Wi-Fi is not an exception to the rule that newer technology is often superior and quicker; this is the case with Wi-Fi as well. Wi-Fi 7 is on the horizon and promises considerable improvements in speed and dependability. This is a simple summary, but there are many specific and technical advantages it delivers, including significant improvements over Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E.
Soon, 802.11be specifications will be completed.
Before we go any further, we'd want to caution you of one basic truth. The final 802.11be Wi-Fi 7 amendment has not yet been released by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and until it is, all of these features and specifications are only anticipated standards. The most, if not all, of the standards will likely survive, although they are vulnerable to revision, and even additions are possible.
Many of the recommended improvements were disseminated in an IEEE-published article, which you may read more readily here (paywall) (PDF). Other data are provided by firms like as Qualcomm, Intel, and MediaTek, who had a role in building the hardware and provided advice on the standards they would use.
Wi-Fi 7 is also often referred to as 802.11be Extremely High Throughput. The "be" suffix may appear on certain spec documents, similar to how 801.11ax appeared for Wi-Fi 6, therefore it is important to note.
Wi-Fi 7 will be backward compatible with previous Wi-Fi implementations, so you do not need to worry about a Wi-Fi 6 or Wi-Fi 6E device not functioning properly on a new Wi-Fi 7 router. The same holds true for Wi-Fi 7 client devices. They can connect without trouble to older Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 5 access points.
Wi-Fi 7 is currently in the "draft" stage, although certification and approved devices are scheduled to become available around 2024. However, based on the draft specifications, some gear may arrive a little earlier in 2023, and most of it should be compatible with the final version. If you're concerned about purchasing the "wrong" kind of Wi-Fi 7 gear, you may want to wait until 2024 to make your purchase.
Now that you're familiar with the fundamentals and the timeline, let's go into the specific changes introduced by this new version of Wi-Fi.
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Wider channels for greater speed
The most notable modification to Wi-Fi 7 is likely an increase to 320 MHz channels in the 6 GHz frequency. This may seem to be a random collection of numbers, yet there is a very meaningful and significant lesson to be learned.
In general, bigger channels result in a larger pipe between client devices and the router, resulting in a quicker pipe. This doubling of the channel size should result in a minimum doubling of Wi-Fi 6E's theoretical maximum capacity of 9.6 Gbps, but when paired with other technologies that we will discuss later, it will be considerably faster.
According to the IEEE, Wi-Fi 7 should provide "at least 30 Gbps per access point" and be about four times as fast as Wi-Fi 6. Intel forecasts that Wi-Fi 7 performance might reach 46,1 Gbps, while MediaTek expects it will reach 36 Gbps. These are theoretical maximums you will never encounter in practice. However, the lower and more realistic proportion that you will benefit from is a significant improvement over Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E.
This increase in channel size is exclusive to the new 6 GHz frequencies introduced by Wi-Fi 6E; the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz frequencies will continue to employ 40 MHz and 160 MHz channel maximums, respectively. Nonetheless, due to additional enhancements in Wi-Fi 7, even these lower-frequency and smaller channels may be able to function more quickly.
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Reduce latencies
The "old" Wi-Fi 6 standard made significant strides in lowering latency for client devices, but as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) grow more popular (although lacking a "killer app"), even double-digit millisecond latency is an issue. The lesser the motion-to-photon latency (MTP latency) while streaming VR material from the edge, the better. MTP latency describes the delay between motion in AR to a visual change that reacts to it. Wi-Fi 7 does not significantly improve "normal" latency, but it was developed to minimize lag under extreme conditions.
As seen in the graph, Wi-Fi 7/802.11be should provide a significant decrease in worst-case latency. Several techniques, including coordinated beamforming and parameterized spatial reuse, are used to accomplish these reductions. Without getting too technical, there are little techniques to enhance corner-case situations where latency would otherwise surge, and they also increase dependability and throughput, resulting in further performance benefits. Multiple Resouce Unit (MRU), the next device we'll explore, may similarly improve latency under certain conditions.
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MRU Puncturing
Wi-Fi 6E enabled customers to stream films on a new range of frequencies, which is especially useful in crowded metropolitan situations where the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands had become highly congested. Essentially, the whole virgin old-growth forest of the spectrum is now open for devices to connect to, although it is not totally vacant. As with every other group of frequencies that may possibly be used for anything, "incumbents" have been exploiting it for various purposes.
These incumbents, according to Cisco, include point-to-point fixed service linkages, satellite service, television transmission, and even radar. Extending the forest metaphor maybe a little too far, there are a few furious bears you don't want to encounter and interfere with on your 6 GHz Wi-Fi travels. Enter: Multi-RU/MRU Puncturing.
This straightforward method separates operational channels into 20 MHz sub-channels. Instead of erasing whole channels, any incumbent usage may be partitioned off using a safe buffer while the channel it's a part of is preserved. Therefore, if incumbent usage interferes with utilizing those large 320 MHz channels, your router can automatically "fence off" certain portions and still utilize the remainder of those large channels without having to exclude them or revert to lesser channel sizes (and lower speeds). To fully demolish this forest metaphor, it is necessary to fence off the bears as firmly as possible, as opposed to disregarding vast portions of the forest because a bear may be there.
MRU also reduces latency in situations when several uploads occur concurrently. Instead of sequentially queuing uploads to prevent devices from talking over one another, they may operate on distinct sub-frequency bands. Wi-Fi 6 is capable of doing so, but this further improves the process when upload data lengths vary.
Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output (MIMO) has been supported by Wi-Fi for some time, but Wi-Fi 6 introduced a significant update to it. MIMO was previously exclusively used to increase the size of the pipe leading to each device. Multi-user MIMO, or MU-MIMO, may be used beginning with Wi-Fi 6 to enable many devices to communicate with the access point on distinct pipes at the same time.
Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi supported up to eight data streams (88 MIMO), but Wi-Fi 7 will support up to sixteen data streams (1616 MIMO). As expected, more pipes equals quicker, so there are performance improvements here, but it also means that more devices may "speak" to the router concurrently. This may result in greater dependability and decreased latency for Internet of Things (IoT) and smart home devices, for instance.
The IEEE does not include Coordinated Multiuser MIMO in its Wi-Fi 7 white paper, although previously in the Wi-Fi 7 planning cycle, there were ideas to make MIMO function better across many access points (CMU-MIMO). It should decrease interference in crowded locations with many access points, as well as increase the speed and dependability of individual devices. However, it is unclear if this will finally be included in Wi-Fi 7. (We've gone out to the Wi-Fi Alliance to determine whether it's still a possibility for Wi-Fi 7)
Multi-link Operation
Multi-link Operations (MLO) will achieve something that many may have imagined Wi-Fi could already do: it will utilise many sets of frequencies concurrently. And we don't only mean transmitting as an access point for client devices over the 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz bands using your router. We refer to a single client device having simultaneous connectivity to an access point on 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz channels.
Speed is the clear advantage here. Two large pipes are superior than one large pipe for data transfer, and being linked to more than one makes both available. According to Intel, this might result in a maximum aggregated data throughput that is 7.2 times that of Wi-Fi 6.
As with almost every other Wi-Fi 7 feature, this also delivers latency improvements. If a device maintains simultaneous connections on many bands, there is no delay when it must switch between them depending on load balancing or traffic demands. It does not have to wait tens or hundreds of milliseconds to travel between them since it is already linked. By boosting the so-called "Transmission Opportunity," it may also reduce the worst-case latency on a network with a higher load.
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Other Wi-Fi 7 perks
Automated Frequency Coordination (AFC) was included into Wi-Fi 6E, and it allows us to utilise the new 6 GHz spectrum for Wi-Fi without interfering with current usage. AFC reduces transmit strength in regions where radar or other broadcast sources continue to utilize certain frequencies to avoid interference. In locations devoid of incumbent usage, however, transmission power levels may be increased. Again, this is "outdated" and was introduced with Wi-Fi 6E. According to the IEEE, however, Wi-Fi 7 will increase the number of devices that may employ AFC, hence improving signal strength and connection dependability for more devices.\
Even 4K Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (4K QAM) is not brand-new. In the past, certain Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E devices from firms such as Qualcomm supported the technology, but Wi-Fi 7 will make it the norm. Essentially, QAM is a method for squeezing more data into the same signal, or multiplexing. Examining the modulated waveform's so-called "constellation," which graphically depicts the amount of information that can be packed in a grid, is really entertaining.
This image is for fiber optics, but the concept is comparable. More dots indicate more distinct phases and amplitudes in the signal, allowing for more data to be compressed.
Wi-Fi 6 supported 1K QAM, which allows for 1,024 phases of magnitude to be packed into a carrier signal, but Wi-Fi 7 will support 4,096 phases. The increase will not result in a linear performance gain. According to Litepoint, this should result in a 20 percent increase in the maximum negotiated data rate or a 20 percent increase in the maximum connection speed.
Other changes to benefit areas with congested networks or multiple access point networks are also in the works, as is a potential Restricted Target Wake Time adjustment that networks can use to reserve capacity at certain times for specific use cases, inherited from the IoT-focused Wi-Fi HaLow standard—potentially quite useful for industrial and enterprise applications.
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Wi-Fi 7 TL;DR
Wi-Fi 7 will be quicker and more dependable, and many of these acronyms and numbers ultimately imply the same thing. From the overall effect to the individual causes, we've come full circle; however, you now understand why it will be better in these ways. We may begin tossing out some more stats that will thrill you more directly: Wi-Fi 7 should be about four times quicker than Wi-Fi 6 and 6E, and compatible devices may have more stable and consistent connections in busy regions and previously problematic locations. The worst-case latency statistics will decrease if you utilize VR, and you may see improved streaming AR/VR performance.
Until the final version of the Wi-Fi 7 specification is released, you should remember that things are still in flux. In the draft stage, additional benefits may be added or some of these technologies may be eliminated. CMU-MIMO, for instance, was a "possibility" for Wi-Fi 7 between 2020 and 2021 and was not explicitly mentioned in the IEEE's white paper for 2021. The technologies we are certain will make the cut, however, should enable Wi-Fi 7 to offer huge boosts in connection speed and dependability, as well as significantly reduced latency in edge cases.
Certain individuals may even hurry to upgrade to Wi-Fi 7 when it arrives. The latency gains in worst-case circumstances might be large and possibly perceptible in certain applications for AR and VR enthusiasts. If you have an abundance of smart home devices or congestion difficulties on your current 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz frequencies, and you bypassed Wi-Fi 6 and 6E, it is likely time to update your router to Wi-Fi 7. And if you wait a year or two after the release of the first models, prices for Wi-Fi 7 hardware should begin to drop, making it a more attractive option. (Some Wi-Fi 6E mesh networking systems, for instance, cost more than $1,000 when the technology debuted, but prices have decreased since then.)
Wi-Fi standards are becoming more complicated, and the combination of minor technological and feature enhancements will provide cumulative benefits. Now that some of these improvements have been highlighted, you have a clearer understanding of how and why Wi-Fi 7 is quicker and better, allowing you to choose whether or not it is worthwhile to schedule an update. If you want to upgrade your smart home equipment after purchasing a Wi-Fi 7 router, you will need to learn more about the Matter iOT standard.
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