What is Wi-Fi 7 and why should you care?
Wi-Fi 7, technically known as IEEE 802.11be or Extremely High Throughput (EHT), is the next generation of wireless technology that will revolutionize the way we connect to the internet. Building on the foundation of Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E, Wi-Fi 7 promises to deliver unprecedented speed, capacity, and reliability for a wide range of applications and devices. In this blog, we will explore some of the key features and benefits of Wi-Fi 7 and how it will impact our digital lives.
How we reached here?
As with most generational improvements, Wi-Fi 7(802.11be) is designed to offer faster speeds and improved performance than its predecessor, Wi-Fi 6(802.11ax). When FCC voted to open a part of 6 GHz spectrum in April 2020 for unlicensed use, all wireless industry experts saw this the biggest opportunity for Wi-Fi upgrade since the FCC opened DFS channels for Wi-Fi in 2003. This quadrupled the amount of spectrum available to users, meaning the Wi-Fi issue that you were facing because the neighbor was overlapping on the channels you were also using, might be gone if you can use this new spectrum. And we did see a lot of Wi-Fi 6E devices flooding the market that can operate in 6 GHz in such a short time.
And while Wi-Fi 6E was primarily an extension to Wi-Fi 6 to be able to operate in 6 GHz with same set of standards, Wi-Fi 7 builds on this new spectrum and attempts to rethink on best ways to use all the available spectrum. Think of how up till now 2.4 GHz was reserved for low bandwidth but requiring primarily just connectivity, devices like IoT that can support only 2.4 GHz due to their low cost but then allocating 5 GHz with much more available spectrum available for client devices like phones and laptop needing higher throughput.
Benefits of using 6 GHz & Wi-Fi 7
6 GHz in itself brought a few notable enhancements like additional 1,200 MHz new spectrum in 6 GHz vs existing 480 MHz, thereby allowing for 7 new 160 MHz capacity channels vs existing 2 and Wi-Fi 6E even provided backward compatibility in the 2.4/5 GHz. But with Wi-Fi 7 designed to make use of this spectrum, we could see some of the following notable enhancements.
Wi-Fi 7 Enhancements:
Multi-link Operation ( MLO)
Introducing in Wi-Fi 7 is a new feature called Multi-link Operation (MLO) that allows devices to simultaneously send and receive data across different spectrum bands; where up until now where almost all device could work across 2.5, 5 GHz and even 6 GHz but were only operating in one band at a time could now simultaneously operate in multiple bands for better performance, improved reliability, improve latency or even traffic separation.
Allowing for multiple ways in which this can be used whether it might be to send different streams of data in different bands allowing for higher WiFi speeds, to lower latency by associating clients across separate bands dynamically based on needs or to provide reliability by simultaneously transmission in multiple bands for a more reliable connection.
An example would be to have 2.4GHz to maintain session details, 5 GHz for upload and 6 GHz for download.
Multi-RU and puncturing:
Introduced with Wi-Fi 6, Resource Unit (RU) is a portion of channel that can be allocated to each station for transmission. However, for simplicity Wi-Fi 6 only allowed to assign 1 RU to each station limiting the users and efficient use of spectrum. Wi-Fi 7 not only adds supports for Multi-RU to be assigned to a station but while doing so also allows for Multi-RU Puncturing to avoid congestion-related interference. This improves the usage of transmission channels thereby increasing throughput and reducing latency when multiple users are present.
Wi-Fi 7 key improvements:
- 5x faster speeds than Wi-Fi 6E: Wi-Fi 7 increases the maximum theoretical speed from 9.6 Gbps to a stunning 46 Gbps, which is making it possible to stream 8K video, download large files, and enjoy immersive VR and AR experiences with minimal buffering and lag.
- 2x maximum bandwidth with 320 MHz channels: Wi-Fi 7 introduces ultra-wide channels of 320 MHz, which can double the data rate to each device and reduce congestion and interference. For example, a Wi-Fi 7 smartphone can achieve speeds up to 5.8 Gbps on a single channel.
- 20% more data transmission with 4096 QAM modulation: Modulation, or the process of converting data into Wi-Fi radio waves, also affects the speed and efficiency of wireless communication. Wi-Fi 7 uses 4096 QAM modulation, which can pack 20% more data into each symbol than Wi-Fi 6’s 1024 QAM modulation. This means more clarity and detail for video streaming, Zoom calls, and other high-bandwidth activities.
- 16x16 MU-MIMO for increased capacity and coverage: MU-MIMO, or Multi-User Multiple Input Multiple Output, is a technology that enables multiple devices to communicate with multiple antennas on a router or access point at the same time. Wi-Fi 7 can supports up to 16 spatial streams and 16 antennas, which can greatly increase the capacity and coverage of a Wi-Fi network up from 8 previously. This means more devices can connect and enjoy fast and reliable Wi-Fi without slowing down each other.
- Significantly lower latency for real-time responsiveness: Latency, or the delay between sending and receiving data, can affect the quality of online gaming, video conferencing, and other real-time applications. Wi-Fi 7 dramatically reduces latency by using Multi-Link Operation (MLO), a feature that allows devices to simultaneously send and receive data across different frequency bands and channels.
Deploying Enterprise Wi-Fi 7
Making sure your Infrastructure is ready for Wi-Fi 7
- Multi-Gig Switching: While we saw with past 2 generations of Wi-Fi a recommendation to use multi-gig 2.5/5Gbps switching for high end 4x4 and 8x8 models, we could potentially see even the low-end models with multi-gig ports for the entry level 2x2 enterprise AP models to take full advantage of Wi-Fi 7. Also with increasing network demands previously with voice and video and now with AR/VR products entering market with an even more demanding Secure LAN networking requirements.
- Power: With each additional radio the power requirements for an AP also keep increasing. With 6 GHz now becoming more mainstream along with 5GHz, and to take advantage of this vast 6 GHz channel capacity which has more channels than 2.4 & 5 GHz combined, most network administrators should start considering if not already to support 6 GHz supported devices to start using this clean spectrum space. To do so 802.3at (PoE+) would be a minimum requirement with recommendation to use 802.3bt(PoE++) to run at full power.
- Security: While WPA2 has been most widely adopted in the industry since it ratified and replaced WPA in 2004, WPA3 has been increasingly in trend to be widely adopted since Wi-Fi Alliance announced it in 2018. Since then WPA2-PSK is making way for WPA3-SAE, WPA2-Enterprise for WPA3- Enterprise and most importantly Open for WPA3-OWE (Enhanced Open) SSIDs to provide data encryption while maintaining ease of use for open networks; although it might be worth pointing that ‘Transition’ SSIDs have not been of particular success. Speaking of which, If you have not already transitioned to WPA3 it might be worth considering to do so soon.
- Will my Devices support it? While Wi-Fi 7 should be backward compatible and there are Wi-Fi 6 devices operating in 2.4 and 5 GHz and even Wi-Fi 6E devices which might be operating in 6 GHz. There might be initial firmware issues for legacy devices that may not have the latest firmware installed or even available in some cases and it might be worth testing these particularly before rolling it enterprise wise much like most new versions of standards.
Conclusion
With that I would like to summarize by mentioning that Wi-Fi 7 is the future of wireless technology that will offer unprecedented speed, capacity, and reliability for a wide range of applications and devices. Wi-Fi 7 is expected to be available in early 2024 and will be backward compatible with previous Wi-Fi generations. Wi-Fi 7 will not only improve the performance of existing Wi-Fi use cases, but also enable new and emerging ones that require ultra-fast, low-latency, and high-capacity wireless connectivity.
I hope you enjoyed this article blog on Wi-Fi 7!
