WiFi 7 is a big leap forward compared to WiFi 6 and WiFi 6E. With its faster speeds, lower latency and significant capacity increases, WiFi 7 is a major evolution in wireless technology. It has a lot in common with WiFi 6 and WiFi 6E, but with some key improvements to meet the growing data needs of home and business users.
Now that there are standalone WiFi 7 routers and WiFi 7 mesh routers on the market, you may want to upgrade. We take a look at what’s changed, what’s stayed the same, and what to consider when upgrading to WiFi 7.
What’s new in the WiFi 7 standard?
The key feature of WiFi 7 is significantly faster performance than WiFi 6. Total throughput up to 46 Gbps is 4.8x the speed of WiFi 6, with speeds 2.4x faster for the same WiFi configuration.
As Internet Service Providers (ISPs) continue to offer faster home and business Internet connections, WiFi 7 ensures that your local network has enough capacity to support the faster download speeds.
These speed improvements are possible thanks to two major upgrades: a doubling of the channel width from 160 Hz to 320 Hz, and greater data density, which increases the amount of data that can be encoded in a radio signal.
EMEA Sales Director at NETGEAR.
Larger channel width
Each WiFi band operates in smaller bands of 20/40/80/160 MHz to connect to individual devices. WiFi 7 doubles the bandwidth to 320 MHz. This essentially doubles WiFi speeds to individual devices and adds much more bandwidth to support more devices.
Increased data density
WiFi 7 not only increases speed and bandwidth, but also the amount of data that can be encoded in a radio signal. This is measured with a standard known as quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM). Where WiFi 6’s QAM limit was 1024, WiFi 7 offers an impressive 4096 (or 4K; the standard is also known as 4K QAM), boosting peak speeds to increase throughput. Each symbol sent can now contain 12 bits instead of 10 bits, meaning 20% faster theoretical transmission speeds.
Both the increased channel bandwidth (320 MHz) and increased data density (4K QAM) are responsible for the 2.4x improvement in WiFi speeds between WiFi 6 and WiFi 7.
Multi-Link Operation (MLO)
The WiFi 6 standard (and earlier generations) supports the 2.4GHz and 5GHz WiFi bands. One of the key additions to WiFi 6E is the addition of a 6GHz band, which offers a new way to connect without the congestion of 2.4GHz or 5GHz, a real boost in urban areas with many WiFi networks in range. However, until now, a staple of WiFi technology has been the requirement that a client can only connect over one of these bands.
That changes with WiFi 7, as routers can connect to a client device over two different bands.
Imagine that there are two highways leading to your destination. MLO is akin to giving these highways the flexibility to spread traffic across both routes or to quickly move traffic from one highway to another if a backup occurs.
Mesh systems especially benefit from MLO because it allows for a router and a satellite to both transmit over two different bands at the same time to get the best possible performance.
This feature is also very useful if you want to switch from one band to another on your mobile device without losing the connection. If you’re on a Zoom call and walking from the center of the house to the garden, WiFi 7 allows your device to switch from 6GHz to 5GHz to 2.4GHz without interrupting or buffering the call.
Flexible channel usage
A major limitation of WiFi is that any form of interference affects the entire channel. However, using puncturing, if part of a channel is affected by interference, you can block just that part while continuing to use the rest of the channel for data transfer. This makes WiFi more resistant to interference and ensures that critical power and latency are not affected. Going back to our highway example, with WiFi 6 a gap in a lane can make that lane unusable, but with WiFi 7 you can block the gap, drive around and still use the rest of the lane.
What hasn’t changed?
With WiFi 7’s incredible specs, it’s easy to overlook how it builds on the features and infrastructure already present in WiFi 6 and WiFi 6E. As mentioned above, WiFi 6E and WiFi 7 both offer the same three bands, including the blazing-fast 6GHz band. Both have enormous bandwidth. Technology vendors are still catching up on WiFi 6E and WiFi 7, with new devices currently being introduced to unlock the full potential of both standards.
Currently, the majority of mobile devices in use still rely on WiFi 6 or earlier. Apple’s latest iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Pro and MacBook Pro laptops now support WiFi 6E, and the technology is available on many of the latest Windows laptops and Android phones.
WiFi 7 is the future and we expect the standard to be adopted quickly on new laptops and phones. We’re already seeing announcements of gaming laptops, desktop PC motherboards and handsets with WiFi 7, and this will only continue.
So investing in a mesh or router with WiFi 7 will certainly ensure robust wireless performance for the foreseeable future.
Demanding users who plan to future-proof their home network in the coming years should consider adopting WiFi 7 devices as they become available. Serious gamers will appreciate the stand’s low latency and fast response speed. Those who regularly use VR/AR will benefit from the incredible speeds and low latency of WiFi 7. And those who always want the latest and greatest will be happy to know that their network will be ready for a while to come. get the most out of their future product purchases.
WiFi 7 for business use
While home users are more likely to adopt the latest technology, faster wireless performance and future-proofing are also critical for small and large business environments.
WiFi 7 adds capacity and bandwidth to support a greater number of wireless devices in an enterprise, improving performance and productivity.
But network reliability, security and ease of management/deployment are also important considerations for companies. IT managers are naturally cautious about introducing risks into work environments. The final ratification and certification of the WiFi 7 standard in January 2024 is therefore important to ensure consistent functionality across all devices.
IP cameras, access points, IoT devices, business routers and more are all likely to benefit from the improved performance WiFi 7 offers, along with employee laptops and phones. WiFi 7 will improve the performance of industrial wireless technology and introduce new applications thanks to the additional throughput speed, which could improve efficiency across entire companies.
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