Tech

Wi-Fi 7: speeds, features, news, all about the new generation wireless network

Wi-Fi 7 takes over from Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E protocols. This evolution of the wireless standard promises an explosion of speeds, lower latency, as well as better network management when several devices are connected to it. Channel size, next-gen OFDMA, 4096-QAM modulation, 16-stream MU-MIMO, and a never-before-seen Multi-Link Operations feature, that’s all that changes with WiFi 7.

Wi-Fi 7
Credit: TP Link

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After WiFi 6 and WiFi 6E, which both helped to improve the standard, we are preparing to welcome WiFi 7, the latest generation of wireless networks. This final version of the standard brings additional advantages and new functions that will make WiFi a technology offering an even better experience. According to MediaTek, there is even a chance that WiFi 7 will establish itself as the equivalent of Ethernet. It would be the first time that wireless technology has risen to the level of wired technology. We invite you to discover with us everything you need to know about WiFi 7.

What is Wi-Fi 7?

Like its predecessors, Wi-Fi 7 is part of the IEEE 802.11 set of standards for local area wireless networks. He is baptized 802.11be, against 802.11ax for WiFi 6 or 802.11ac for WiFi 5, for example. Thanks to the integration of new technologies and improved management of WiFi channels, WiFi 7 promises to be faster, less congested and less prone to latency than WiFi 6 or WiFi 6E.

What are the technical specifications of Wi-Fi 7?

The characteristics of WiFi 7 are already known and should not change between now and its marketing. As with each generational leap, we are witnessing an increase in the maximum theoretical speeds allowed by the standard. WiFi 7 would indeed be able to reach up to 46 Gbps, a speed much higher than that of WiFi 6, limited to 9.6 Gb/s. For individuals, it is not certain that this gain is very useful, since most Internet connections do not provide such performance. But WiFi 7 could be a real game-changer and improve the throughput experience for corporate or public WiFi networks.

WiFi 7 operates on three frequency bands: 2.4, 5 and 6 GHz. It therefore incorporates the main novelty brought by WiFi 6E with support for 6 GHz (between 5,945 and 6,425 MHz), which makes it possible to declutter overused beaches, particularly in areas with high population density.

The other great novelty of WiFi 7 is the extension of the size of the channels, which passes to 320MHz, which is twice as much as with WiFi 5 and WiFi 6. Comparing WiFi to a road network, these ultra-wide channels are the equivalent of a 3 or 4 lane highway, while the channels 160 MHz would be more like a national road. As the highway allows more vehicles to move smoothly and quickly, the 320 MHz channels are able to transmit more information at the same time, and therefore deliver better performance.

Wi-Fi 7
Credit: TP Link

It is, among other things, this transition to 320 MHz channels which makes it possible to explode the speeds mentioned earlier. Such a channel width also contributes to reducing delays, and therefore latency.

What are the benefits of Wi-Fi 7?

WiFi 7 introduces new features and improves some already existing ones. OFDMA, a data multiplexing and coding technique already present on WiFi 6, is evolving. This reduced latency by approximately 25% compared to WiFi 5, the next generation OFDMA is capable of decrease by another 20%. To do this, it will better manage what are called RUs (Resource Units), units that divide packets so that they are sent faster.

With WiFi 7, these RUs can be scaled and more efficiently distributed across devices to optimize the network. And that’s not all: until now, an RU that cannot be exploited for one reason or another could prevent the exploitation of the following RUs. Thanks to WiFi 7, such a failure will have less impact on the management of other packets, resulting in lower overall latency.

The modulation of the amplitude of the signal is also making its revolution. WiFi 6 quadrupled the flows of WiFi 5 (256-QAM to 1024-QAM), WiFi 7 in turn quadrupled those of WiFi 6 to go from 1024-QAM to 4096-QAM. By moving from a 10-bit to 12-bit architecture, and therefore by increasing the volume of information bits transmitted per hertz, the bandwidth capacity becomes greater, which helps to improve throughput.

MU-MIMO is no exception. While the basic principle of the technology added with WiFi 6 remains the same, these are now up to 16 data streams which are managed by the antennas of a WiFi 7 compatible router, against 8 currently. An upgrade that will mainly benefit high-end network equipment and will help improve the quality of the home wireless connection.

Wi-Fi 7
Credit: Linksys

Finally, the last major technology introduced with WiFi 7 is the Multi-Link Operations (MLO), which allows a compatible device to operate two frequency bands at the same time. Thanks to aggregation, a terminal under WiFi 7, such as a smartphone or a computer, will be able to connect to both a 2.4 GHz band and a 5 GHz band, for example. This should increase the available bandwidth, increase throughputs and above all reduce latency.

What is interesting here is that in addition to avoiding saturation, a device will be able to benefit from the advantages of different frequency bands: we know that the 2.4 GHz have limited speeds, but which go the distance, whereas 5 GHz is much faster, but runs out very quickly as you move away from the router. Note that it is already possible to combine several frequency bands under the same SSID, but the device is not connected to them at the same time: it only chooses the one that offers the best performance, which is far what the MLO aggregation offers.

When will Wi-Fi 7 be available?

WiFi 7 was first talked about even before the official launch of WiFi 6, but it takes time for a standard to be included in commercial devices. The Wi-Fi Alliance, the consortium managing the protocol, must decide on the technical characteristics to which the standard will be subject, a process that can be long. A test period must also be observed before implementation on products sold to the general public. The Wi-Fi Alliance estimates that the kickoff of WiFi 7 will be given in 2024.

On this date, the first compatible devices should be put on the market. But it takes years for a standard to be democratized, users not renewing their equipment every year, and even less for home network equipment. In addition, precursor products are often expensive, preventing them from becoming popular quickly. This is why the operators who supply internet boxes and routers, as well as the manufacturers of smartphones, computers, Smart TVs, TV boxes are patient before switching to a new standard, with only a few high-end products benefiting shortly after its commissioning.

For example, WiFi 6 launched in 2019 started to take hold really well in homes from 2021/2022 only. If WiFi 7 is to land in 2024, we should therefore have to wait at least 2025 or 2026 before seeing it impose itself on a large scale. But early adopters will still be served, with the first WiFi 7 compatible smartphones from 2024. Samsung has gotten used to being the first to switch to the new generation of WiFi and could do it again with its Galaxy S24 series, expected in early 2024. Intel also announced that the first laptops equipped with WiFi 7 will be available in 2024, but that the number of models supporting the new protocol will be much larger in 2025.

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