x more throughput than Wi-Fi 6, adding another band in the 6GHz channel, and enabling MLO to aggregate both 5GHz and 6GHz channels. We’re excited about the upcoming standard, are you? Share your thoughts in the comments below. Additionally, if interested, you can learn more about 5G bands, including sub-6GHz and mmWave bands, in our linked article.

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